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Friday, March 22, 2013
ISAN and Global Astronomy MonthT  This year, ISAN 6 will be part of Astronomer's Without
Borders' (AWB) Global Astronomy Month (GAM). ISAN (International Sidewalk Astronomy Night) has become a popular event among
amateurs worldwide and GAM has become a huge astronomy celebration so you can take part in both events by hitting the streets
with a scope on April 20th! . In the late 1950's, John Dobson looked
through a telescope at the Moon and immediately said, "everyone's got to see this!" and began making large telescopes
and wheeling them down the streets of San Francisco to show "everyone" the Moon and planets. “We
aren’t born in San Francisco, we aren’t born in California, we aren’t born in the United
States, we aren’t even born on Earth – we’re born into this UNIVERSE, and we need to know about it!” . John understood that the first
step in learning out this Universe was to see it and to show it to others. That is the whole purpose of ISAN; to get those
with scopes around the world to take them out and show others where they were born. . We ask all amateurs to join us on this one night to celebrate the beauty of our Universe,
to celebrate John's vision, and to have some fun with your local community. . When we started ISAN, I don't think Facebook existed
but it does now and that has made it easier - we no longer have to ask you to register your event and follow up with photos
and details - just post on your own Facebook page and share it with ours! facebook.com/sidewalkastro . We look forward to seeing what a great time everyone has on April 20th! Feel free
to copy and use our logo and ISAN artwork for flyers or other promotional materials. We have resources here on our site for
those new to sidewalk/public astronomy and if you have any questions, just send us an email at sidewalkastronomers@earthlink.net
and if you need the artwork in a larger file, just let us know. |
Sunday, February 24, 2013
ISAN 6 is finally here!!I can only apologize for the lack of posting in the last couple of years, unfortunately our "real" work has gotten
in the way and several of our key members have been unable to spend much time organizing large sidewalk events and doing newsletters.
BUT - we have been active locally doing our own sidewalk observing and connecting with the public. AND NOW - After
a lapse, we are back with ISAN this year on April 20, 2013!! We will have a design for a new pin posted in the next week or
so. ISAN will be a part of Astronomer's Without Borders Global Astronomy Month and will also be the same day as Astronomy
Day, but there are only so many good Saturday nights near first quarter Moon in the spring. So maybe everyone can combine
events - maybe do an astronomy event in the afternoon at a local planetarium and go out on the street corner that night. We
have had many requests in the past to have it 1)on Astronomy Day and 2)not on Astronomy Day. We hope to have a great
turn out.
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