Date: September 12, 2011
Title: Astronomy Clubs: The How, What, and Why
Podcaster: Daniel Herron
Organization: Atlanta Astronomy Club
Link: http://www.atlantaastronomy.org
Description: What are Astronomy Clubs? Why join one? How to find one?
Daniel will talk about what one can get from joining an Astronomy club, how to find a local club, different club activities, and why you would want to join one in the first place.
Bio: Daniel Herron is an amateur astronomer and member of the Atlanta Astronomy Club. Visit the club’s website at www.atlantaastronomy.org.
Sponsors: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by Chester Chua.
This episode of “365 Days Of Astronomy” has also been brought to you by thesecretlair.com The Secret Lair is an online magazine and podcast dedicated to world domination and the plight of the grown-up geek. From an undisclosed location near Cleveland Ohio, Overlord Chris Miller, Dr. John Cmar, Commandant David Moore, and Secretary of Artistic Propaganda Natalie Metzger are joined by a stellar cast of contributors to share with you the trials, travails, and trivia of being a modern day working stiff with a strong escapist streak. There are lots of places covering pop culture on the Internet. We bring a midwestern Everyman look at the world around us. If you find yourself somewhere between the ages of 20 and 60, have to deal with the responsibilities of paying for a roof over your head, credit card bills, car payments, and possibly raising kids, but you still like to read, play games, and talk with other mature adults about your obsession with Star Wars, drop by The Secret Lair. We’ll leave the lights on… and the portcullis up.”
Transcript:
When I first got into astronomy my involvement included sitting in our backyard taking pictures of star trails and panning around the sky with my binocular with the occasional reading of astronomy articles and books. As you can imagine it did not take too long before I got bored of that and astronomy started to take a backseat to other interest. At the time my 16 year old self would not have been able to tell you why he got bored with astronomy, but my current self can. It was lonely, I did not have a scope of my own, and I did not know what the next step was or even how to walk it.
Fast forward five years. Astronomy is still an interest but I am still not sure how to get more out of it, but there are new relatively cheap computer guided scopes and I think “that’s the next step, get a scope and see new and exciting objects”. So I did. I got a 60mm Celestron Nexstar GT and started to try to use it. With my small scope and the light pollution around Atlanta I had soon seen all the objects I could find and once again getting bored. I tried to get friends interested so I would have someone else’s excitement to keep me going but none were really interested so I turned to the internet to see where to go next in this hobby (actually I was looking for where I could sell my scope).
That’s when I happened across the website for the local astronomy club. They had regular monthly meetings, monthly observing campouts, larger scopes club members could use, and public outreach events, not to mention a week long Star Party in the fall. But much more that that they had a group of people with a similar interest willing to share knowledge and experience.
Had I not joined the astronomy club I would have gone the route I fear a lot of budding amateur astronomer have gone. I would have become bored and moved onto other interest. And I would have missed out on some of the most wondrous views of nebulas, galaxies, planets, etc but more so I would have missed out on some great friendships and good times.
From the club members and meetings I soon learned about the different scopes and what those differences mean for observing, got to play with some club member scopes at club outings before deciding on which one I would soon upgrade to. Also I got to borrow others accessories before deciding on which ones I would like to purchase. It was not too long before I was helping new comers myself, and not too much longer until I was volunteering to help run the club and club events.
Most astronomy clubs are members of the Astronomical League which has many observing list and awards one can work toward. Completion of each list involves observing and recording observations of a list of particular objects. The lists range from very easy (children) to extremely difficult. For each list you complete you get a certificate and a pin. These lists help keep your skills and interest up and help you learn the sky!
But much more that all this the best part of being a member of an astronomy club is sharing your hobby with others. Who wants to camp out in the dark, in a remote field, by themselves? Even if you are able to ignore all the creepy noises from unseen creatures coming from the tree line, you are likely to fall asleep at the eyepiece without some else there to keep you awake. Having friends there to observe with makes for a better, usually longer and more fulfilling time!
One of the biggest joys I get from astronomy is the public outreach the club does at schools, church groups, Boy Scout and Girl Scout meetings, and local
Without the astronomy club I would never have just set my telescope up in a park to share astronomy with passers-by, never taken it to school to have a sidewalk astronomy event with the kids, or never setup my scope outside my house on Halloween night to share a view and candy with Dracula, transformers, a fairy princess, ballerina or a ghost.
Without the club I would have given up on Astronomy a long time ago.
So if this podcast has got you interested in joining a local club and you need help finding one there are a few sites that will help.
Sky and telescope http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations
Night Sky Network http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/club-map.cfm
GO Astronomy http://www.go-astronomy.com/astro-club-search.htm
Astronomical League http://www.astroleague.org/societies/list
There are over 800 clubs in the US. All these sites have pages to help you find clubs or organization in your area; some even have tips to how to create your own. You can also try http://www.meetup.com to find people interested in astronomy in your area.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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