Find "Observatories of the Southwest" on Amazon.com. Click for link.

Join us on Astronomy 2009 island for a talk and Q&A session with Doug Isbell, author “Observatories of the Southwest: A Guide for Curious Skywatchers” co-authored with Stephen Strom and published by University of Arizona Press.

Date:  Thursday March 11, 2010

Time: 7:00pm SLT (Pacific)

Place: Astronomy 2009 island Amphitheater (Click for Teleport)

Type of Event: Voice

We’ll be giving away a natural life copy of “Observatories of the Southwest: A Guide for Curious Skywatchers” during the talk!

The target audience for “Observatories of the Southwest” includes students, young people, teachers, the scientifically interested public, people traveling to the US Southwest, and anyone interested in the state of our understanding of the Universe.  For eight major observatories, this book covers their history, scientific achievements, what visitors can do, resources for educators, and the personal recollections of seven esteemed scientists and administrators.  Able to be enjoyed in sections or as a whole, this popular-level guidebook offers an overview of the biggest scientific challenges facing astronomers today and what is being done to investigate them every clear night and day in the dry desert southwest.  It aims to inspire people to realize that these are wonderful places to visit, to sit in awe and wonder of their achievements and the physical beauty of the surrounding land.

Doug Isbell is the U.S. national single-point-of-contact for the United Nations-endorsed International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), a task that includes major projects in dark-skies awareness, public exhibits of large astronomical images, and the development of a new, inexpensive, high-quality telescope kit with more than 100,000 units in production.

Previously, he was a public information officer and outreach programs director for the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (National Science Foundation) and NASA. He is a former aerospace journalist who earned degrees in astronautical engineering and journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

On March 4, 2010 our project made it into the Event Awards as “Highly Commended”  in the Most Innovative Event category!  Congratulations to us! And a large thank you to those that donated exhibits (Rob Knop a.k.a. Prospero Frobozz in SL and also Inthe Telling and the Let There Be Night project!).

See the IYA2009 press release here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/829/

See our event summary page here: http://secondastronomy.org/events/galilean-nights

The island will continue to be sponsored by the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy for project management, design, and building though we’ll be hosted by Astrosphere New Media Association in the weeks to come!  Wonderful news all around!

Happy holidays!

Walk the spiral arm pathway and encounter the new TWAN (The World at Night) exhibit “7 Continents: Trekking Night Skies” which covers night sky imagery from 7 continents. Read about the photographers and Mouselook their amazing images!