 Great news, Longview!
At last year's event, we arranged for clear skies and a full moon. This year, we have upped our game. We have a new destination in the Solar System - Planet Taco! La Familia will have a food truck between Mars and Jupiter, on Nichols Blvd at 17th. Be like the astronauts! Explore the Solar System with a taco! Other tips
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 Woo hoo!
Thank you to Pat and Michelle at Copies Today / Speedy Litho. They donated passports for Longview's second annual Solstice Lantern Walk Through the Solar System. The passports look great - and they're collectible! Get yours at the Sun (south end of Lake Sacajawea, this Saturday, Dec. 21 from 7:00 - 9:00 pm) and get a stamp at each planet on your way to Pluto (north end of the lake). Meet the great people behind some of Longview's community groups. Celebrate the return of longer days and bring light and cheer to the longest night of the year! Latest event info, as always, on our Solstice page. See you there! Roy Gawlick Solstice Coordinator Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club A short video compilation of some highlights from this annual event.  During the equinox, day and night are of equal length. We are halfway between the longest day, on the summer solstice, and the shortest day, on the winter solstice.
We're starting the planning process for Longview's second annual Solstice Lantern Walk Through the Solar System. We hope to see you there! Hey, why not become part of Longview's history and help us out as a sponsor or as a volunteer? And in the meanwhile, join us for Sidewalk Astronomy on October 4 (check calendar for changes and weather info) or for our next club meeting on October 16. Cheers! Roy Excerpt from the May 2019 FoG Newsletter by Greg Smith Our evening with the Middle schoolers and their parents and teachers was a great success. A success on a couple of levels; first, that we were fulfilling our mission as a club, bringing night sky education to the community, second seeing how many people attended and brought their own telescopes, third teaching them about the night sky and what they could see from their own backyards. I was personally surprised how many families brought their own telescopes. Some of them were learning how to put them together, some were learning how to aim them, and some were even sharing what they could see with those around them. The students and adults that came to our scopes got to see binary stars, galaxies and star clusters that they had heard about but had never seen for themselves. A few were asking about how expensive the telescopes that we were using were. One dad looked a bit disappointed at the price, but I asked him if he had a spotting scope for hunting. He said he did. I told him he already had a telescope and he would be able to see the rings of Saturn with it. He was surprised that he would be able to see that, with a sigh relief. He realized that a spotting scope was really a telescope that could be used for more than hunting. Star gazing and bird watching were other activities that could be done year round. He found out that his binoculars were great astronomy tools as well. Here was a father who realized he already had the tools needed to explore the night sky with his son. Indeed the evening at Cascade Middle School was a great success. We will see at the next meeting if we get some new visitors. Ted, Mark, Becky, Tom and I had a great time and I am sure we all look forward to the next time we get to share with a group like this again. Becky, I’m sure you were an encouragement to the girls that they too can get involved with astronomy.  Hi everyone. We had a very busy January meeting!
Solstice Lantern Walk awards The Friends of Galileo organized Longview's first-ever Solstice Lantern Walk through the Solar System on December 21, 2018. It was a great success! Our judges, Marin, Noel and Ava, announced the winner of the Out of this World Award for best planet. They came up with the criteria:
After visiting each planet, they gave the award to the Lilac Academy for Bright and Curious Girls for their display at Saturn. Hazel and Ila, and parents Matt and Sarah, did a terrific job. They had a brightly-lit booth, information about their planet and about women in space, and even LED-lit hula hoops for Saturn's rings. They also lit the path of the Solstice Lantern Walk with luminarias - for at least 500 feet! Friends of Galileo presented them with a planesphere and a red LED flashlight to help them continue their astronomical explorations. We also had a number of online votes. Our judges gave the People's Choice Award to the Girl Scouts of Western Washington for their display at Venus. Venus definitely had the longest lines of interested people. Well done! And we were pleased to have so many of our planet sponsors present at the meeting.
Thank you all for coming! Speaker Mark Thorson spoke on "Limiting Magnitude," that is, how we calculate the relative brightness of stars. The system we still use today has its origins with the Greek astronomer Hipparchus - over 2,000 years ago! Future events
The club has a few more events to consider. Will we participate in the following?
 Happy New Year and thank you Longview!
We had a terrific turnout Dec. 21 for our first-ever Solstice Lantern Walk through the Solar System. We brightened the longest night and celebrated the return of longer days and we met great people. Here are some highlights. Under clear skies and a nearly full moon, we estimate that 400 - 500 people walked from the Sun to Pluto. What a great bunch of happy people - many walkers were dressed up with lanterns and lights. Our route followed the Solar System Walk given to the City of Longview by the Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club in 2001. The walk is a series of granite markers showing the relative distances between the Sun and the planets. The markers follow the path on the west side of Lake Sacajawea, over 1.64 miles. (Map of Solar System Walk) We had passports for people to take to each planet to get a stamp. The event was so popular we ran out of passports. Thank you to Pat and Rena at Copies Today / Speedy Litho for donating the printing for our passports! They looked great! (speedylitho.com) We had a variety of community groups sponsoring planets or otherwise helping with this event. The planets were lit up in a small way or in a big way. Kids got candy at several planets, and people got to know some of the great clubs in our community. Our judges Marin, Ava and Noel walked the whole route and judged each planet on these criteria:
We will announce the winner of the Out of This World Award and the People's Choice Award (thank you, online voters) at our next club meeting (details below). * * * * * If you walked the whole Solar System (3.7 billion miles!), you saw: The Sun - Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club started off the event with lanterns and passports and candy for the kids. friendsofgalileo.com Mercury - Kelso Freemasons Lodge #94 demonstrated that Masons are solid people. We had sponsors who had physical difficulties setting up and taking down - thank you Mike, Don, Craig, and Katie for jumping right in to help. bluelodge-wa.org/kelso94/our_lodge.htm Venus - Girl Scouts of Western Washington made Venus one of our most popular planets. They even had line ups! It might have had something to do with cookies. And thank you, Girl Scouts, for also helping other sponsors. girlscoutsww.org Earth - Longview Garden Club had an interesting projection on the inside of their canopy. Did you see it? longviewgardenclub.org Santa Claus - He traveled between the Sun and Mars. Ho ho ho! Mars - Shinju Dojo Aikido was our first planet sponsor! A lot of people were interested to learn about a low-impact, non-competitive martial art, taught right here in Longview. shinjudojo.com Jupiter - Longview Freemasons Lodge #263 sure added a lot of light to a dark evening, with an antique lantern collection. longviewlodge.org Saturn - The Lilac Academy for Bright and Curious Girls did a terrific job with a booth - and with lighting up the path for hundreds of feet. Well done, home schoolers! (They're awesome and really should make a web site) Uranus - The Boy Scouts of America, Cascade Pacific Council didn't just have a good set up and interesting information about their planet ("12 Facts About Uranus"!), they added s'mores and a warming tent! Both were very welcome at that point in the walk. cpcbsa.org Sacajawea - Stageworks Northwest Theatre definitely had the largest planet team. Check out their plays - maybe next time we can talk them into short performances during the Solstice Walk. stageworksnorthwest.com Neptune - Even with TWO astronomy clubs involved in this event, the Mount St. Helens Hiking Club was the only one to bring along a telescope. mtsthelensclub.org Pluto - Four members of Rose City Astronomers came all the way from Portland to set up at the far end of the solar system. Check out their calendar for events next time you're in Portland. rosecityastronomers.net The Space Shuttle Friends of Galileo member Chuck Ring drove a van between the Sun and Pluto for those unable to walk the round trip. Phil Sari of Columbia Ford generously loaned us the van. Thank you, Phil and Chuck! colford.net Thank you also to - Andrea Horton of Gyros Gyros Restaurant for your generous financial donation (Gyros-Gyros on Facebook) - Emiley Siters for loaning us canopies from Youth and Family Link. linkprogram.org * * * * * Most of all, thank you everyone who came out for a new event! You got a chance to meet some of the terrific people here in Longview and to learn about local clubs. Do you want another Solstice Lantern Walk in 2019? Come to the next meeting of Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club and help make it happen. Next meeting: 7:00 PM, Wednesday, January 16, 2019 Mark Morris High School, Physics classroom D8 Directions and map on our About page Happy New Year!  Great news, everyone!
A lot of things are coming together for Longview's first-ever Solstice Walk through the Solar System.
If a round trip us too long a walk for you, we have a donated van to take small groups from one end to the other (thank you Phil Sari at Columbia Ford!). Start your walk at either end, but be sure to get a passport.
What's all this about? We're going to bring light and cheer to the longest night of the year, and welcome the start of longer days. This free event will be 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM on the solstice, Friday December 21. We will meet at the south end of Lake Sacajawea Park and enjoy a lantern walk to the north end (about 1.6 miles). We will follow the path on the west side of the lake, and look for the granite markers representing the sun and planets. This model solar system was a gift to the city of Longview from the Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club. A variety of Longview and Kelso groups and clubs will set up at each planet marker, with lanterns to brighten your walk. This is a non-commercial event, just local groups and clubs pitching in to start a new Longview tradition. It's not too late to make lanterns! The more lanterns we have, the better! Bring some for your self, maybe bring extras to trade. Balloon lanterns are super cheap and easy to make, and they look great at night. Here are some ideas. How to make balloon lanterns https://www.instructables.com/id/Balloon-Lantern/ How to make luminarias https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Luminaries ... and here https://www.almanac.com/content/how-make-luminarias More info at our Solstice page (https://www.friendsofgalileo.com/solstice.html) Our event on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/120319288852042/ Hi everyone.
We had a great November meeting. We had a number of visitors, and one joined the club. Welcome Debra! Howard Knytych, of Rose City Astronomy in Portland, spoke on "Living in the Middle of the Universe." Our Christmas party will be at River's Edge. We'll have a potluck and a gift exchange (small, low-value items, maybe astronomy related). Look for a separate email with details. We talked about various issues related to the upcoming Solstice Lantern Walk through the Solar System. More info to come via web site, Facebook, email. Our January meeting will be January 16 at 7:00 PM in physics room D8, Mark Morris High School. We'll be back to meeting on the third Wednesday of each month. Cheers!  We had several successful events this month.
On the 2nd, Greg and Roy went to Lake Sacajawea to clean up the Solar System Walk and make sure it's in good shape (it is!). Friends of Galileo gave the Walk to the City of Longview in 2001. We had our monthly meeting on the 17th. We had a great turnout, and two new members (welcome Ray and John!). NASA Ambassador Les Hastings gave us an update on NASA missions, from local satellites to missions under development to the status of the Voyager spacecraft. It was fascinating! FoG members also supported a motion to organize Longview's first-ever Solstice Solar System Walk at Lake Sacajawea. Much more information to follow - stay tuned, volunteers needed! Then, on the 20th, FoG members joined astronomy enthusiasts across the US for National View the Moon Night. We gathered at our usual Sidewalk Astronomy location and had a great turnout. One family wanted help setting up a telescope they received as a gift (it works just fine now, thanks to Greg). We also welcomed a few people who were a bit baffled by the unexpected group of telescopes as they drove by. We persuaded them to have a look at the moon and at Saturn's rings. They were delighted. Viewing events will be limited now that we are in monsoon season, but do join us for our next monthly meeting in physics classroom D8 at Mark Morris High School on November 14, 7:00 PM. |
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