Iran - Astronomy Day in Ahvaz
May 9th being accepted as the Iran's astronomy day from Iran's astronomy council as it's was not a working day. All the astronomy councils throughout Iran invited people to observe the magnificent beautiful sky. Thus in Ahvaz, the capital of the Khuzestan province, as the previous years city's astronomy council celebrated this day with various programmes. Touba park of the Kianpars district hosted astronomy fans with various programmes regarding the history of astronomy, night sky observation, space science, solar system, and as well as a deep sky photo gallery. The first observed object was the beautiful moon, and then Uranus & Mars. Among these fast planets Mercury also been observed and many people watched it for their first time. There was also a quiz in which winners received space packages provided by the national space organisation. The celebration took 4 hours totally. WebSite : http://www.ahvazastro.com/
New Zealand - Astronomy Day in Auckland
A brief information regarding the Astronomy Day in Auckland, New Zealand:
Place: On the top of Mount Eden. Instruments: ETX-90EC plus Baader Filter for the Sun.
People involved: 1 (me)
Day time, between 10:30 to 13:40 NZ Time
The weather: most cloudy but between some gaps of clouds the public watched the Sun. Approx 30-40 watchers in the morning
Evening time between 5:10 to 20:50 NZ Time
Place: On the top of Mount Eden. Instruments: ETX-90EC plus: 26mm and 9mm eye pieces.
The weather: again most cloudy but you can observe the Moon in good conditions. Close to 6:30 pm I watched Saturn and Mars. The main celestial objects were Moon, Saturn and Mars. The sky wasn't good to watch the clusters.
6 persons watched the Moon and others celestial objects though the telescope for the first time in they life.
4 persons want to join the Auckland Astronomical Society and to be volunteers for StarDome Observatory from Auckland. In the evening were approx 50 persons. In total there were approx. 80-90 watchers on the Astronomy Day.
From my opinion it wasn't too bad. It wasn't a huge success, but the first step was done.
To see more pictures, please go to the next link:
http://danut.ionescu.googlepages.com/astronomyday
HAVE A CLEAR SKY!
Danut Ionescu – Auckland Astronomical Society
