I love any reason to share the night sky, and tomorrow marks just such an opportunity with Astronomy Day!

Founded by Doug Berger in 1973, Astronomy Day promotes (what else but) astronomy, providing information and observing opportunities to the general public.  It is traditionally celebrated on the Saturday closest to the first-quarter moon between mid-April and mid-May, and this year, that date is May 2.

Most astronomy clubs and planetariums do host special Astronomy Day activities, but if you aren’t near any such events, you can celebrate Astronomy Day by setting up your own sidewalk observing session or passing out flyers.  Even just sharing Mercury at sunset, or the stars outlining the Big Dipper, is enough to get people excited about the night sky.  I especially like to share binoculars targets because it illustrates, so well, that the night sky is right there waiting to be seen, and no major investment or experience is needed to enjoy it.

To learn more about Astronomy Day, check out The Astronomical League’s website, here.  You’ll find several Astronomy Day links, including a free planning guide and a list of events, in the left-side menu of the home page.

If you do host your own event, be sure to share a little information about light pollution, to help encourage darker skies.  You can use this Sky and Telescope flyer, or create your own poster or flyers with information from the International Dark-Sky Association website.

Tags: astronomical league, astronomy day

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Light Pollution, Night Sky. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.