ActivismScience

See you at the Star Party!

The 4th Atlanta Skeptics Star Party is just a week away! In 7 days, we’ll be clinking glasses and eating great food while listening to great music, learning cool stuff and watching the stars. All for a great cause!

And this year, we’re doing something new and cool! We’re going to set up a private Google+ Hangout with astronomers around the country and around the world and broadcast what they’re seeing in to our star party! It’ll be a Virtual Star Party within the actual Star Party. It’ll be just like Inception, but with significantly better music.

Tickets are still available and more details are below the fold!

The Atlanta Skeptics Star Party is a cocktail party benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It’s held in memory of Jeff Medkeff, the Blue Collar Scientist, who was a skeptic and friend to many of us. Jeff succumbed to cancer five years ago and we started the tradition of this Star Party the year after he died. It was inspired by Jeff, his love for astronomy and his eagerness to share it with others.

We star gaze with astronomers, listen to music, eat, drink and generally have a great time. This year, we are thrilled to have Phil Plait  and Skepchick’s own, Nicole Gugliucci as our astronomers and music from George Hrab and Marian Call. This line up is really fantastic and you won’t want to miss it.

It’s the night before DragonCon – August 30th. It’s a chance to relax, meet a lot of folks who are attending DragonCon, chat with astronomers, stargaze and more. Believe me, it’s *the* party to go. And it’s for a great cause. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the world’s largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. LLS’s mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

This year, I was excited to find out that Foundation Beyond Belief has become a national team for the Light the Night event. As part of the national team, every penny we raise for LLS, up to $500,000 will be matched by the Stiefel family! So every penny we raise through the Star Party will be doubled!

We’re doing a couple of new things this year. We’re having the party at a bar.  We’ve got a large party space on the roof of STATS and part of their rooftop patio. In addition, we’re working with Fraser Cain to have a Virtual Star Party that will go on after the main programming is over. Fraser is rounding up astronomers around the country and around the world to join us in a Google+ Hangout that will be broadcast at the Star Party. These astronomers will be showing us what they are seeing in their scopes where they are! So even if it’s cloudy or we can’t see much, we’ll be able to see a whole lot.

If you can’t make it, I hope you’ll spread the word and tell friends about it. It’s a really fun event. It doesn’t really matter if you call yourself a skeptic or not, it’s a fun party with great speakers and great music. And, if you can’t make it, we’re also hoping to have the entertainment section of the party broadcast via a Google+ Hangout on Air. So keep an eye on the Atlanta Skeptics site for details on that!

Maria

Maria D'Souza grew up in different countries around the world, including Hong Kong, Trinidad, and Kenya and it shows. She currently lives in the Bay Area and has an unhealthy affection for science fiction, Neil Gaiman and all things Muppet.

Related Articles

One Comment

  1. Women! I come from a culture that is no different in the way women are insulted, humiliated and deliberately undeveloped. While a lot of women, and men, all over the world fight for women’s “given” rights, other women contribute to the failure of decades of fights for women rights. Man created religions and governed politics and interests will certainly ensure that women remain ignorant and male dominated.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button