Astronomy events inching back, COVID may have other ideas

After a year and a half of COVID quarantine that has limited personal contact of most sorts, including astronomy events, there's some evidence that northwest astronomy clubs are at least considering the notion of holding events at which humans gather together to look at the cool stuff in the sky.

Will astronomy events soon
resume at the UW and other
venues? Theodor Jacobsen
Observatory photo by Greg
Scheiderer.

The Seattle Astronomical Society held a star party for its members in Goldendale in May and has another on the calendar for September. Likewise the Rose City Astronomers in Portland have planned a similar event for their members. 

Now comes word that at least one club is calling its members back together. An email from the Everett Astronomical Society announces that it will hold an in-person meeting at 3 p.m. this Saturday, August 21, at the Evergreen Branch of the Everett Public Library. This has been their meeting spot for some years, and it's finally opening back up. The club has set its monthly meetings for the third Saturday of the month at least through the end of the year.

There will be some limitations. The email notes that, "With the highly-infectious COVID delta variant still circulating, we ask that attendees be vaccinated, or masked, or ideally both." It notes that they'll keep some spacing between seating, and adhere to any masking and other requirements that the library may establish.

Will other clubs follow suit?

The Seattle club may not be far behind. A notice for its scheduled online meeting next Wednesday, August 25, explains that, "We have a (sic) tentative plans for resuming in-person monthly gatherings in September pending regulations and safety." The SAS typically meets in the physics/astronomy auditorium of the UW in Seattle.

The Tacoma Astronomical Society also meets at a college but has not yet considered starting in-person gatherings, though there's hope the club can resume its popular public nights in late fall. The society is also providing telescopes for viewing for attendees of the "Jazz Under the Stars" concert series at Pacific Lutheran University.

Many other astronomy clubs are incommunicado on the subject. We found many in the area that have not done updates to their websites or Facebook pages since March 2020.

Astro material

Regular readers of this blog may have noted that we haven't published much in the last year and a half. Astronomy events have been a big part of what we've covered, and there just haven't been many. That dearth continues. The Museum of Flight is open for regular hours but many of its events remain online. The Pacific Science Center in Seattle and OMSI in Portland are also open only on a limited basis. Astronomy on Tap Seattle, since 2015 a reliable source for a monthly lecture or two, hasn't had an in-person event since February 2020. While they've held numerous online events in partnership with the UW Institute for Data Intensive Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology (DiRAC), it's just not the same without the beer. Town Hall Seattle is ramping up its schedule of lectures, but most of them at present remain online only. All of these have been great sources of live events that we've been happy to attend and share with you.

The wild card in all of this is the delta variant of the COVID virus and the recent surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations. Some guidelines around masking and gathering have already been made more restrictive, and there's some considerable possibility that the virus could force astronomy club activity to resume later rather than soon.

Two online author talks on the docket from Museum of Flight

The Museum of Flight has re-opened, albeit with some limitations in consideration of safety amid the COVID pandemic. The museum continues to offer online events as well, and a couple of author talks with space themes are on the calendar for the next couple of months.

Kellie Gerardi, author of Not Necessarily Rocket Science: A Beginners Guide to the Space Age (Mango, 2020), will talk about the book and non-traditional paths into today's commercial spaceflight industry during a talk at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 10. Gerardi, whose work to promote citizen-science and inspire women in STEM has been featured across a broad range of media, shows us that humanity’s next giant leap will require the contributions of artists, engineers, and everyone in between. She will talk about this unique window in history and offer an inside look into the commercial spaceflight industry and all those working to democratize access to space and tee up a golden age of spaceflight for scientists, students, and tourists alike! There's more info, including instructions for viewing the event, on the museum website.

Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony has penned a book titled Operation Moonglow (Basic Books, 2020). Muir-Harmony writes that the Apollo missions were more than just engineering and science, but also part of a broader geopolitical strategy to build alliances, win "hearts and minds," and secure superpower status during the Cold War. Muir-Harmony, who is the curator of the Apollo Collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and teaches at Georgetown University, will talk about the book and the topic in an online event at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 3. There's more info, including instructions for viewing the event, on the museum website. Muir-Harmony is also the author of Apollo to the Moon: A History in 50 Objects (National Geographic, 2018).

You can pick up the books in advance by clicking the links or book covers above. As an Amazon Associate, Seattle Astronomy earns a small commission from qualified purchases, which supports our storytelling efforts.