ONE DAY EACH SPRING, astronomy clubs,  planetariums, and other groups of sky lovers band  together to show the public how much fun astronomy can be. "To promote the forerunner of all scientific endeavors and to provide information, resources, and encouragement in all facets of astronomy" is the official reading, but showing that astronomy is fun is really what it's all about.

Astronomy Day is usually celebrated between mid-April and mid-May, on the Saturday closest to the first-quarter Moon. In 2003 Astronomy Day was May 10th.

Leading the local effort were members of the MN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, with help from Mpls Planetarium, MN Space Frontier, , Telescope Shope and Radio City.
 
  MN Astronomical Society once again returned to Onan Observatory for Astronomy Day.

The event was visited by dozens of kids and parents on a mostly cloudy Friday night and a rainy Saturday.

MAS and MN SFS were there as we have for many years in the past.

There was limited observing Friday night during an extended break in the cloud cover shortly after sunset. Jupiter and Saturn with five satellites observed) were popular, and the Moon provided nice views, including the "Straight Wall".

Also in the MAS display were a laptop slide show of past MAS events, MAS T-Shirts, and pick up back issues of 'Gemini' newsletter and other MAS handouts.

MN SFS offered a 1:144 model of International Space station, with a world map showing its current location, 3-D star map of 26 nearby stars, and take home their own astronaut photos, including ISS crew 7 and STS-107 and make their own paper cutout shuttles.

My thanks to Mike Kibat, Steve Korzenowski, Ben Huset, Cheryl Malheim, David E. Venne, David Olmstead, Deane Clark, Ed Jacobson, Greg Haubrich, Greg M. Howell, Jackie Bilderback, Jackie LaVaque, John Treadwell, Lenny W. Schmitz, Michael Burr, Michael Koppelman and Lynn Heffernan who helped with the event, plus NASA Glenn for supplying some of the photos and handouts.

Schedule is PDF formated Schedule

Ben Huset
MAS Outreach Chair
MN SFS Board

Photos by Ben Huset

Last revision May 12, 2003
by Ben
Counter started May 10, 2003 -
Comments welcome

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