[AstroNet] [Fwd: Join the GLOBE at Night Program for a Star-Hunting Party: February 25 - March 8!]

[Kevin Govender]

Excellent opportunity to join a global programme in a very simple way.
Please spread the word.
Kevin


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Join the GLOBE at Night Program for a Star-Hunting Party: 
February 25 - March 8!
Date: 	Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:12:17 -0700
From: 	Connie Walker <cwalker at noao.edu>
To: 	Connie Walker <cwalker at noao.edu>



PLEASE POST (and participate!)
*
*
*Can You See the Stars?*
 
Join thousands of other students, families and citizen-scientists 
hunting for stars during February 25 through March 8, 2008. Take part in 
this international event called GLOBE at Night to observe the nighttime 
sky and learn more about light pollution around the world.
 
GLOBE at Night is an easy observation and reporting activity that takes 
approximately 15-30 minutes to complete. Citizen-scientists record the 
brightness of the night sky by matching its appearance toward the 
constellation Orion with 1 of 7 stellar maps of different limiting 
magnitude. They then submit measurements on-line at 
www.globe.gov/globeatnight/ <http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight/>. 
Resulting maps of all observations are created and placed back on-line 
by the GLOBE at Night staff within the few weeks that follow.
 
The five easy star-hunting steps, for which more information is provided 
on-line, are:

1) Find your latitude and longitude.

2) Find Orion by going outside an hour after sunset (about 7-10pm local 
time)

3) Match your nighttime sky to one of our magnitude charts.

4) Report your observation on our website. (Observations can be made 
February 25 through March 8; you may report through March 15).

5) Compare your observation to thousands around the world.
 
In addition to the unaided-eye observations of Orion, the GLOBE at Night 
campaign offers Sky Quality Meters <http://www.unihedron.com> (SQM) 
users the opportunity to measure directly the integrated sky 
brightness.  SQM measurements by citizen-scientists can also be reported 
on the GLOBE at Night website to contribute to a global map of light 
pollution around the world.
 
Helpful and user-friendly ancillary materials such as a teacher packet 
and science standards, a family packet, and student games and 
information are provided on-line at www.globe.gov/globeatnight/ 
<http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight/>.
 
You can also subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates and 
results of this campaign. Visit www.globe.gov/globeatnight/ 
<http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight/> and click on “subscribe” at the 
bottom of the webpage.
 
During the inaugural event in 2006 over 18,000 people from 96 countries 
submitted 4600 observations, including data from every U.S. state. In 
2007, the number of observations almost doubled! Help us exceed 10,000 
observations in 2008!
 
GLOBE at Night is a collaboration between the National Optical Astronomy 
Observatory (www.noao.edu <http://www.noao.edu>), The GLOBE Program 
(www.globe.gov <http://www.globe.gov>), The International Dark-Sky 
Association (www.darksky.org <http://www.darksky.org>), Centro de Apoyo 
a la Didactica de la Astronomia (www.ctio.noao.edu/AURA/CADIAS/ 
<http://www.ctio.noao.edu/AURA/CADIAS/>), and Environmental Systems 
Research Institute, Inc (www.esri.com/k-12 <http://www.esri.com/k-12>). 
GLOBE schools all over the world as well as science and nature centers 
and astronomy clubs (i.e., programs with networks maintained by the 
Astronomical Society of the Pacifiic <http://www.astrosociety.org>) are 
local leaders in GLOBE at Night efforts with citizen scientists.

The press release (and more information on SQMs) can be found 
at http://www.noao.edu/outreach/press/pr08/pr0803.html.

____________________________
Connie Walker, Ph.D.
Senior Science Education Specialist
Associate Scientist
NOAO
950 N. Cherry Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
520-318-8535
520-318-8451 (fax)
cwalker at noao.edu <mailto:cwalker at noao.edu>



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Kevin Govender
Manager: SALT Collateral Benefits Programme
South African Astronomical Observatory
Office: +27 21 460 9350
Mobile: +27 82 487 8466
Fax: +27 21 447 3639
Email: kg at saao.ac.za
Skype: kevindran
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