by Graham Southorn » Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:20 pm
No, thank you Nick! And Andy, and the other chaps from Wiltshire AS. 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.
I'll upload a couple of (non-astronomy) pics later!