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Thursday provided two tracks. Many
attendees heard a series of papers starting with Jim
Sack of Bishop, CA, on the construction of a mobile
observatory. This unique observatory was based on a
recreational vehicle whose dining area had its roof
removed and replace with a dome that houses a 8-inch
Meade SCT.
David Chandler, author of the "Deep
Sky" computer program, has managed to observe the debris
trail left by comets. He first wrote a program to plot
the trail in the sky, and then actually go observe it.
This is something that very few people ever do.
Ed Flasphoehler, editor of the Reflector,
explained why the Astronomical League needs a newsletter.
Finally, Charles Allen gave a very interesting talk
on "Gravity and Space-Time".
Meanwhile, about fifty attendees participated
in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's Project
Astro workshop. Project Astro is a National Science
Foundation-funded program to bring amateur astronomers
and teachers together to enhance the teaching of astronomy.
Both groups, astronomers and teachers, have their own
set of preconceived ideas about the other group and
the process of teaching.
The session started with a videotape
that showed even the youngest and most intelligent students
bring preconceived ideas on astronomical phenomena to
the classroom. Even after the phenomena is explained,
a student will take their personal theory of a phenomena
and try to adapt the classroom explanation to fit with
their personal theory. The best way to counter this
is to provide hands-on activities with three-dimensional
models to the students. Under the teacher's guidance,
they can learn at their own pace and convince themselves
of the real reasons behind astronomical phenomena.
The amateur astronomer brings an enthusiasm
for the subject that the teachers, who have to be knowledgeable
in many fields, normally do not possess. Children have
a natural curiosity about the universe around them,
and the astronomer can bring the excitement of astronomy
with occasional visits to the same classroom.
Although Project Astro is being run
from ASP headquarters in San Francisco (which they affectionately
refer to as Galactic High Command), there are a number
of Project Astro centers all over the country. These
centers sponsor two-day Project Astro workshops. Before
the workshops are scheduled, astronomers are paired
with teachers from the same area. The astronomer-teacher
team attend the workshop together. There they create
a plan for working together in the teacher's classroom.
The Project Astro staff also help the teacher and astronomer
separately address their concerns about working with
each other.
When the astronomer and teacher leave
the workshop, they have gotten to know and respect each
other. They have a plan for classroom activities and
are ready to begin working together to bring the excitement
of astronomy to the students. While the mini-workshop
at ALCon only lasted four hours without the teacher-parent
pairing, it brought much understanding and excitement
about the process of teaching astronomy to the participants.
 Afternoon brought talks on imaging spectroscopy and how this
planetary mapping technique will be used on current
and planned spacecraft. Then the International Dark-Sky
Association (IDA) held a workshop on light pollution
and how to control it. Dr. David Crawford (pictured
at right), Dr. Tim Hunter, and Mr. Robert Gent, all
of IDA, made the point that light pollution can be controlled.
A growing number of governmental units, city, county,
and state, are considering how to control light pollution,
and amateur astronomers can help.
IDA will can assist with advice, sample
ordinances, and other materials. What will actually
make light pollution a thing of the past is hard work
by concerned people who will go to their legislatures,
city councils, and county boards, asking that something
be done about light pollution. It is not an impossible
situation. As amateur astronomers, we have to travel
many miles to get dark skies. The general public will
not travel to the dark skies, so they no longer are
exposed to the beauty of a milky-way laden sky. Our
culture has lost the heritage of dark skies.
Dark skies can be returned to our
urban centers. The bad, energy wasteful lighting what
brightens our skies can be eliminated by the efforts
of amateur astronomers and others who want to see dark
skies and save money with good lighting. If you believe
that our culture needs darker skies, then the least
you can do is to join the IDA. Visit the IDA
website at www.darksky.org.
The evening brought on another evening
of observing. Before twilight ended, Dr. Roger Clark
of the U.S. Geological Survey spoke at the observing
site on "Visual Astronomy of ‘The National Parks
of the Universe'".
The Group Photo.
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