[Chaos-l] Invitation to Star Party Meeting - Tuesday, December 11, 7 pm

[Sorrell, Mickey Jo]

Hello CHAOS friends,
As I hope you've heard by now, Amy Sayle and I are coordinating a statewide star party on April 5, 2013. With the invitation below we've recruited (at last count) 32 event hosts from the mountains to the sea - including Medoc, Little River, and Jordan Lake.
We invite you to join us at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center on Tuesday, December 11, at 7 pm, (regular CHAOS meeting time) as we share our plans - and brainstorm with you -  about this event. We would like to talk with you specifically about helping out at some of the Triangle area sites that lack telescopes.
We're still developing the agenda for the December meeting (under the dome, demos and requests, refreshments), so watch for another email next week. And mark your calendars now for the April 5 date. We're excited about getting more Tarheels looking up!

Mickey Jo Sorrell

The invitation we've been sending far and wide:

Would your organization be interested in hosting an event on Friday, April 5, 2013, as part of North Carolina's first statewide star party?

Morehead Planetarium and Science Center is coordinating the Statewide Star Party as the official kickoff to the 2013 North Carolina Science Festival<http://www.ncsciencefestival.org/>.  We are recruiting skywatching event hosts from around the state - universities, planetariums, nature centers, state parks, etc.  We’re asking for commitments by November 28 to aid in planning.


Here are the details:

1. To be part of the NC Science Festival's Statewide Star Party, the event must be open to the general public. You’re welcome to target particular audiences in your advertising, as long as anyone is welcome to come.

2. The date of the event must be Friday, April 5, 2013.
You can pick the beginning and ending times that work best for your particular event.  (We imagine most events will be held at night, but daytime solar observing events are welcome too, IF you can provide safeways to observe the Sun.)

3. There is no official state-wide rain date.
You decide whether or not you will offer alternate activities in case of cloudy or rainy weather (we will have activity suggestions).  You also decide whether or not you want to offer an alternate rain date.

4. We ask that you encourage star party attendees to make simple observations to document the darkness of the night sky and contribute data for the citizen-science project GLOBE at Night<http://www.globeatnight.org/>.  We’ll provide you with the info you need.

5. Support:  We’ll help promote your event on the NC Science Festival website,http://ncsciencefestival.org/ . Each event will have its own webpage.  Please note: the website is still being updated for the 2013 Festival.

We’ll also support everyone with online information – tips on hosting a successful event, star charts, list of suggested observing targets, ideas for alternate activities in case of rain, etc.  We will also have available a limited number of event host kits (including materials such as a light pollution demo).

We thank NC Space Grant<http://www.ncspacegrant.org/> for funding event host kits and helping us coordinate North Carolina's first statewide star party.

We would love to have you serve as an event host!  If you are willing to participate (or have more questions), please reply to sayle at email.unc.edu before Nov. 28.

Please excuse our cross-postings and duplications. We are trying to make sure we reach everyone. If there is someone else in your organization we should contact, please let us know - or forward this email to them.

Thanks & we look forward to hearing from you!

Amy Sayle & Mickey Jo Sorrell
Coordinators, NC Science Festival Statewide Star Party
UNC Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3480
(919) 843-4129
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