Whether it was 2,500 or 3,000 visitors Saturday, you all handled the crowds well and made the day a complete success! Many thanks from the Astronomy Day 2010 committees… both for the All-Clubs meeting on Friday, October 15 and the George Observatory event on Saturday, October 16. We will probably get the exact count of visitors in the next couple of days and Barbara Wilson will let us all know via email.

The weather was perfect and each table/display/event went off without a hitch…that is due to the efforts of all of you during the entire day…from setup to clean up to shut down. Tracy and I printed out the list of those signed into the computer in the downstairs office at the George… 109 people logged in. Initial volunteering was near 130, but that did include the NASA and Challenger Center volunteers and I’m not sure they signed in to the computer. I will be doing a comparison today of those that volunteered before the event versus the list of logged in volunteers. If you participated in Astronomy Day at the George Observatory and did not log into the computer, please send me your name and you will be added to the computer.

The George appreciates all the excellent help with setup and cleanup from club members. You pitched in and we got it done! Of special note is a new NHAC member, Lenore Psencik. She followed me all over doing the signs and many other things before we opened the doors. Thank you, Lenore! Steve Sartor also helped us pound those signs into the ground. With so little rain, the dirt was like brick! I think this year we were right on schedule for opening the doors with every sign put in the ground and all tables ready to go. All of you with deck telescopes and that many people milling about in a fairly small area have your own set of things to deal with (kicked tripods, pulling down on your scopes from the eyepieces, and the list goes on and on), but you put up with it year after year. Thank you all for that! The domes had long lines and I’m sure you all dealt with it with aplomb. For the second year in a row, Keith Rivich did the majority of the PA announcements and deserves a medal for losing his voice by the end of it. We had so much help cleaning up throughout the night that at the end, it was a quick process: Richard Nugent, Barbara Wilson, Tracy Knauss, Bill Jacobus, Linda Christian and the NSN folks. There were probably more people that I missed seeing lending a hand. If I missed names in this paragraph, know that you are much appreciated and thanked for your contributions. At the end of the night, the deck was in good shape and a tour of the grounds to pick up trash was a quick process.

The ADay deck layout was again handled by Don Jarvis and Keith Rivich. Job well done, guys! There is always tweaking of scopes into different locations, but it worked out. The unloading of scopes and transport up to the deck is a key process for the day. I heard again from someone that the help with driving the golf cart up to the deck is priceless. That will continue as part of our volunteer staffing.

And of course, thanks to all those who contributed by giving either an inside or outside lecture and sometimes, in both venues! Nathaniel said all lectures on the inside were attended to capacity and when I looked out to the tent, it appeared to be full out there, too. The tent was a new purchase for this year because Bob Taylor had loaned his tent for many years and we pretty much wore it out. Those extensions and the way the team (Chris Randall, Bill Jacobus, Bob Rogers) set it up meant that no one was sitting in the hot sun.

The kids activities are always a success and were again this year…face painting, Oreo cookies for moon phases, and button making. Thanks to all the volunteers who worked those events. David Haviland, please send a thank you to Stephanie Shipp of the LPI, please.

Additional speaker and ISS signage was donated by Ken Miller. Many thanks again, Ken!

Input from all of you concerning our Saturday event is welcome at cynm31@att.net. We use comments and suggestions to make our next event even better. This year we added the ISS contact and a table for Ham Radio. If you know of any other complementary activity that will add value to our event, please let me know.

ADay Door Prize: Unitron 7x50 waterproof binoculars (donated by Land Sea & Sky) were awarded at our George Observatory/HMNS event on October 16 to Mr. Steve Duncan of Clear Lake, Texas. Of interest is Mr. Duncan’s past experience with telescopes and binoculars. His father built a telescope in 1960 and Steve bought his own son a small 4” refractor. Steve has owned a pair of waterproof binoculars (now old) for many years that he uses for wildlife observing on Armand Bayou. He also does photography. He will use his new Unitron waterproof binoculars for both wildlife observing and stargazing.

Finally, we are waiting on approval by the George Observatory, but it looks like the best moon phase for Astronomy Day 2011 will occur on October 8, making the All-Clubs meeting on October 7. We know that you will want to be making your BBSP reservations immediately.

Special thanks go to the Astronomy Day 2010 committee for their efforts to get this all coordinated. Bill and Linda Christian performed their usual duties of leading the button-making table and working dome spots as well.

T-shirt: John Cavuoti, Bob Rogers, Bill Jacobus

Chick-fil-A sandwiches: I thought they were good.

Misc Food (chips, cookies, drinks): David Haviland

Budget Activity: Bill Jacobus

Badges: Aaron Clevenson

ISS Contact: Aldora Louw, Leonard Ferguson, Wes Whiddon

Lectures (inside and outside): Nathaniel Whitehead, David Haviland

Constellation Tours and Sat Passes: James Wooten

Cynthia Gustava

Astronomy Day 2010 Coordinator

A-Day was great. Weather was the best in the 4 years I've participated. Lots of people came out early for the scope tickets, activities and presentations. As night fell the place really came alive. There were long lines at all of the 28 scopes and all three domes. The words Wow, Cool, Really, That's a planet? I didn't know that. Those are moons? and one, S#!T! Wicked Awesome! were heard all night long. I had viewers in line all the way up to 11:00. I spent most of the night on Jupiter and later on Uranus, the Moon, Vega, Deneb, Altair, and The Pleades in the binocs!

We cut it close this year. It was not a full moon but allllmost there, very bright it was. So, with that said, October 1st works for me! Ha! I hope HMNS will agree to that. I set my telescope to Andromeda during A-Day and it was a smash hit! People came back for it one or two more times to show it to their siblings and/or friends so I left it there all night long. The tripod was kicked a few times and I had to re-align it twice but all was ok after that. One more kick and I was going to have to use my bear trap.

I know many thanks were emailed around to all of us but let me tell you, those floaters are awesome. Just when I was about to pass out, someone came and offered me water (a floater) that was sooooo appreciated! So my thanks to him (I forgot who it was).

Also, we threw an A-Day party at my RV spot and about 25 people showed up to enjoy catering from Vasos BBQ – camping with class ha! So at night, at around 10pm, the gang showed up. One of them offered to look after my scope so that I could take a break. Instead I walked around to see what others were seeing. Nice telescopes I saw out there! Of course, about 10 minutes later I get a text saying: come back, a kid just kicked your tripod. Where was that bear trap again….