Activities of Ghana Astronomy and Observation Association (GAOA)

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Jun 09

2010

by Sarah Abotsi-Masters

Please see below an account of the activities organised by GAOA for Global Astronomy Month 2010, at the Ghana Planetarium.  (Sorry, no photos!)

“Moon Watch” - Saturday 24^th April 2010, 5pm at the Ghana Planetarium

This was the third and final event for “Global Astronomy Month” held at the Ghana Planetarium.  The few astronomy enthusiasts who braved the evening rainstorm were treated to a wide range of different activities.

The theme of the event was “Moon Watch” so the evening started with a short video about the moon.  Sarah gave the usual Night Sky presentation next using the Stellarium program.  We were joined this evening by Laura and Doug, friends and supporters from UK.  Laura volunteered at the Planetarium about 1 ½ years ago, helping with school visits and activities.

Equipped with special glasses brought by Laura and Doug, we watched a 3-D movie “Cosmic Cookery” about the formation of stars and galaxies. Doug then told a traditional story from the Inuit people of Northern Canada about the creation of the world and the origin of night and day.

Moving into the Planetarium, the sky map was used to show various constellations, then the children were given an activity to create their own constellations using special glow in the dark stickers!  (Actually the adults enjoyed this one as well!)

Planetarium shows on the Moon, Biodiversity and the Orion story rounded off the evening, as the earlier rainstorm meant that the weather was too cloudy for telescope viewing.

“Saturn, Lord of the Rings” - Saturday 17^th April 2010, 5pm at the Ghana Planetarium.

This event, the 2^nd in our series for Global Astronomy Month, was attended by many families with children which made for a lively and enjoyable evening!

After a presentation of “What’s in the Night Sky” using Stellarium, a presentation on Saturn was given by Sarah.  We learned about the history of Saturn observation, the Cassini-Huygens mission, and Saturn’s features including the rings and many moons.  The children asked many wonderful and intriguing questions which definitely contributed to the fun and interest of the presentation.

A planetarium show brought the event to a close as unfortunately it was AGAIN too cloudy for telescope viewing!

“Mars, our Sister Planet” - Saturday 10^th April 2010, 5pm at the Ghana Planetarium.

The evening started with a presentation of “What’s in the Night Sky” given by Sarah, using “Stellarium”.  Attendees were shown that all 5 “naked-eye” planets could currently be seen from Accra at various times from sunset through to sunrise.

The main event of the evening was a presentation on Mars given by Martin.  This was a very informative and fascinating presentation that incorporated a brief history of the universe and the solar system as well as lots of facts, figures and images of Mars.  There was also some intriguing discussion on whether humans will ever reach and/or colonise Mars.

After this, attendees were treated to an impromptu visual presentation of Mars and its moons using the Uniview software, by Stuart.

We were unable to give a Planetarium show as advertised due to maintenance work on the projector, so a DVD called “New Horizons” was shown, that described each of the planets of the solar system, and used animation to show what the view from the surface of each planet might be like if you could actually go there!

The DVD show ended the event as it was too cloudy to do any telescope viewing.