Starfest Celebrates 20 Years Aug. 11th (Or 12th)

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by the  ChesMont Astronomical Society

The region's annual opportunity to get a guided tour of the heavens rolls around for the 20th year Saturday, Aug. 11, thanks to the ChesMont Astronomical Society.

Barring cloud-cover, that's when the 20th annual Starfest will be held at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site from 5:30 to 11:30 p.m. 

The rain/cloud date is Sunday, Aug. 12.

If the entire weekend is washed out, the back-up weekend is Aug. 18 and Aug. 19, although Keynote Speaker Derrick Pitts will not be available on those dates.

The program will feature speakers, astronomy presentations, and activities for kids. 

10 ChesMont Astronomical society members will set up their
telescopes 

to focus on 10 different celestial objects for easy
viewing by visitors.

Public viewing of the wonders of the Milky Way will be available through more than twenty amateur, high-end telescopes.

The highlight of the evening is 10 Object Row. 10 of society members' telescopes will be focused on a different deep sky object so the public gets a variety of astronomical objects to look at.

Admission and parking is free. Donations are greatly appreciated and needed to support the event.

This year's keynote speaker is Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer, Franklin Institute Science Museum

Pitts is currently the Chief Astronomer and Director of the Fels Planetarium at The Franklin Institute.

He’s also been a NASA Solar System Ambassador since 2009 and serves as the “Astrobiology Ambassador” for the NASA/MIRS/UNCF Special Program Corporation’s Astrobiology Partnership Program.

Derrick Pitts

One of his most recent honors is an appointment to the outreach advisory board for the world’s largest telescope, the new 30-Meter-Telescope at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

 He has been named as one of the 50 most important African-Americans in research science.

For more than two decades, Pitts has hosted award-winning astronomy radio programs for
Philadelphia’s two public radio stations and created signature astronomy television programming for PBS.

One of the highlights of his career was meeting President Obama and his family when he
was invited to participate in the first-ever White House Star Party.

Dr. Pitts is a graduate of Germantown Academy St. Lawrence University, and has received honorary Doctor of Science degrees[7] from La Salle University and Rowan University College of Mathematics and Science[

His twitter handle is @CoolAstronomer and his motto is “Eat, breathe, do science. Sleep later.”

Here is a schedule of the evening's events:

• 5:30 pm Gates Open (Solar observing if clear)
• 6:00 pm Kids Corner Educational Activities.
• 7:00 pm Opening Remarks
• 7:30 pm James Aguirre, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania
• 8:15 pm Keynote Speaker Derrick Pitts
• 9:15 Drawing of the Grand Prize followed by Public stargazing through Amateur Telescopes.

More information about the program is available by calling Hopewell at 610-582-8773, ext. 0, or visiting the Chesmont Astronomical Society website at www.chesmontastro.org or on Facebook at Chesmont Astronomical Society observing+