Astronomy Day – Spring 2024
May 18 @ 1:00 pm - 10:00 pm CDT
Free
Saturday May 18, 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 2:00 pm. We will begin with solar viewing and other daytime objects.
3:00pm – Presenter TBD
4:00pm – Presenter TBD
5:30pm – Break
7:00 pm – Presenter TBD
8:30pm – Door Prize Drawing (Must be present to win)
9:30pm – Laser Tour of the sky (Weather Permitting)
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.
