Nancy Lebofsky, Author at Sacred Space Astronomy

Adventures in EPO – Tucson Festival of Books

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Nancy LebofskyMarch 27, 2019

The world of EPO (Education and Public Outreach) is an amalgam of formal education, informal education, and public outreach, with frequently blurred lines between the last two categories. Dr. Sanlyn Buxner, an Education and Communications Specialist and Research Scientist at Planetary Science Institute, described the categories for us as follows: “Education is about increasing someone’s knowledge or skills (whether it is in a formal or informal setting). Outreach is more about letting people know about things, talking about a mission, etc., but is not necessarily about teaching them anything. It may be about having fun, raising awareness, etc.” In nearly 30 years of science education outreach, we’ve experienced all three EPO components. Tucson Festival of Books The Tucson Festival of Books (FOB) takes place at the University of Arizona (UA) in March. FOB began in 2009 with an estimated 50,000 visitors; 2019 was the Festival’s eleventh year, with an estimated 140,000 visitors over two days. FOB includes literary awards, food, … Continue reading →

Joseph Listerman April 22, 2019 at 7:05 am on Welcome to Sacred Space Astronomy!The important part being, the title is still a pun.
Fernando Comeron April 17, 2019 at 9:03 am on In the Sky This Week – April 16, 2019If you look carefully at the LASCO C2 movie in the Sun section, you can see that a small comet in a Sun-grazing orbit appears from the bottom left corner on April 14 between 14:00 and 17:00 approximately, and then disintegrates before reaching the Sun. Such events are seen fairly...
Bob Prokop April 17, 2019 at 8:44 am on Skyward: April 2019Umm... typo. That should have read, "that we handed back and forth."
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Fernando Comeron April 10, 2019 at 6:57 pm on Black Hole Imaged with Coordinated Telescope ObservationsBob, it is worth mentioning here that there is a connection between this achievement, which is a truly global endeavor in which European institutions and facilities also have played a leading role, and the Vatican Observatory. The Chairperson of the EHT Science Council is German astronomer Heino Falcke, who was...
Christopher M. Graney April 6, 2019 at 12:11 pm on Adventures in EPO – Tucson Festival of BooksWhat a cool post! This looks like it was a great event and a lot of fun.
Bob Prokop April 5, 2019 at 11:55 am on And On The Seventh Day: Astronomy and Sabbath Rest.I've removed the "presumably".
Fr. James Kurzynski April 5, 2019 at 10:49 am on And On The Seventh Day: Astronomy and Sabbath Rest.Thanks Bob! And, yes, I did take the picture!
Bob Prokop April 3, 2019 at 5:57 pm on And On The Seventh Day: Astronomy and Sabbath Rest.Fr. Kurzynski, I've linked to this posting on my own blog, The Observer's Chair, and added a few reflections of my own on the subject. You can find it here: https://theobserverschair.blogspot.com/
Fr. James Kurzynski March 25, 2019 at 2:39 pm on What Does It Mean To Create?I know the feeling Bob! Thanks for your feedback!
Bob Prokop March 25, 2019 at 11:09 am on What Does It Mean To Create?I took up watercolor painting about a year ago, and do feel that sense of joy when what I manage to put to paper matches what I actually wanted to go there (a feeling experienced not often enough, by the way). But what brings me to (yeah, I'll call it...
Robert Macke March 25, 2019 at 9:59 am on Religious Scientists: Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. (1818-1878), Pioneer of AstrophysicsAlas, the Pontifical Navy is no more. It was a feature of the old Papal States, before Italian unification. Today the Vatican is entirely land-locked. The last vessel of the Pontifical Navy (which was, in fact, the Immacolata Concezione) was sold ca. 1877 or 78.
Richard Saam March 25, 2019 at 7:55 am on Religious Scientists: Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. (1818-1878), Pioneer of AstrophysicsThe Stanford Environmental Engineering Curriculum introduced me to the Secchi disc 45 years ago. I had the opportunity to write a paper on its visual water depth variation as a function of the sun's height in the sky. No one mentioned Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. as the inventor. I should...
Joseph Listerman March 19, 2019 at 11:46 am on In the Sky This Week – March 19, 2019Just watched NASA's #Moon2Mars Update. Excited that America and Americans seem to be more interested in space and space exploration than they've been in a long time.
Steven Lanoux March 12, 2019 at 1:30 pm on Religious Scientists – An IntroductionAs Assistant Director of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, I had the pleasure of mentoring my counterpart at McDonald Observatory. In comparing notes, we estimated that regardless of whether we had our heads underwater or in the clouds, we "knew" about 10% of the total body of knowledge....
Bob Prokop March 9, 2019 at 6:31 am on Ladyzhenskaya’s IconThe Orthodox faith was never far from the hearts of the Russian people, despite decades of Communist propaganda and very real persecution. I first realized this way back in 1982, watching the funeral of Leonid Brezhnev on television. As they lowered his coffin into a grave next to the Kremlin...
Br. Guy Consolmagno March 8, 2019 at 9:31 am on In the Sky This Week – March 5, 2019Great observing trick, nudging the telescope by accident! I have to confess that even though Turn Left at Orion talks about the Rosette as doable in a small telescope, the only time I saw it in my C-90 (three-inch) was from a dark site in Australia, using a nebula filter....
Bob Prokop March 5, 2019 at 2:22 pm on In the Sky This Week – March 5, 2019The Rosette Nebula had long been my "White Whale" amongst observing targets. I can't count the times I had centered my field of view on NGC 2244 (the open cluster at the center of the Rosette) and saw not the faintest hint of the nebula. But one night, I accidentally...
Christopher M. Graney March 2, 2019 at 5:56 pm on ⓜ Diary for February 25, 2019Bruno is not my area of expertise, but I have read works from that time as part of my research, and my experience is along the same line as Br. Guy's: I have not encountered a lot of talk about Bruno. Where I have encountered talk, such as in work...
Francis Manion February 26, 2019 at 11:56 am on ⓜ Diary for February 25, 2019Fr. Stanley Jaki wrote a booklet on "Bruno: A Martyr of Science?" or something like that. As I recall, he argued, that Bruno was more magician than scientist. He also wrote an Intro to a translation of Bruno's "Ash Wednesday Supper," in which relied heavily on Frances Yates's 1964 biography...

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