Kopernik Observatory AstroFest - Sept 2007

The Kopernik Observatory and Kopernik Astronomical Society (KAS) of Vestal
New York will hold their annual "Astronomy Festival and Star Party 2007" on
Thursday through Saturday September 20th thru 22nd 2007 (open for camping
and observing Thursday thru Sunday morning). This is a 'rain or shine' event
with plenty to do no matter what the weather. There will be formal
presentations aimed at all levels of interest, and day & night observing
using the observatory's telescopes and those of the KAS and visiting amateur
astronomers.



Keynote speaker Friday night will be Dr. Jim Bell from Cornell University.
Dr. Bell has worked extensively with the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Jim is the author of the popular book "Postcards from Mars", a pictorial
history of the rover missions.




During the day we will point our scopes at the sun using white-light and
h-alpha filters. We may even be able to find a daytime planet or two! We
will try to line up at least one telescope vendor for on-site scope and
astronomy equipment sales. There will be 'finger food' (pizza, etc) and soft
drinks available, plus a catered meal on Saturday evening. Our camping is
primitive, but we will leave the bathrooms open all night from Thursday thru
Saturday. There are some limited AC power hook-ups, but they are limited to
telescopes, CCDs, laptops, etc. The power is for astronomy stuff only: No
coffee makers, heaters, or camper lights please! After 9 PM red lights and
'star party rules' will apply, but we can't avoid some head lights from cars
leaving the parking lot. While Kopernik has reasonably dark skies, with a
bright Milky Way overhead, there is some light pollution in the north. While
it is not "Cherry Springs (PA) dark" or the central Adirondacks, most
amateur astronomers will be quite happy with our sky conditions for visual
observing and imaging.




Facility: A 2 million dollar science and education facility with four main
labs/presentation areas. Three domes with a 20-inch Ritchey-Chretien
Cassegrain telescope, a Celestron C-14 14-inch telescope, and an
Astro-Physics 6-inch F/12 Super-Planetary APO refractor, plus numerous
smaller portable telescopes, and a SBIG STL-1301E CCD camera. The
observatory also has a DayStar H-alpha solar filter and PST H-alpha scope.



See our website www.kopernik.org for more details, or contact




Also see: http://www.kopernik.org/images/archi...fest2007_2.pdf



George Normandin, KAS