Tillicum Mall
The day began with a hectic dash to the postal
deliver station for the boxes containing the IYA handouts and having a few of
the IYA poster printed. Arrived at the mall late but the dedicated volunteers
(Charles, Jennifer, and Lauri) had everything in control. Thanks to David and
Brenda for delivering the handouts to the other venues.
There were three telescopes set up for the public to view various objects
(Jupiter with its shiny moons, exit and cashier signs at the other end of the
mall). We had a steady stream of visitors (young and old). At the end of the day
we had 183 visitors experience a "Galileo Moment of Discovery". It was indeed a
very successful event.
Thanks to Jennifer for persevering the pains in her knee, she had a knee
operation on Wednesday.
Cheers,
Sid Sidhu
IYA Coordinator for Victoria Centre
WestShore
Town Centre mall
Hope you all had a great IYA launch!
I arrived at WestShore Town Centre mall at 1230 to find our table had been set
up at the wrong location. I went to the security office (the admin office was
closed) and the very friendly and helpful staff helped me move the table to the
correct location. The volunteers showed up and we set up on schedule. Brenda
arrived shortly thereafter with the National materials. Thanks Brenda!!
Traffic in the mall was very light; I've seen livelier graveyards, and you could
have shot off the proverbial cannon down the mall and not hit anything important
but we made the best of it. We had a total of 55 visitors to our table, each of
whom had a Galileo Moment. :-) I bought some stickers and glo-in-the-dark stars
and handed them out to the children. We handed out RASC and other promotional
materiel.
Charla Huber of the Goldstream Gazette was on hand to take some
photos of children looking thru my venerable homebuilt reflector. Bill Weir
showed many people the beauty and features of his William Optics refractor and
talked about optics and astronomy in general. Bill Almond talked about astronomy
and had a lively discussion with one particular gentleman about
interstellar/intergalactic distances among other topics. Frank Younger did what
he does best; mixing astronomy with his dry wacky humour and showing that
astronomers aren't dull boring types.
Although the traffic was nebulous, we managed to entertain and inform every
visitor who attended our table. Many thanks to three top-notch astronomers
without whom this wouldn't have happened: Bill Almond, Bill Weir, Frank Younger.
Let's hear your IYA launch experiences!
Cheers,
Sherry Buttnor
Coordinator for Westshore Mall
Mayfair
Mall
The day at Mayfair went quite well thanks to the help of Sid for organizing
things so well, plus the excellent work of Dave Bennett, Pamela Norton, Joe
Carr, Wendy McDonald who helped me with the volunteering effort and also David
Lee who brought the welcome goodies from National and took some pictures.
Wendy and I started early (10AM) and from 1PM on Joe, Dave, Pamela and I manned
the table. We had a total of 153 individuals who had a Galileo experience during
the day. A few of those indicated they might join RASC and many said they would
come to future events.
We volunteers had fun as well so it was a good day.
John McDonald
Coordinator for Mayfair Mall
University
Heights Mall
I arrived at the mall near noon with Jim Cliffe arriving shortly after and by
1 pm we were in full demo mode. A few telescopes, a mounted binocular set,
publications and great reference books and charts formed part of our resource
info bank. 2 laptops were setup, Jim's had a great image slideshow and Bruno's
was locked in to Starry Night to help answer those difficult questions like How
Big ! How Far ! etc. Li-Ann Skibo and Nelson Walker arrived near 2 pm as support
and relief at the info desk. Li-Ann did a great job in walking the mall core and
directing guests to our info booth. Geoff Jones dropped by to support the troops
!
Many thanks to David Lee for dropping off the National info package and photo
session, special thanks to Scott Mair for a great banner and Malcolm Scrimger
for the loan on the IYA 2009 Poster.
A good time was had by all with a total of over 40 visitors experiencing our
IYA launch at University Heights.
Bruno Quennville,
Coordinator for University Heights Mall
Dear
Victoria RASCals,
Thank you **very** much for your outreach yesterday at so many venues in
Victoria, and for your plans to participate in activities at the CU next
weekend. With events throughout Canada this weekend, IYA 2009 truly got launched
in a warm (well, perhaps cold in most areas!), engaging manner. The photographs
already posted on our Zenfolio site demonstrate what beautiful displays each
group mounted. I hope very much that the person(s) who registered events for
yesterday will report the outcomes to the national IYA website and/or register &
report them ex post facto.
After irksome wintertime travel, I participated in a media event organized by
the Canada Science and Technology Museum last Thursday in Ottawa. Elders Lillian
Marshall and Murdena Marshal from the Mi'kmaq First Nation released a
beautifully illustrated story from their culture about circumpolar motions and
the seasons as an example of how traditional and modern knowledge can be shared
during IYA. Christian Marois from HIA explained his 2008 'Galileo Moment' of
discovering the triple planet system that is winning him and his team mates so
many accolades, including runner-up for the most important scientific discovery
of 2008 from Time magazine. I presented an overview of the many amazing
activities occurring this weekend throughout Canada, and in the first half of
2009 generally.
Friday night I had the privilege of hearing Taflemusik's world premiere
performance at the Banff Centre of their entirely new programme developed for
IYA 2009: The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres. The performance includes
the words of Galileo, the Inquisitor, Isaac Newton and others accompanied by
beautiful astronomical imagery suggested and/or provided by Alan Dyer, who,
along with 6 members of the Calgary RASC Centre, was present to show concert
goers the night sky through three telescopes. From what I witnessed in Banff the
combination of music and Galileo Moment observing opportunities is a very
powerful approach that the public thoroughly enjoyed and reach 200 people who
wouldn't usually be going to a science centre or planetarium. I have my fingers
crossed that the Early Music Society of the Islands will be able to bring
Taflemusik to Victoria in 2010 to present their very beautiful new programme
here. Fortunately for Victorians, EMSI is already committed to bringing
Lucidariuam at the end of March and Galileo's Daughters next October for other
concerts closely connected to music of Galileo's era. (Galileo's father was a
famous composer whose music is still played and Galileo himself was an
accomplished lute player.)
Betty and I are leaving Tuesday morning for the international launch of IYA in
Paris on Thursday and Friday, and look forward to sharing that experience with
you upon our return, but this means we will miss the meeting Wednesday evening
and the CU events next weekend, which we regret. (Diane Pineau, one of the two
students that won the Canadian competition to participate in the Paris opening
is a UVic undergrad, and maybe our Centre will be able to get her impressions
first hand at a future meeting, too.)
Soon (1 February) the image exhibits at the Bay Centre and Victoria
International Airport will open. Associated with those exhibits Victorians will
enjoy Alain Berinstain's 8 Feb. free UVic public lecture arranged by Sara
Ellison about Mars exploration.
After more than three years of planning, it's hard to believe IYA is really
happening all over the world. And, thanks to the members of RASC and FAAQ
centres, IYA is happening all over Canada, too: it's really thrilling!
Best wishes to everyone for a Happy (IYA) 2009!
Jim Hesser
IYA Single Point of Contact for Canada
