HantsAstro - Butser Astronomy Event 2009
25th & 26th April 2009 Report
For such a young astronomy group any event like this is a big risk.
Day One
It rained first thing in the morning and all weather reports were in conflict. It was dry for the set-up but 50mph gusts turned our new pop-up Gazebo into a tripod, and no doubt our biggest acquisition also for this event - a new 30 foot marquee - was an on-going battle against the elements. For three hours we were unable to prevent the structure from turning into spaghetti. Mercifully, the attendance was lower than expected on the first day.
The Hog Roast was great and the Planetarium, the largest mobile one in Europe we discovered, was excellent.
The Press arrived and took loads of pictures. By the time the weather cleared it was time to think about going home, which we all did exhausted by a busy and very edgy day...
Day Two (say it with a Big Brother stylee)
William Parker, our youngest member with boundless enthusiasm, kept our renewed zeal for what looked like a busy day. We relocated down into the 'Village' and setup the scopes outside for display; that proved to work better and was more engaging after the Gazebo was destroyed. The talks were set up in the Great Roundhouse and worked very well with a projector and screen. My talk on Ancient Astronomy, I can honestly say, had a standing ovation! But only because there weren't any seats! In between, a rolling slideshow of Graham Green's pictures attracted many positive comments.
As visitors starting rolling in, Sara gathered up about a dozen or so children to recreate an animated Solar System using models of planets she had made. It was both hilarious and informative. The kid that played the part of a comet went like a missile into the melee. Brilliant!
Several new HantsAstro members came along during the weekend to say 'Hi', and that was cool. We are becoming a real community, with some really interesting people in our Group. I for one would like to expand on that and a future meeting with CoreTeam will deal with that topic. Some astronomers from other groups turned up and liked what they saw.
The afternoon peaked with many people dropping by to look at the telescopes and were impressed by our set up and what we do as a Group. Clearly our previous events have created a bit of a following. No pressure...
Many positive lessons were learnt before and during this event in terms of logistics, communication and promotion which will be refined and applied in the future. Either way, the whole event could have been a disaster, but Sunday proved that we are able to deal with the fluid aspects of running an event and making the best of them... However, astronomy events have to be carefully placed in the right venues that have a direct link with astronomy, which is not easy at Butser and it could do with more development. Archeology is a much harder sell than astronomy and this bigger open-air event threw us some real challenges. MoonFest and the Telescope Amnesty are easier to do and more 'contained'.
I guess some people were a little puzzled as to why we were there. Two people joined though, more than some groups get in a month! Normally, we'd get 12 after such an event but that wasn't really the exercise here. We wanted to show our committment to the team at Butser Ancient Farm. I think we did that.
Thanks to the support of CoreTeam members and our new volunteer members, we came out at the end of the weekend with an event that taught us much and inspired us to continue doing what we do, and build on what we have as a Group. Things happened this weekend that wil benefit the Group and, upon reflection, made it worthwhile. Just.
Sometimes, no matter how well you plan an event, a roll of the dice is what it comes down to in the end.
David Woods
