One last round-up of 100HA events
So much happened during 100 Hours of Astronomy, it’s only fair to mention a few more events.
Corvo (pronounced [ˈkoɾvu]) is a municipality located in the Corvo Island, the smallest of the 9 islands of the Portuguese autonomous region of Azores. At least, so says Wikipedia. It may only have 425 inhabitants, but that didn’t stop the 100 Hours of Astronomy project reaching them. And how exactly did it reach them?
Plane? No.
Train? No.
Automobile? No.
Speedboat? Yes.
That’s right, astronomers made their way to the island using a speedboat, and the inhabitants came out to hear their lecture. This is right up there with the camels story.
And now, a school in Erding near Munich held a public event which I couldn’t make it to. But don’t worry, because Cristophe Claude sent me the info, and a photo to boot. Thanks!
So, the headline event was to show a science webcast, but technical hitches stopped that. Fortunately, the astronomers had a back-up plan and played a DVD, followed by a discussion on Galileo’s observations and the subsequent revolution.
The presenters should be grateful they didn’t have to get a speedboat to the school. Unless they did.
Cristophe says around 50 people attended, which was more than expected. I hope they had enough tea and biscuits to go around.
What’s been happening in Belgium? Something interesting, for sure. Over to Google Translate, now:
“In the framework of the International Year of Astronomy, Minister for Science Policy Sabine Laruelle presents a galiléoscope Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, before joining the Council of Ministers. This cheap telescope will be available in Belgium at the end of April at a price of 10 euros. The furnishing of this coincides with galiléoscope “100 Hours of Astronomy” (from 2 to 5 April 2009).”
Incidentally, that’s the exact same telescope that Jean-Luc presented to me at Odeonsplatz. Wow!
And finally, an impressive StarParty in Erbil City in the northern Iraqi region Kurdistan. A report written with infectious enthusiasm by Azhy Hasan describes how talks and observations sessions were a tremendous success.
Hi guys!
Always remember to thank the organisers.
Saturn was the star of the show. Even though it’s a planet. And not a star. Obviously.
Astronomy has the power to bring people together, so with that in mind let’s finish with a quote about the event from Azhy Hasan:
“All over the guests and participants were very very happy with that event. The oldest man there, Mam Raheem, looked for the first time in his long years of life and he was really happy and he expressed that with plenty of his kind appreciation words! After all that they asked us about more and more of these events, probably this will be a very nice chance to escape, even for some moments, from the hard life days of our region.“
