I was PROUD to wear the badges sent to us for the event last night.

Donna from the Sidewalk Astronomers wrote and gave email address for submission of photos and reports; here

I’m so pleased to read the Gisborne post this morning. (maybe we were the first world-wide?) My son Ray and I set up in Courtenay Place in the early afternoon. I simply pulled into a car space outside the ANZ Bank on the main street and we were there until nearly midnight. I spoke to so many people I couldn’t give a number but literally hundreds perhaps thousands walked past and read our signs.

We had the sun for a few hours, I spotted Venus for a few minutes between buildings just after sunset, but those were the only three sky objects available from that location. (The new moon was hidden behind the buildings also). I did get to show Jupiter and it’s four moons from the ‘brightest’ place in Wellington at night.. Most of the time I showed the pixels in a large video display high up on the Embassy theatre. I presented a few pictures and booklets on a range of related subjects, astronomy, the south coast, and the Urban Design Protocol. Many of us exchanged email and websites for follow up discussion. There is so much passion out there its fabulous!! That’s what motivates me.

I ran some power points on my laptop, and gave away pieces of obsidian for free, to symbolize the night sky that was missing. Surprisingly less people actually wanted to take away a piece, compared with the block party, so I still have a box full. They generally like the smaller pieces so my chunks left are the larger bits. I left the telescope box open for donations and collected a reasonable amount, and never actually ever asked for any. One couple from Christchurch gave $20. I had a piano-accordion player turn up 10 metres away after it got dark so that was nice.

I made several time lapses of the street and set up and took a few pics here and there, I’ll post them here later. I could have been running Jupiter live on the laptop but need someone to manage that kind of display separately. I should have had a dobsonian, as I was talking about John Dobson and the badges show one, but I have no mandate to use the dobsonians, which is a great shame and sad for me. The hottest item was the Phoenix Society Almanac, I could have sold many. People simply pulled their wallet out and said how much?. I gave them the url to order one. I also showed the South Coast Calender, but again I cant sell it because there are none available. I didn’t try and sell anything, but that is a real possibility for a society in need of funds.

I did meet extraordinary and a diverse range of people, and I was really surprised to meet several individuals, and couples, and groups, that were astronomy related in some sway, and also some radio people. One couple from Victoria have a 12in Meade in central Queensland (where they are currently based) and showed me their star pics from Taupo the previous night, another photographer guy from Germany was pretty excited and we talked for ages.

The radio group shared their recent unpleasant experiences with their society and the website / and committee chain of events. mmmm surprise.. not! We spoke of solutions… I’m amazed at how many people have radio and/or telecom/nzpo backgrounds out there.. simply having a telescope visually in their face brings them in.

overall not a single bad, unpleasant event to report.. no-one said it was dumb or wrong or argued the point..

I measured the ambient light at around 16 lux although it was 22 out on the street under the street light at eye height. That’s about what I’ve measured under other street lights. I’ll continue to take readings here and there and eventually make a map. Its not as much use to astronomers but perhaps could be for city council staff and architects, and resource consent hearings. Its not the sky condition of course, so that’s a failing of ground readings.

I can say it was quite difficult to actually go and do this event more or less on my own (thanks to my son Ray for 100% support in all ways). I am motivated in several ways though, and I just felt the fear and did it anyway. One strong motivation is a kind of loose market research. I’m trying to figure out why the society here in Wellington is so small in proportion to the population and how to grow it back, what do people actually want out of astronomy, why are events so poorly supported and attended in the capital city.

Its not just recency either, I recall feeling that John Dobson’s presentations were very poorly attended considering he has given so much for so long and has intriguing things to say about astronomy and cosmology. I spent 3 hours with John and Graeme Loftus at Te Papa, it was a wonderful time. I don’t remember seeing an amateur star party locally with more than about 30 attendees until Comet McNaught and my friend Taupuhi’s birthday in South Gate where we got about 70 or more..

I don’t think that the excellent facilities and awesome dark sky in the Waiarapa are the explanation, I believe that that helps us understand that the ‘second level’ in astronomy will travel when its clearly necessary to get better results, better experiences. I believe that the market place has a huge untapped public ‘first level’ and that’s its simply difficult to communicate with them so we must figure out ‘who’’they’ are first, and adopt appropriate methods once we are agreed on that.

Most people seem to believe that aurora are not visible from Wellington, and are quite stunned to see pictures of the aurora from here.

I did have friends and family show up, and some of us went to the top of Wrights Hill in Karori at midnight where some of my DJ friends were playing in an old circular concrete gun emplacement, but it clouded and rained so that wasn’t a late night after all. (I didn’t have to unpack the telescope again either) I did get some images from there that blew me away. The cool thing about dance party photos is that the rules are the exact opposite to astro pics; break them!! I am experimenting with flash filters, solarization, UV lamps, and just enjoying the totally unpredictable results. Surprisingly getting quite wet wasn’t the bad experience for us that we imagined, it was actually refreshing!

The Wrights Hill pics appear on Rakiura Music gallery 17.. It would be great to hear from all other eventers from last night, and if you want me to forward your info to the Sidewalk Astronomers then please ask, or at least ask me not to, as I will probably at least run a summary of NZ activity. I’ll give the Sidewalk Astronomers half the donations. I have a few extra badges that could be shared for anyone wishing to repeat some more ‘sidewalk’ events, I’ll run some in Brisbane in the near future. Please let me know. Paul Moss.

The Wrights Hill Dance Party after the star party. more

In-Camera no photoshop, yeah amazed me too....
(and I took them)