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This year the not-to-be-missed event will be

was held Friday, August 24, 4pm - 10pm and Saturday, August 25, 9am - midnight at the Veterans Memorial Center, 203 E 14th Street, Davis, California

The 2001 Show, a festival of astronomy and related sciences was a public outreach celebration of our universe. We had speakers talking about exciting new discoveries in astronomy, a trade show featuring instruments and accessories appealing to a wide range of amateurs, an exhibit hall with displays and activities for all ages, daytime viewing of sunspots, flares, and other solar activity, a planetarium for the kids, astronomy club booths and demonstrations, public teacher curriculum training classes, Workshops, and a public star party at night on the 25th. The festival was free to all who wished to attend.

The event filled the Veterans' Memorial Center in the Davis Community Park, with speakers in the main Theater and the adjoining Club Room, the trade show in the large Multi-purpose Room, mixed in with exhibits by clubs and participating organizations which spilled out into the courtyard, and with the star party held near the soccer fields behind the complex.

Our scheduled speakers were among the top writers and researchers in their fields. Each is coming to the Davis Star Show in order to talk to our general audience about their scientific interests, their work, or their research.

8pm Donald Yeomans, NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

"Near-Earth Objects: Finding Them Before They Find Us"

10am J. Kelly Beatty, executive editor, Sky and Telescope Magazine

"Sunlight Symphonies: Rainbows, Halos, and Other Curious

Atmospheric Phenomena"

11am Lloyd Knox, UC Davis

"Exploring the Large-Scale Structure of Space"

1pm Tony Hallas, Hallas Digital Services

"An Astronomical Journey: Adventures in Astrophotography"

2pm Alex Filippenko, UC Berkeley

"Heart of Darkness: The Search for Black Holes"

3pm Robert Naeye, editor, ASP Mercury Magazine

"Superman's Telescope: The Chandra X-ray Observatory"

3pm Mary Urquhart, NASA Ames -- IN THE CLUB ROOM

"The Red Planet: Comparing Mars to Earth"

4pm Bonnie Buratti, NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

"Ice Balls in Space: Possible Abodes for Life?"

5pm Lynda Williams, Science Entertainment

"Cosmic Cabaret"

There was a "Hands-On Astrophysics" teacher training workshop on Friday afternoon given by members of the American Association of variable Star Observers. It was a program designed to give public school teachers the tools to involve their students in real scientific work, gathering new data which will contribute to new discoveries. Enrollment in the HOA workshop was limited to about 30 teachers.

Other activities continuing throughout Saturday included model construction and planisphere making for younger kids, a telescope maintenance workshop for those wishing to know more about adjusting their own instruments, and a number of demonstrations and exhibits for just about everyone in between.

There were regularly scheduled planetariums shows just opposite the exhibit hall. While the sun was up in the sky, there were solar telescopes set up outside the exhibit hall where visitors could safely see sunspots, flares and prominences.

We had food vendors near the theater complex all day Saturday.

At the public star party Saturday night we had as many as 80 to 100 telescopes set up on the fields so that all visitors got the chance to see the many different wonders of the night sky with their own eyes. In addition to the young moon, you might have seen double stars, open and globular star clusters, bright nebulae, remnants of exploding stars, and distant galaxies. There werel people operating each of the telescopes to help you understand what you were looking at.

The Davis Star Show represents a collaboration by many different groups, including Explorit Science Center, the Sacramento Valley Astronomical Society, UC Davis Astronomy Club, Davis High School Astronomy Club, Sacramento Sidewalk Astronomers, the American Association of Variable Star Observers, the Astronomical Association of Northern California, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Stellarvue, and Nightwatch Observatory, with the cooperation of the Davis Parks and Community Services department. Our major sponsors are Sky and Telescope Magazine and Agilent Technologies.

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Explorit Science Center
P.O. Box 1288, Davis, CA 95617, USA

Phone: (530)756-0191     Fax: (530)756-1227