Starry Nights @ SFU: SFU Summer Solstice of Stars

We had our best turnout ever at the SFU Summer Solstice of Stars, which was held Saturday June 27 from 6PM-11PM, in Room K9500. The event was co-organized by Starry Nights @ SFU and the SFU student astronomy club, and was sponsored by the Simon Fraser Student Society and the SFU Department of Physics.

We nearly filled the auditorium, with about 130 guests in attendance, mostly families whose children have attended SFU astronomy workshops for grade-school kids! They were joined by many SFU students, along with several members of the Vancouver Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), who were on hand with their telescopes in case of clear skies. Although the cloud and rain refused to let up, we had a full program of interesting and maybe even inspiring astronomically-themed activities! It was a thrill to share the wonders of the cosmos with our many guests.

A very grateful and hearty "Thank You" goes to our guest speaker Bill Burnyeat. Bill currently serves as an Astronomy Instructor at BCIT and as Education Coordinator for the Vancouver Centre of the RASC. He has many years of experience in astronomy outreach, including as writer, producer, and presenter for many different venues, including on TV and at the MacMillan Space Centre. His talk, "Adventures with small refractors", was funny, informative, and inspiring, and highlighted the many astronomical marvels that one can observe with a small telescope. Bill's talk had the perfect theme for this evening, given the 7 families who went home with new telescopes!

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, this evening we presented 6 families with their with brand new 60mm telescopes! Pictured in the first image in our gallery to the right are families Saunders; Calle Delgado; Reed/Raal; Urbanowski; Davies; and Foster. We also held a prize draw for a 60mm telescope, which was won by Sue Rennie and family, also pictured in the photo of the presentation. Also in the picture are David Lee (David and Jeff Rudd of the SFU physics department have been instrumental in faciliating the workshops and preparing the telescopes), along with yours truly.

Extra special thanks go to James McNeil, Aaron Springford, and David Lee, with the four of us running around like chickens without a head to get everything prepared in time. A guest blog by James appears below. Special thanks as well to Leigh Cummings, Michael Levy, and Michael Young, all of the Vancouver Center of the RASC, who brought telescopes just in case. I would also like to thank Aaron for his many great images, which make up most of our gallery, along with guest Sophia Feng who also provided some images in the gallery. I would also like to extend a grateful "Thank You" to Tiara, for her help in cleaning up.

The evening started with a pizza dinner ($1/slice), and while our guests munched we were treated to Bill's talk. We then held the presentation ceremony for the families who received new telescopes, and served apples, mandarins, and cookies. For the final part of our program, we screened a great family-oriented Hollywood movie with an astronomical theme.

Since our copyright privilege does not allow us to openly advertise the movie off-campus, here's just a hint as to its identity, in the form of the following awe-inspiring quote by the late, great, space scientist, writer, and humanist Carl Sagan: "There are more stars in the heavens than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth."

To introduce the film (which, in a very moving scene near the end, features a tribute to the above statement by Sagan) I presented a short slide-show on the Hubble Ultra Deep field (HUDF). I included a stunning video by the Hubble Space Science Institute which illustrates the tiny size of the HUDF field of view, only about 1/10 of the apparent width of the full Moon (bear in mind that the full Moon can be blocked by your pinkie nail when held at arm's length!). The HUDF is for me one of the most spiritual and haunting images in history, and provides a profound visualization of Sagan's humbling statement. You can view my slideshow in the last frame of the gallery to the right.

Guest Blog by James McNeil

The Summer Solstice of Stars was one of the most successful parties the SFU Student Astronomy Club and the SFU Starry night groups have ever hosted together. In total, we had 130 attendees, the majority of whom were families who came out with their young children and minority were students from SFU and UBC. Our speaker, Bill Burnyeat, gave his presentation on how much richer the night sky can be with the most basic of tools such as a simple refractor telescope or binoculars. Our speaker did an excellent job in presenting his extensive knowledge in a simplified format geared towards capturing the attention of our young audience. The applause our speaker received following his presentation was deafening and long lived, showing us he was successful in reaching out to all members of our audience. Our speaker received many great questions, the majority of which were from our young audience, but also from students who came to SFU from as far away as UBC. Following the speakers presentation, Howard Trottier of the SFU physics department, gave away six telescopes to deserving children and families who had attended four prerequisite astronomy events through SFU. It was very rewarding to see such excitement in the children and families who now have an opportunity to begin to make their own astronomical observations. I would like to thank Howard Trottier, Aaron Springford, David Lee and Jeff Rudd for their valuable assistance in making the SFU Summer Solstice of Stars such an outstanding success!

Starry Nights @ SFU: Blogs & Pics

SFU Summer Solstice of Stars, Saturday June 27 2009!

Starry-eyed
@ SFU since Nov. 2007