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If you have just signed up to participate in the 1st International Sidewalk Astronomy Night, please read the web blog
and these past email updates for information.
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Final Update
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| Buttons
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We have sent out all the buttons we have. If you didn't get one,
I will be happy to send them out when the second order arrives. I don't want to get overwhelmed with emails requesting buttons
like last time so I am going to ask you to instead of emailing, to send me an a self-addressed envelope. Please mark on the
corner of the envelope the number of buttons. Send your envelopes to:
Donna Smith
921 West Olive Avenue
Burbank, California 91506
USA
I apologize if you were one of the first to request buttons and
didn't get them. I even forgot to keep one for myself! |
Sky & Telescope
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| Global Unity and Social Responsibility
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When we have people at the eyepiece on May 19th, we have a unique
opportunity to remind people that we are all here on this one small planet, we need to take care of it and of each
other. The amateur astronomy community is somewhat unique in that we have embraced technology and the Internet has united
us. I continuously get responses from people amazed that we are doing something that transcends national, cultural, and
social boundaries. We can encourage all of those who look through our scopes to become part of a global community and to think
beyond their own small communities.
John Dobson says 'we were born into this universe",
true, but we LIVE on Earth and it's up to us to protect it and make it into the world in which we want to live. |
 ISAN Results on Website
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After the event, please go to the website www.sidewalkastronomynight.com and go to the Results page. Click on the globe and a map will come
up where you can pin your location and fill in a form with information about the event. Please only use English to fill in
the form if at all possible. You can use a free online translator and that should work well enough. This way, I can compile
the results without getting hundreds of emails. Please make sure only one member of your organization posts the information.
The information we'd like to get is:
Individual/Club name
Number of amateurs
Number and types of scopes
location
approximate ages of amateurs
how long you stayed out
approximate number of public
public comments/your impressions
There will also be a guestbook on that page for members of the
public and individual amateurs to post comments. |
Video
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you take video Saturday night, please upload it to the website http://www.astroshorts.com/ . It would be a good idea to title your video ISANrome, ISANnewdehli,
etc., so that they can edit them together for us. |
Help - Did I forget something?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If there is something you think we need to do that I have forgotten, please
let me know. I probably won't be posting anymore participants after today, but I am pretty sure we reached our goal of 1000
scopes. Most of the listings are clubs that will have several scopes out and we have about 300, so I think we made it! I can
only imagine how many people we will be reaching this Saturday night.
I hope that all of you will continue to do sidewalk observing and
that we can work together on future projects - I have lots of ideas and I'd like to hear yours.
Again - THANK YOU !! | |
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| Contact Information
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ISAN Update- May 7
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Buttons
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Below is a recipient list of the buttons I mailed. I apologize, I am so disorganized and have emails
on every computer I own - I just never expected this amount of response. If I missed you (all the current sidewalk astronomers
- your addresses are in a different database), please send a message with "buttons" in the subject line. Thank you so much
for your patience.
When you get your buttons, please make sure to check the envelope to see what the postage was. The
buttons themselves were only about USD $.35 each and the postage was just a few dollars for each package, but it does add
up and we would appreciate if you would go to our website and make a small donation to help offset these costs.
Alan Claghorn, Alfredo
Martins, Allen Ball, Amando Lee, Antoineta Garcia, Bill Kocken,
Bobbie Collins, Brian
Norton, Charlie Nielsen, Colleen Ohare, Craig Kendall, Dayong Rey,
Dinesh Nisang, Don Freeman,
Don Hembry, Enoc and Mary, FR Sarker, Frank Lock,
Gerry Gardner, Greg
Baggs, Howe Chen, Jinbo Zhang, John Miller, John Oneal,
Khagol Mandal President,
Kiss Guula, Lacy Thomas, Lianphong Wang, Manoj Pai,
Marc Stowbridge, Marcelo
De Oliveira Souza, Milan Stojanovic, Omsk Planetarium,
Oscar Saa,
Oscar Sifuentes, Pable Figueroa, Pat Peak, Patty Mayer, Rebecca Follete, Robert Silva,
Syliva Rios, Tallahassee
AS, Teresa Hudson, Todd Parisien, Yang, Jiuken, Zhao Zheng |
| Video
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It has been suggested we take video of the event and compile it for a DVD afterwards. We've
also had an offer from AstroShorts to edit and play it on their new website. I'll leave this up to you guys, we can do either
but it's obviously less expensive if we send them clips and they compile/edit it, I just want to put it to you in case
there are film makers among you who have different ideas. |
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Regional Contacts and ISAN Organization
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Lots of you have offered to be regional contacts and have asked what that involves - I don't know.
Initially, I asked for regional contacts because I needed help translating all the emails I was getting in foreign languages,
but since this will be a yearly event, regional contacts would obviously make sense. I think afterwards, when we have this
first experience behind us, we'll be able to have a better idea of what will be expected of regional contacts. I look forward
to working with all the regional contacts to make ISAN 2008 outrageously successful - I am thinking that our goal for next
year should be at least 10,000 telescopes.
Please send your updates after the event to a regional contact in your area if there is one. They
can translate, compile, sort all the information and then forward it on to me.
If I haven't made it clear to all of you yet, ISAN was started with very little organization. The
idea came from Sao Paulo, Katy and I decided in January to move forward, and in February I started with emails and she posted
in on My Space. The extent of the planning was to ask people to take scopes out on the same night - nothing more.
The website, buttons, email list, etc were added as I needed them or got a suggestion. We need suggestions, if you have ideas
that can help with next year, please send them to us. Check the website for the listings in Australia and you'll see that
a rock band is going to have scopes set up outside the venue when they perform on the 19th. This is a great idea.
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Thank You ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As we get down to the final days before the event, I want to be sure to thank several people.
Katy Haughland for being instrumental from the beginning.
Bob Alborzian and Betty and Hiro Wakamatsu sorted through over 600 pages of emails to get
the buttons packaged. It was an awful task and without them, I would never have made it to the post this month or probably
even next month.
Hao Zhou and Dongni Chen - without them China would have been impossible.
Manoj Pai and the guys from KHAGOL MANDAL have done a fantastic job in India and beyond.
Chris Headford, sidewalkastronomers.us websmaster for being patient with me and doing things
immediately.
Le Duong Kligge did the artwork for the buttons and listened to me talk endlessly
about this event .....
Oscar Saa, for being the first one to join. I got his response almost immediately and I was
worried no one would respond, so that was a big one.
John, of course, for starting all of this years ago and inspiring all of us.
But mostly, YOU! You guys are the ones doing this. Tony with a scope in Sao Paulo, Katy with one
in St. Paul, and me with one in Burbank wouldn't have been much.
Donna | |
| Sidewalk
Astronomy Night Update
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| April
25 |
Not Much Time Left - We Need More Amateurs
May 19th is not far away and we still have time to get more amateurs out with their scopes. Please contact
any clubs or individuals that you know. We only have about 3 weeks left, but we signed up over 70 clubs in the first three
weeks, so we can end up with over 200. |
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ISAN Buttons
I haven't received the buttons yet but I expect them by the end of the week. if you haven't sent your postal address
to me along with your request for buttons, please do so now. Make sure to write "buttons" in the subject line. |
| Email Response
If you sent an email announcing your participation in ISAN and haven't received a response, it is because
the number of emails I get makes it difficult to answer each, but it should get posted in a couple of days. If it doesn't,
please send me the email again. I appreciate your patience and I try to post them as soon as I get them, but work gets
in the way sometimes.
I've also received some posters and flyers that some of you have made. I tried to post them, but some were in the body
of the email or were attachments that I couldn't cut/paste. The web template I use isn't very flexible and my ability is very
limited, so that is why they aren't posted.
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Regional Contacts
You have probably noticed regional contacts listed on the website, we need more. If you are willing to be
a regional contact, please let me know. If you are interested in helping one of the regional contacts listed, please contact
them.
If you have a question / comment and are in one of the areas where we have a regional contact, please contact them instead
of me. And please contact them after the event with your updates. Remember we want to know how many amateurs were out, how
many/what kind of scopes, locations, how many of the public came by, responses, etc.
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Think Ahead.
I was speaking to John Dobson last week about a problem we've encountered in China. Many, many young students want to
take part but they don't have telescopes. It's very frustrating because they are so enthusiastic, and he told me to tell them
it was okay, "we're going to do this again next year" was his response and it made me start to think about how we can improve
this event next year and make it easier. So, keep that in mind while organizing this year's event and make sure to share your
suggestions with the rest of us.
There is probably more that I wnated to ask/tell, but I can't remember now. If you have questions, please post them on
the blog. I think I made it so that you don't have to sign up to post a comments, but I'm not sure. | |
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