Night Sky Event at DuPuis

Last night, January 29, 2011, over 150 people showed up for our Astronomy Night Sky event. DuPuis Management Area is owned by the South Florida Water Management District. It is over 20,000 acres of native land about 30 miles northwest of West Palm Beach, Florida. We had beautiful clear skies and several telescopes set up. Friends from Avon Park and the Treasure Coast Astronomical Society helped out by bringing their telescopes. I brought one of my own plus our 12 inch reflector from Riverwoods Field Lab. Riverwoods is a sister entity with DuPuis of the Center for Environmental Studies of Florida Atlantic University.

I began the event indoors with a PowerPoint presentation on the winter night sky. I stressed Epsilon Aurigae and the Citizen Sky program. Afterwards, we headed outside for a few hours of viewing. Some people went back inside where they showed twice the DVD "Mystery In The Sky" about Citizen Sky and Epsilon Aurigae.

We received many compliments from people who attended. We had kids from 3 years old up to adults in their 80's. Hopefully we will have a similar event next year.

Chris Stephan
Robert Clyde Observatory
Sebring, Florida  USA