Category Archives: astronomy groups and organizations

astronomical society of the pacific, astronomy, astronomy education, astronomy groups and organizations

Groovin’ on Astronomy

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With My Friends

I wasn’t around much this past week, at least online. I was, however, very much in attendance at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific meeting, held at the University of Colorado in Boulder — my alma mater. The ASP is an international organization of people from more than 70 countries who teach and spread the news about astronomy and space science,  and related topics.  This year about 400 of us met to talk about astronomy, astronomy outreach methods (I taught a class on how to make podcasts, for example), climate science, and geological science.  It really was a great meeting and I had a wonderful time getting re-acquainted with old friends and making new ones.

I’ve been a member of ASP for quite a long time, and recently have been working with them to create podcasts about the science behind some of the news stories we see from time to time. The project is called Astronomy Behind the Headlines, and we’ve created seven so far.  Two more are in the pipeline, and we hope to do more in the near future.

Membership in ASP is like joining a group of your friends who are REALLY into spreading the news about the astronomy and all the sciences connected to it.  In this case, the friends include planetarium folk, teachers, public information officers at institutions (observatories, research groups, etc.), NASA people, and so forth. The sessions we attended ranged from the best ways to teach astronomy in the classroom, in informal settings, and through media presentations to a very fascinating talk about the discovery of the expansion of the universe, given by author Marcia Bartusiak (a long-time friend of mine), to a great talk about climate science.

There were sessions at Fiske Planetarium (where I once worked and where Mark and I got married) as well as a stargazing party and a wonderful banquet.  The sessions were good, the hallway conversations were amazing, and the people you meet are wonderful.

If you’re interested in advancing science literacy through astronomy — which is the ASP’s motto — then I suggest you join ASP, or at least send a few doubloons their way. They’re a worthy organization to belong to and support — and you’ll be supporting science literacy in the bargain! Go check ’em out at the link above!

astronomy groups and organizations, galileoscope, international year of astronomy

A Scope in Every Pot

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The Galileoscope Project

One of the most visible parts of the International Year of Astronomy is the Galileoscope. It’s a high-quality telescope that gives a viewer about the same view that astronomer Galileo Galilei had in 1609.  If that sounds a bit “meh” in these times of mega-scopes and super-GOTO mounts and the Web, consider this:  most kids (and adults, really) have never looked through any kind of telescope.  The most contact with the sky a lot of people have is maybe glancing up at the stars as they go outside to the car at night, or they search out something on the Web for the kids’ science fair project.

The Galileoscope.
The Galileoscope.

The Galileoscope gives everybody a chance to have the experience of looking through a telescope and seeing something in the sky that they have never seen before in just that way.  And, there’s a LOT to be said for that experience. It’s like the difference between seeing a picture of an apple and eating one. Or, the difference between reading a play in lit class or actually seeing and hearing it performed live.  Or, the difference between watching someone hug someone else or hugging someone yourself.

The scope (which you can see above) is easy to put together. The best part is, it only costs $15.00.  Now, you’ve probably seen (and heard) me and others with our mantra of “cheap scopes aren’t worth it.”  Well, there’s cheap and then there’s cheap. If you think of department store scopes with wobbly mounts and crappy lenses, then yeah, that’s cheap.  But, while this scope is inexpensive (money-cheap), it has been put together by folks (Rick Fienberg, former editor of Sky & Telescope, Steve Pompea, Hans Hansen and others) who were able to insist on really high-quality work — and it shows. It lets you look at the Moon and Jupiter and a number of other easily found objects. It lets a viewer have that “Galileo moment” that changed everything for astronomy.

There are already a number of educational packets put together to help teachers whose students are putting these together as class optics projects.  And, the best part is, they’re easy to use and they really DO give people a real experience at sky viewing.  And, since astronomy is one of those sciences that really hooks people — it’s a leg up into a real learning experience at any age.

So, check it out. You can buy as many as you want at $15.00 each — at that price you could buy some for yourself and your family and maybe get one or two to donate to local schools or children’s groups.  Give the gift of the sky to yourself and others! Let’s get a scope in every backyard, every schoolyard, and as many street corners as we can!