Global Astronomy Month

On April 17, 2011, from 11 AM to 4 PM members of Harford County Astronomical Society, Bel Air, MD had a display set up at a local Earth Day event.    Our focus for the day was Light Pollution and way to combat the issue.   We gave out Good Neighbor Lighting materials to adults and gave children light pollution coloring sheets as well as space stickers to remind them to turn off lights so we can see the night sky.   We also gave out Hubble lithos, Year of the Solar System information, comet bookmarks, EPOXI mission postcards, MESSENGER Mission stickers, NASA stickers and a club form with interesting astronomy websites and a pattern to make a planisphere.   We had an astrophotography display and eclipse glasses so visitors could safely take a look at the sun.   Children are so much fun with eclipse glasses.   The most common answer to "what does the sun look like with the eclipse glasses" is "it looks like the moon".   The number of visitors we had for this event was greatly reduced this year.   The event was scheduled for April 16, however, intense rain and tornado warnings on the 16th necessitated moving the event to April 17.   It was very windy and the park was very muddy.    We had 127 visitors, about 1/4 what we normally have at this event.