Astronomy Day Fair 2003
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Astronomy Day 2003, was held on May 10 at Tiguex
Park near Old Town Albuquerque. This years event was organized
by Karen Keese of the Lodestar Astronomy Center.
A new Hubble image was unveiled at this years event.
Pictured to the left, immediately after the unveiling are (l to
r) Laurel Ladwig of the Lodestar Astronomy Center, Karen Keese,
and Ray Collins of the Albuquerque Astronomical Society. |
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| Dozens of TAAS members helped out at this year's
Astronomy Day. Although the winds were forecast to play
havoc with the outdoor event, they did not materialize until
near the end of the day. Lodestar provided a huge event
tent for the exhibitors.
Public turnout was smaller that when the event is at a mall,
but this crowd was much more interested, and got more involved
with the exhibitors.
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Of course, stargazing is a big part of any
Astronomy Day event. TAAS members provided a large telescope
field for solar viewing just west of the event tent.
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In addition, daytime planet viewing was provided just in front
of the TAAS booth. Using a protractor ring system developed
by TAAS member Barry Spletzer, and freeware astronomical software
by Sky Charts, it is
now possible to accurately point a dobsonian scope with minimal expense.
Using this system, Sammy Lockwood (left) gave daytime views of
Venus, Jupiter, and Sirius. |
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| Astronomy Day 2003 was a premier for some new GNTO
equipment, coupled with Pete Eschman's
(left), new video imaging system. Pete coupled a refractor
into a hybrid goto mount, Then using video cameras, he fed
live astronomical images into either a monitor or laptop PC. The
system Pete set-up drew considerable interest.
Info on the StellaCam-EX can be found at Adirondack Video
Astronomy: http://www.astrovid.com/
Info on the Philips ToUcam Pro USB PC-Camera (VC-740K),
can be found at:
http://www.pocketscope.com/product_catalog.htm
with adapters available at
http://www.webcaddy.com.au/astro/adapter.htm
TAAS's Astronomy Day 2003 efforts were headed by Dale Murray
(right) |
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