Series Overview

How amazing would it be if you could pick up the phone and speak to a famous astronomer?  While we can’t post personal phone numbers, we can offer you a chance to interact with a “Legend” online.  The Living Legend Series will be an online interactive program featuring a personality who has been a pioneer in the field of astronomy.

The format allows a large number of attendees to listen in and chat live, while a select group of amateurs question these fascinating men and women of science.  No special equipment or software is needed by listener/attendees other than an online connection and sound to watch and hear the episode.  To take part as a questioner, only a microphone and webcam are necessary.

To capture theses once-in-a-lifetime events and save them for future generations, all episodes will be archived for later viewing.  We will have a list of upcoming programs posted so that everyone can have a chance to be a presenter.

The kickoff for this new series will be on April 4th, with "An Evening with John Dobson."  And stay tuned, as we expect to present a surprise second personality in April.

How to Participate

Program dates and details will be posted on the AWB website at least 3 weeks in advance.  For those who wish to be considered as presenters, an application form will be available to be copied, filled out, and emailed.

All decisions will be made 2 weeks prior to the event and selectees will be notified.

Presenters will need videocameras and microphones of good quality and will need to attend a sound/video test event 1 week prior to the presentation to find, correct, and eliminate problems. Anyone with problematic equipment will not be allowed to be part of the presentation and another applicant will be chosen to fill that position.

One of the AWB Affiliates will be chosen to moderate the chat and select questions from the audience for the interviewer to ask the personality. Anyone submitting chat comments or questions that are inappropriate will be asked to leave the site.

Personalities

Premiering our Living Legends Series on April 4th was John Dobson, the American amateur astronomer who popularized amateur astronomy through the use of a portable, low-cost Newtonian reflecting telescope that is named after him - the Dobsonian telescope.  He was the founder of the Sidewalk Astronomers and the sidewalk astronomy movement that began in San Francisco in 1968 and has spread to all corners of the earth.