Playing the Field - Report

[NickH]

4 members of WIltshire Astronomical Society (Job Gale, Ian Pass, Andy Burns and myself) at the kind invitation of Deborah Meaden and Sky at Night Magazine turned up at a field near to Glkastonbury for what was an amazing night of pugblic outreach. 3000 classical music fans turned out for an event Deborah and Charles Haywood (BBC Proms), had organised called playthefield (Play the Field - Classical Music Concerts in Somerset from Charles Hazlewood).

The orchestra were playing Holst's PLanet Suite, whilst we were providing views of Jupiter, The Moon and other celestial objects through a range of telescopes (TV76, FL102, Skywatcher Dob and Intes Maksutov)

Of the 1000 (yes 1000) people who queued through the night to get a glimppe of Jupiter, all bar 2 were left saying WOW...which was magic for us (the two literally could not see anything...) Kids from the age of 4 to pensioners, who had never seen planets before were in awe... absolute magic event, and at the enmd Deborah came over to say thanks, and have a look (her husband has a telescope), and she's much much nicer than on Dragons Den.

So, a big thank you to everyone who turned up, hopefully we got a few more budding astronomers (especially with the kids...who were just amazing), and thanks to Graham and the Sky at Night team for asking us to help out, and also to Deborah for taking the time not only to come over at the start to say thanks, but at the end spending 15 minutes with us having a chat and a look through the scopes.

[Beyond_Vision]

Must have been a great event, that was some queue for the scopes. Great location for the event too

Regards

Kevin

[FLO]

Fantastic

Just shows what can be achieved. Well done to the organisers and all who took part

[Tim]

Great report Nick, must have been very enjoyable I should think, opening the eyes of so many.

Tim

[steppenwolf]

That is a really good example of outreach, well done. Whenever I have given my dad a chance to look through the eyepiece, he too says that he can't see anything - weird!

[NickH]

Glastonbury and Hazlewood... lol...must get a bigger keyboard on the next netbook I buy... :-)

Thanks, and it was amazing. Have not done as much outreach as the others on that list, but will try to do more this coming year, as it was so enjoyable

[barkis]

It's refreshing to learn of the different ways Astronomy can be imprinted on the mind. Music is one association which I think is a perfectly natural one, but perhaps not practised enough.

Perhaps this event could be a Catalyst for more of the same. The big turnout indicates that it works.

Thanks for bringing it to us Nick.

Ron.

[Herakles]

What a fantastic idea to have come up with to encourage folks. Well done to all who were involved.

[NickH]

Apologies again for the typos.. :-) and thank you for the response. I agree, it's a great idea and one which should be encouraged more

[NickH]

I just saw this from Graham (editor of S@N magazine) and thought it would kind of round up the report, and also, as Jon and Ian visit this forum mainly, hopefully they will see it too

>>>

I'm so glad you could give up your Saturday evening, as I think you being there really made the whole event very special indeed. I reckon a lot of people will go away with fond memories of it. I was delighted too, that you got a mention from the main stage - I don't know if you heard it? Perhaps you'll hear it when the concert is broadcast on BBC Radio 2.

At first I wondered if it was the "wrong crowd" for astronomy, but as the night wore on and the clouds (thankfully) began to part, I could see substantial lines of people - among them loads of kids - waiting for their turn to have a peek at the Moon and Jupiter. We Brits love to queue, don't we? The only bigger lines were for Riverford organic burgers . The bigger the queue, the more people think there's something worth queuing for...

During one of the breaks, I saw a little girl run up to her mother and exclaim, "Mummy, mummy - I've seen the Moon! It's amazing - it's so craggy!" Cynical old hack though I am, I have to say this warmed my heart. With any luck she'll tell her friends at school all about it.

This event really opened my eyes to the best kind of astronomy outreach. Obviously, dedicated observing events and talks have their place, but perhaps, as a whole, the astronomy community ought to have a think about tagging along to big events like this, where people can "stumble upon" telescopes and just enjoy the view as part of a bigger event.<<<<

So thanks to Graham and Deborah again from all of us at Wiltshire AS for this..

AS A FOLLOW ON...

I know that places like Westonbirt regularly hold concerts, the problem with any serious astronomy is obviously zillions of people and not dark skies (last night we were near some quite strong lighting for the entrance), but for viewing the Moon and planets, it's a winner, and you have to see people's faces then they find out that tack sharp humbug they are looking at with the little dots either side, is Jupiter and its moons.. or when they really look at the lunar surface and see the terminator...quite amazing

food for thought... (organic burger anyone?)

[ron.s.g]

Great for all concerned and enjoyed by everyone there by the sounds of it,

a great event to open peoples eyes to what is really up there and maybe a few more to join the ranks,

well done all involved.

regards ron.s.g

[PeterW]

Showed some of the neighbours (ans children) Jupiter a week or so ago through a WO66 and got the same sort of response. I always worry that not many objects are 'amazing' in the eyepiece, but then it does seem like most of the public have a very low expectation threshold and so a bit of Jupiter/Saturn or the moon should go down well. I'm not sure how well other objects would work though.....

Well done, it's good when you give so many people their 'first experience'; I bet some now have new scopes too.

PEterW

[dobserver]

Sounds like an amazing night all round, and that you enjoyed doing it as much as those on the receiving end

Steph