Whilst doing some volunteer work down at the square I learned of a group of grad students from the UW astronomy department doing some astronomical stuff on the other side of the square, so after exhausting myself signing up people to support an equally worthy cause I pedalled over to check it out.
Organized by Laura Trouille, UW astronomy grad student, they were displaying some amazing photos of everything from earthly shots of an eclipse over the Madison Capitol Building, to these... these... starry stuffy things here on the left.
You could win a really cool poster by doing a scavenger hunt, find a letter hidden in each image and fill out a sheet to spell out a sentence.
Unfortunately, the sheet Laura showed me had the sentence already filled out, thus disqualifying me instantly...
curses!
It's all part of The International Year of Astronomy, and you can find out more at
Laura's web site.
Students were on hand to answer questions about astronomy and plenty of people were lining up to ask them all kinds of stuff.
They weren't hard to spot. I mean, how many people hang around State Street and the square holding up placards with big question marks on them?
On any other day I would say anyone doing such a thing is to be avoided, but apparently not during
The International year of Astronomy. No, for 2009 these are people to seek out!
