Saturday October 12, 2024
The Minnesota Astronomical Society would like to invite you to attend the Astronomical League’s Astronomy Day activities at the Eagle Lake Observatory in Baylor Regional Park. Speakers are scheduled throughout the day and will give talks on astronomy and what there is to see. Door prize drawing will be held Saturday evening and include MAS merchandise, astronomy books and telescopes. The evening will continue with viewing through our array of telescopes observing some of the winter and early spring objects coming into view including the Orion Nebula, Crab nebula, the Sombrero Galaxy, the Whirlpool Galaxy, the Beehive Cluster, the Black Eye Galaxy and Hercules cluster among many others.
Schedule of Events
The observatory opens and the Star Party begins at 1:00 pm. We will begin with solar viewing and other daytime objects.
1:00 pm: Sarah Devine – Who Owns Space?
Summary: With expanding missions to space both by national governments and private companies, what rules or guidelines are there for space exploration? We’ll take a look at some historic laws and current and future goals of the Artemis Accords.
Bio: Sarah Devine has loved astronomy since before she can remember. Her childhood dream job was to be an astronaut. Her love for all things space has allowed her to teach astronomy for over 10 years in multiple settings. From museums and planetariums to community college to 4-H, talking about astronomy and learning with others of all ages is her passion. She’s traveled to major international observatories and has fond memories of traveling to the 2017 total solar eclipse here in the U.S.A.
2:15 pm: Michael Kauper, MAS member and Astronomy Educator – Make Your Own Planisphere
Summary: Make your own planisphere (star wheel) so you can find objects in the night sky. Michael will tell some diverse sky legends and sky stories from all over the world while teaching people to use the star wheel. He will also show people how to use a star wheel to tell their actual birth sign according to astronomy.
Bio: I studied astrophysics and geophysics at Case Institute of Technology and the University of Minnesota. I have volunteered for astronomy outreach at State and National Parks, 4H, church camps, boy scouts and girl scouts, and ELO. I am currently the “astronomer in residence” with MAS member Erica Stark, for Planets in the Park, a family oriented urban star party in a Minneapolis city park. I currently teach Astronomy for Urban Dwellers for Adult Enrichment Minneapolis Community Education at SW High School and NE Middle School. I love teaching astronomy.
3:30 pm: Colin Kilbane, STEAM educator – Let’s learn all about the power of air!
Summary: Watch as we use the properties of high and low pressure air to rescue a shell shocked friend in the classic egg in a bottle demo. Learn how to use Bernoulli’s principle to make a ping pong ball float in mid air and then supersize it with a leaf blower and beach ball. Learn how powerful the air around you is when you watch it implode cans. Send rings of fog flying over the audience with our super sized vortex generator. Some lucky and brave volunteers will even get to float on a cushion of air on our DYI hovercraft.
Bio: Colin Kilbane has been sharing his STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fun for almost 30 years now. He started making slime and setting off fire alarms with chemistry outreach at Kansas State and the University of Minnesota. A chemist and biochemist by training, he ended up moving on to share his passion for STEM and making things go boom as the Senior Mad Scientist and Operations Director for Mad Science of MN for more than a decade before he made his move to the high school classroom. He has taught chemistry, physical science, robotics, makerspace and physics for the last ten years and does STEM on the side. This year, he started up Gopher STEAM. Gopher STEAM can add some STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, ART! and math) to any event for any age, preschool on up. Gopher STEAM offers fantastically fun interactive shows, activity tables, birthday parties, scouting programs, classes and now summer camps. Check out more at Gophersteam.com
5:30 p.m. dinner break
7:00 pm: Laura Hammerbeck, NASA Solar System Ambassador – Robots on Mars!
Summary: For almost 50 years Mars has been populated entirely by robots. These intrepid explorers have been our eyes and ears, giving us great insight into the red planet. The challenges, obstacles and victories of these interplanetary machines are shaping future space exploration. Join NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Laura Hammerbeck for a robot-assisted tour of the 4th planet of our solar system. It’s a journey that’s out of this world!
Bio: Laura is a motivational and inspirational speaker. With over 20 years of teaching and communication experience, she presents solid information in an enthusiastic yet relaxed manner, with an ounce of humor on the side. Laura brings focus and energy to her audience. An amateur astronomer and space junkie, she is eager to share space exploration and study, as well as all its intriguing ideas with people of all ages.
8:00 p.m. Door prize drawing. Must be present to win!
Event Background
Astronomy Day is a grass roots movement designed to share the joy of astronomy with the general population – “Bringing Astronomy to the People.” On Astronomy Day, thousands of people who have never looked through a telescope will have an opportunity to see first-hand what has so many amateur and professional astronomers all excited.
Astronomy Day was born in California in 1973. Doug Berger, then president of the Astronomical Association of Northern California, decided that rather than try to entice people to travel long distances to visit observatory open houses, they would set up telescopes closer to where the people were – busy locations – urban locations like street corners, shopping malls, parks, etc.
His strategy paid off. Not only did Astronomy Day go over with a bang, not only did the public find out about the astronomy club, they found out about future observatory open houses. Since the public got a chance to look through a portable telescope, they were hooked. They wanted to see what went on at the bigger telescopes, so they turned out in droves at the next observatory open house.
For additional information, visit the Astronomical League’s website at https://www.astroleague.org/astronomyday/facts
Public star parties are open to all.
Additional information as well as directions can be found on the Eagle Lake Observatory web page.
For additional information, please fill out the form below.