Starry Nights @ SFU: SFU Moon Watch

We had a great turnout of perhaps 100 people at the SFU "Moon Watch" of Monday July 27 2009. This star party was held in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing of Apollo 11, July 20 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on another world.

Extra special thanks go to our volunteers who brought telescopes and shared their gear and passion for the night sky with our guests: Aaron Springford (who took all but one of the images in the gallery to the right), Leigh Cummings, Gwen Eadie (who shot the sunset image in the last frame of the gallery), Ronan and Scott Kerr, Wayne Lyons, and Greg Millar (seen in the first frame of the gallery at right operating the SFU 8" scope). Special thanks as well to Bitan Roy and Colin Truncik for helping with setup. This star party also happened to coincide with a personal "Big-Oh" birthday (not telling which one!).

I also want to note that just about all of the volunteers who gave their time to make this evening a success are members of the Vancouver Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). The RASC-Vancouver Centre has been an integral part of SFU astronomy outreach events over the past year (full disclosure: I am currently serving as Secretary to the Centre). If these kinds of astronomy events are your thing, then I urge you to attend a monthly meeting at the RASC-Vancouver Centre (held on the 2nd Thursday of each month), and see what the Centre has to offer. I think you might find that membership in the Centre truly does have its privileges, including the pleasure of sharing experiences with about 300 fellow astronomy nuts, and the opportunity to borrow telescopes from the Centre's collection.

As with all "Starry Nights @ SFU" events, this evening counted towards the attendance at four SFU star parties which earns a free telescope for families whose children have also attended an SFU astronomy workshop! In fact, a telescope was presented to the Elza family (son and Dad pictured in the 3rd frame of the gallery to the right, with Mom and daughter not far off the picture!).

We picked this evening for our event because the Moon was ripe for observing, just 7 days old, and with the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed, in lunar daylight. We had a map of the moon on hand, identifying the major lunar mare ("seas"), craters, and the Apollo landing sites, so that guests looking through the SFU scope could spot the general area of the Apollo 11 landing site.

In addition to the Moon, we observed other great objects, especially suitable for small telescopes, including Jupiter and its Galilean moons, some beautiful double stars, and including "deep-sky" treats of summer such as the "great" globular cluster M13 in Hercules (which was astounding to see in Wayne Lyon's giant 16" Dobsonian).

Starry Nights @ SFU: Blogs & Pics

Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Moon Watch, Monday July 27 2009!

Starry-eyed
@ SFU since Nov. 2007