Eyes Full Of Stars

Something really positive happened in the nation’s capital last night, President and Mrs. Obama hosted a star party. The event was held to promote science education and the International Year of Astronomy. From what I have seen so far, media coverage has been little to non-existent. I think that the folks who worked behind the scenes for the last 8 months to make this night a reality certainly deserve a lot of credit. Spearheading the project, along with a bunch of volunteers whose names I don’t yet know, were Chicago-based amateur astronomer Audrey Fischer along with Andrea Schweitzer and Stephen Pompea of U.S. IYA 2009. Way to go team! As far as I know, this was a first for stargazing with telescopes at the White House.

Although the televised and steaming coverage was brief, Bob Moore – Caroline’s proud father – reports that “Caroline walked with the First Family for about an hour showed them the Star Lab, and some of the scopes. The President looked at Jupiter, M13 using a 24″ Dob. The school Kids were GREAT and asked a lot of questions. Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride, John Grunsfeld, & Mae Jemison were all on hand for the kids to talk with. We talked with the President, Mrs Obama and the Obama Girls and Caroline gave the girls each a scopes and mounts.”

There were a variety of telescope types present, including the International Year of Astronomy Galileoscope. Astronomy equipment can be expensive. But, along with ’store bought’ scopes, there were about a half dozen home made telescopes on the lawn. I think that having the home made scopes there was very important because it demonstrates that even if you can’t afford the retail price of a telescope, you can still build one.

A couple of photos courtesy of Bob Moore:

Waiting for Sundown

Caroline with astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride and John Grunsfeld.

I just got word:  Caroline Moore will appear as a guest on MSNBC between 9:30-10PM ET tonight. Check it out!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 10:47 am and is filed under Current Events, Stargazing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.