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Public Star Night at the Little Thompson Observatory

Public Star Night at the Little Thompson Observatory, Friday, June 18, 2009 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.

Our guest speaker  is Dr Suzanne Metlay. The title of her talk is: “The Work of Your Hands: Citizen Science and Journalism”.

Amateur astronomers are increasingly doing the work of professional researchers — and most scientists love it! As science journalists are struggling to keep their careers, volunteers and bloggers have been moving into this realm as well. Dr. Metlay will discuss the changing roles of citizen scientists in the community, how private and federal funders are responding, and how you can get involved.

Dr. Suzanne Metlay is Education and Public Outreach Lead for Secure World Foundation (SWF), a private non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to improving space governance. SWF is based in Superior, CO, with offices in Washington, DC, and Vienna, Austria. For more information, please visit www.SecureWorldFoundation.org [1] .

Before joining SWF in 2008, Dr. Metlay was Education Programs Manager at Fiske Planetarium (University of Colorado at Boulder). As a planetary geologist and educator, she also taught at colleges along the Front Range, and she encourages greater public support of robotic exploration and private entrepreneurship in space.

Weather permitting, after the presentation, visitors will be invited to look through our large telescope at various celestial objects.

Public star nights are held the third Friday of each month (except July, when we are closed for annual maintenance). No reservations are necessary for these nights. Just come and join us for the talk and some observing afterwards. The observatory is located at 850 Spartan Ave at Berthoud High School (park east of the high school; directions are posted on our website, www.starkids.org)

If you have any questions, please call the observatory information line at 970-613-7793 or check the LTO web site at: www.starkids.org [2].

Meinte Veldhuis, President, Little Thompson Science Foundation

Estes Park Observatory Public Night, Thursday, June 24 [3]