International Sidewalk Astronomy Night - April 12th

Location: Small seating area off the sidewalk near the main entrance to the Portsmouth Parking Garage on Hanover St.

Tonight, Thursday, April 10th: At least one scope will be there from approximately 8pm to 10pm if the current clear sky conditions hold up. Could we call this a "dry run?" :-)

Weekend: the weather forecast for the weekend does not look good, unless you are a duck.

Automatic notification: To receive automatic notifications of upcoming Sidewalk Astronomy events, please subscribe to Yahoo group SeacoastSidewalkAstronomers-Notify at http://groups.yahoo.com/

Scope update: Are you an amateur astronomer? If so, set up your scope somewhere convenient and give your neighbors a peek at Saturn or the Moon in the next few weeks. You'll be glad you did!

April 12th is the date for the 2nd annual International Sidewalk Astronomy Night. Sidewalk astronomy can be done any time and any where, but on this night amateurs will be out in cities all around the world showing people the wonders of the sky all on the same night. It's a nice way to bring the people of the world together. Pictures will be posted on http://www.sidewalkastronomynight.com/ where you can see last year's pictures. Right now there are about fifteen countries with people signed up to participate. I expect many more.

Stay tuned to this blog for a decision on where we will set up the scopes. Of course if it is cloudy or raining out, the event will be postponed.

I have put in an application to the Portsmouth City Council for permission to set up on the sidewalk in the downtown area where there will be a lot of people around. We are working to find a location in town which has the right sky view but does not interfere with pedestrian traffic. Hampton Beach is also a possibility. We'll stick with very bright objects like the moon and Saturn, and perhaps some double stars.

At this moment, Harvey, Steve and Jim are all likely to join me for the evening with their scopes, so there should be plenty of eyepieces to look through for the public.

Stay tuned to this blog for the eventual location, and a final decision based on the weather. Rain date will be Sunday night, April 13th, but if both nights are rained out we'll try again the following weekend.