Monday, June 2, 2008

More Tales from the ASP & AAS Meetings

Today was the first day of the combined ASP & AAS meetings (It was just the ASP over the weekend). I managed to miss most of the science talks in favor of attending more sessions on next year's International Year of Astronomy. At least 111 countries are planning to be involved in the celebrations. Like the next Hollywood movie coming along, it has a trailer. You can watch it in various formats and sizes (including HD) here.

All kinds of events are going to take place. One of them, 100 Hours of Astronomy will combine a worldwide round-the-globe live star party and live webcasts from the world's professional observatories. This event will take place April 2 - 5, 2009. It should be one heck of a star party.

Gemini Observatory's Peter Michaud & Janice Harvey presented on an interesting project that we may persue to promote all of the astronomy going on in the San Diego area. Plans are way too early to discuss, so as I am fond of saying: Stay tuned.

On hand today were the good folks from Interstellar Studios who are producing a documentary, 400 Years of the Telescope. Look for the show next year on PBS and hopefully in your local planetarium. They filmed at Palomar last summer and will return as they make another round of filming to produce an IMAX version.

The day ended with a public talk by Dava Sobel, the author of Galileo's Daughter. She gave an engaging and moving talk, and I highly recommend her book.

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