Starry Nights @ SFU: Geek Week Festival of Astronomy, January 29 2010

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Geek Week Festival of Astronomy, Friday January 29, 2010!

The SFU student astronomy club provided the leadership, creativity, and hard work that resulted in a fabulous "Geek Week Festival of Astronomy", which was held in the evening of Friday January 29 2010.

This festival was SFU's most successful astronomy public outreach event to date, with 375 guests in attendance, more than 300 of whom were families, with kids of all ages, from off campus!

This event was held as part of SFU's annual "Geek Week", a week-long series of events sponsored by the office of the Dean of Science and the Simon Fraser Student Society. The "Geek Week Festival of Astronomy" was also sponsored by the SFU Department of Physics, SFU Traffic and Security, the Vancouver Telescope Centre, and the Vancouver Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

The organizing team was vigorously led by Ciara Morgan-Feir, newly-elected President of the SFU student astronomy club, and Stephen Price from the office of the Dean of Science, and the evening would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of all of the other memers of the team: Chantelle Chand, Angel Dong, Gwen Eadie, Alice Jourmel, Carolyn Kierans, Julian Monks, Ramin Nazarali, Maureen Reimer, Alanna Shuh, Carl Wahlstrom, Lorenz Yeung, and yours truly, Howard Trottier.

Starry-eyed
@ SFU since Nov. 2007

The organizers would like to especially thank our two speakers, SFU undergrads Michelle Murvai and Josh Regnier, who gave a funny and inspiring "tag-team" presentation, "The Arts Student's Guide to the Galaxy", a perspective on astronomy by and for beginners. We would also like to thank our telescope volunteers Teresa Cheung, Leigh Cummings, Corey Huber, and Ronan and Scott Kerr who setup their gear for an informal show and tell in the south concourse of the AQ.

I would also like to single out for special mention the members of the organizing team who dreamt up and staged the "Planetary Scavenger Hunt": Ciara, Alice, and Alanna, along with Angel, Maureen, and Ramin. This exciting and educational activity engaged our youngest guests, kids ages 12 and under, and their parents/guardians. The team created a scale model of the solar system and its planets, laid out along all four corridors of the Academic Quadrangle, and gave out passports to the participants, in which they could record their answers to the clues as they made their way through the hunt!

Last, but not least, I would like to extend a hearty "Thank You" to Aaron Springford for all the photographs on display in the gallery to the right. I've included some text on the evening's festivities in the gallery.

A highlight of this evening's festivities was the presentation of telescopes to 7 families, who earned their telescopes by attending five SFU astronomy events (including a daytime astronomy workshop at which they received basic training in the operation of the telescope, and the essentials of the night sky). The dedicated families who received their scopes tonight were: Wiltshire; Soukoreff; Ghorab/Dastpak; Butland/Schmidt; Strang/Houle; Davis; and Yang. Congratulations!

This special "theme evening" was scheduled for rain or shine, and took place in and around Room C9001, one of the largest auditoriums at SFU, which was nearly filled to capacity!

Here was our program for the evening:

5:30-6:00PM: "Get to you know your fellow Astronomy Geek."
6:00-6:30PM: "Pizza dinner is served" ($2/slice, including drink, fruit, and popcorn).
6:30-7:30PM: "Join one of three indoor astronomy activities!"
- Planetary Scavenger Hunt (kids 12 and under).
- "The Arts Student's Guide to the Galaxy", a talk by SFU undergrads Michelle Murvai and Josh Regnier.
- Telescope show and tell.
7:30-8:00PM: Presentation of telescopes to seven (7!) families, gifts to our speakers Josh and Michelle, and door prizes for winners of the scavenger hunt.
8:00-9:40PM: We screened the great Hollywood comedy Galaxy Quest, an affectionate spoof of Star Trek, and a tribute to Geeks, like those of us who gathered tonight, enthralled by the adventure of space exploration!

Please Note: Families with grade-school age chiildren can qualify for a free telescope (while our supplies last!). To qualify, attedance at a minimum of five (5) SFU public astronomy functions is required; this must be 4 evening "star parties" (including special SFU astronomy theme events such as presentations and movie nights), and attendance at a daytime astronomy workshop for grade-school age children (which provides basic training in the use of a telescope and awareness of the night sky).