I'm back and have a few questions...
Hello, It has been a while since I was part of this mailing list, many of you may not recall knowing me and that is fine. I was a member of this mailing list about sometime ago but then my email address service got shut down. I'm very new to Astronomy and remember some of the warm welcomes I was given from all of you and I thank you. As you may or not recall I talked about setting up a club at my High school. I have been successful and have gotten the club setup. There are about fifteen people signed up, most of them girls, which I'm glad to report. The meetings for the club that I have had so far have been mostly power-point presentations on things based around space. Most of these meetings have had a turn out of about ten people on average. I have tried to organize at least three star parties but none of them worked out. Would it be alright if I asked my club members if they wanted to join this mailing list? Also would it be too much trouble if we where to come to your Star Parties that you hold once in a while? How many of you made it to that Saturn star party? That was a blast, it my first public star party where I took my telescope---(an 8" sky-quest Reflector, with an 1200 focal length.) it was so fun. An elderly gentleman who had been born in 1918 and fought in WWII for three years got to see Saturn and Jupiter for his first time though my scope! There where so many nice telescopes there that it made mine look like a small black insect. Thank you all, -Bruce Glad To whom it may concern, My old now inactive email is bruce_glad2@space.com and needs to be removed from the list. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now
Welcome back, Bruce! I certainly do remember you! You and your friends are most welcome to join the list, as long as everyone abides by the rules and remembers that Cynthia, as list owner, has the last word. This is a loose affiliation; list members live all along the Wasatch, and some are even out-of-state. It's not a formal club, though most members belong to one or more of the formalized societies in the area. The star-parties are run by those clubs; anything we organize on this list is informal, but I'm sure if it's posted to the list, you'd be welcome. Private star-parties are not usually organized on the list. Some of the clubs might even be willing to organize a star-party just for your club & school. The more, the merrier! Chuck --- Bruce Glad <astronomy_rules@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello,
It has been a while since I was part of this mailing list, many of you may not recall knowing me and that is fine.
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From the Nevada astronomy mailing list.
Here is an article from the Reno Gazette Journal... http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2003/01/22/32650.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=Umbrel... I don't remember how to put this long of a url in one line, you may have to copy and paste. Sorry Bill B.
I never cease to be amazed at the attitude of our society, that "old" means "valueless" in many cases, especially architecture. Kim, I'd value your input on this. You may not know it, but I was in the pre-architecture program at the U years ago, before the money ran-out. 3 years. I do not plan to visit the new Clark planetarium unless my wife and daughter want me to take them there. I have no interest in the modern version of the planetarium. It is no longer a place of learning akin to a cross between a museum, theater, and library. Planetariums are now arcades, more related to Chuck E. Cheeses, than learning. Laser shows have nothing to do with astronomy. I don't go to planetariums to see IMAX shows on whales, mountain-climbing, or surfing. Buncha crap. Pop culture is valueless, transitory, and it's a crime that institutions have to go this route just to stay solvent. Bill, thanks for posting that. Chuck --- bill biesele <xmix@biesele.net> wrote:
From the Nevada astronomy mailing list.
Here is an article from the Reno Gazette Journal...
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I am wondering if any other largish city has a planetarium in a shopping mall. All that I can think of off-hand are in more dignified settings, like the Chicago's Adler out on a penninsula in Lake Michigan near the public Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum of Natural History. Any thought about this? -- Thanks, Joe Joe Bauman science & military reporter Deseret News bau@desnews.com (801) 237-2169
Joe, you make a great point: Dignity. Popular culture tends to make light of what isn't easily understood; that's why astronomers and scientists in general are the butt of so many jokes. Kim's point about "modern needs" has frightening overtones. What makes "modern" needs different from those of our parents or grandparents? Parking? Citizen's unwillingness to monetarily support learning institutions that they don't understand? Isn't curiostiy, thirst for knowledge, a timeless quality of mankind? What's next, a "drive-up" planetarium? People today are so steeped in pop culture that they seldom venture beyond it anymore, or are so burdened by the requirements of earning a living that there isn't time to expand their minds through learning. We live on a speck of dirt floating in the vast infinity of time and space. How sad that the percentage of humans who bend their thoughts beyond that speck, is so small as to be statistically non-existant. "Astronomy for the masses" no longer means education and information. It means music videos and laser shows, fictional soap-operas and muppets. The good news is that this makes club efforts towards public outreach even more important than ever. The star-parties, gatherings & other efforts of the members of all of our local clubs are the relevant elements of Utah astronomy. The formal institutions are irrelevant, ineffective, hollow. Chuck --- Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote:
I am wondering if any other largish city has a planetarium in a shopping mall. All that I can think of off-hand are in more dignified settings,
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Chuck, Joe, Kim I'm Greg Taylor, member of SLAS for 2 years now, and recent subscriber to this e-mail list. I agree whole- heartedly with what has been said about the planetarium. I was going to get a job with them as a star-show lecturer until I heard that they were moving the blasted thing to the Gateway Center. That insulted my scientific principals, and admittedly my intelligence, so much that I can hardly think about it without getting sick to my stomach. --- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Kim's point about "modern needs" has frightening overtones. What makes "modern" needs different from those of our parents or grandparents? Parking? Citizen's unwillingness to monetarily support learning institutions that they don't understand? Isn't curiostiy, thirst for knowledge, a timeless quality of mankind? What's next, a "drive-up" planetarium?
People today are so steeped in pop culture that they seldom venture beyond it anymore, or are so burdened by the requirements of earning a living that there isn't time to expand their minds through learning.
Chuck, you expressed exactly what I feel about the matter. It isn't just teaching science to the public that pop culture has affected. Music and art are all but dead. Popular music has degraded over the past few decades to become less than mindless drivel. Even Classical 89.1 always plays mediocre music by mediocre composers for the sake of variety. I could go on, but for what purpose. My petty ramblings can do little to rectify the situation. Greg __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
I think a golden opportunity for a lasting monument and resource was lost when a new planetarium wasn't built next to the new downtown library. I still have the vision in my mind's eye. C. --- Greg Taylor <astronomus_maximus@yahoo.com> wrote:
I was going to get a job with them as a star-show lecturer until I heard that they were moving the blasted thing to the Gateway Center. That insulted my scientific principals, and admittedly my intelligence, so much that I can hardly think about it without getting sick to my stomach.
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Chuck Hards wrote:
I think a golden opportunity for a lasting monument and resource was lost when a new planetarium wasn't built next to the new downtown library. I still have the vision in my mind's eye.
I had two problems with the library site. One was that it was not considered for the site until long after the plans of the rest of the plaza had been finalized. That meant just sort of sticking it in where they could. Just didn't look very good and the distance from the street where the school busses would have stopped to where the front door was to be was on the order of a hundred meters or so of uncovered walkway. My other problem was parking. Believe it or not the biggest complaint HP goers had at the State street location was lack of parking. At least at the new facility they have parking. But I still stand by my original thought that it should have gone up to the U. Patrick
participants (6)
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bill biesele -
Bruce Glad -
Chuck Hards -
Greg Taylor -
Joe Bauman -
Patrick Wiggins