Hopewell Furnace Hosting Starfest Aug. 24

Blogger's Note: The following was provided by Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site.

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site is happy to announce 2019 Star Fest program. 

The program is in partnership with the Chesmont Astronomical Society. 

This free event will be held on the grounds of Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site Aug. 24, from 6 to 11:30 p.m. 

Rain or cloudy skies may postpone the event to the cloud/rain dates of Sunday, Aug. 25, Saturday Aug. 31 or Sunday, Sept. 1. 

Within 24 hours of the event, the park's website will post any changes to the event due to weather.

There will be approximately 20 telescopes set up for use, looking at heavenly objects.

Here is a schedule of activities:

• 6:00 – Kid’s Corner Educational Activities;
• 7:00 – Opening comments from Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, ChesMont Astronomical Society and Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council
• 7:30 – 9:15 Guest Speaker Presentations
• Speaker 1: Rob Cordivari, ChesMont Astronomical Society, "You Are Here," a look at the size and scale of the Universe
• Speaker 2: James Aguirre, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania
• 9:30 to 11:30 - Night Sky Observations

Parking is available on site. Due to the number of participants, it may require a short walk from the parking area to the observation area. Snacks will be available for purchase. Please wear comfortable shoes and bring a flashlight!

Information on the event is available by calling Hopewell Furnace NHS at 610-582-8773, through the National Park Service: www.nps.gov/hofu and the ChesMont Astronomical Society at www.chesmont.org

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site preserves and interprets an early American industrial landscape and community. Showcasing an iron making community and its surrounding countryside, Hopewell Furnace was active from 1771 to 1883. 

The park’s facilities are currently open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Hopewell Furnace is located five miles south of Birdsboro, PA, off of Route 345. 

 Admission to the park is free. For more information, stop by the park's visitor center, call 610-582-8773, or visit the park's web site at www.nps.gov/hofu

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+

Starfest Set for this Weekend (Weather Permitting)

This year's "Starfest" stargazing event will be held on Saturday, Aug. 8 (or on Sunday, Aug., 9 if it rains.)

This extremely cool event, which will be held the weekend of Aug. 15 and Aug. 16 if the weather refuses to cooperate, is brought to you by the Chesmont Astronomical Society.

It will be held at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, which has an official address of 2 Bird Lane, Elverson, but is off Route 345.

It begins at 5:30 p.m. and will run through 11:30 p.m.

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

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

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

Here is the schedule:

• 5:30 -- Gates Open
• 6 to 7 --  Kids Corner Educational Activities.
• 7 to 7:30 -- Opening Remarks from Chesmont Astronomical Society President Dan Acker
• 7:35 to 8:15 -- Darker Skies, Brighter Stars - Vacation Adventures from Dark Places, Dr. Robert Werkman, ChesMont Astronomical Society
• 8:20 to 9:15 Keynote Speaker – Peter Detterline - Boyertown Area Senior High. his talk will focus on his newly appointed position as Astronomy Ambassador to Chile.
• 9:15 -- Drawing of the Grand Prize followed by Public stargazing through Amateur Telescopes. 

After that, its time to look at the stars.

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.

The Heavens Move and so does Starfest -- to Sunday!

The telescopes set up in Hopewell Furnace for Starfest are not small.

This just in: thanks to the never-ending cycle of ungodly heat followed by torrential rains, our friends at the Chesmont Astronomical Society have had to re-schedule their annual Starfest event to tomorrow.

This year's event offers an excellent chance to observe the Perseid meteor shower.


If you read Tuesday's post about the spectacular landing on Mars, you know how cool the Starfest event is.

But if you missed it, although I can't imagine why, here is the poster that outlines all the cool stuff that goes on there.

If this too fails, thanks to cloud cover or other weather-related interference, the next back-up date is the following Saturday, Aug. 18.

Click here if you need directions to Hopewell Furnace.

And if you can't make it Sunday, the folks at Chesmont hold monthly "star parties" at French Creek and Marsh Creek state parks for those who want to get a wider view of the universe.