Astro Expo

Quite right Dave! I certainly hope they are *not* similar! Except the bloke with the big bubble - and I had a good chat with the Skeptic lads! Who were of course a little Skeptical about the Raelians :shock:


I'm just off to pop those dates in Outlook - cheers!

Dave

I didn't go.

After getting spammed by you know who I was even less likely to go than I was before that (no that I was very likely to go at all! I have a lot of work to catch up on so my weeked was filled anyway!).

As for the blow up planetarium, I presume that was Edd from Space Encounters Ltd.. Astro2 have had Edd down a few times and he is very good. We would highly recomend him to anyone looking for an event, particularly if you are targeting kids and beginners.

As for the blow up planetarium, I presume that was Edd from Space Encounters Ltd.. Astro2 have had Edd down a few times and he is very good. We would highly recomend him to anyone looking for an event, particularly if you are targeting kids and beginners.

Yep, thats who was advertised anyway. www.space-encounters.com/index.php

Cheers,
~Al

But since I didn't go Saturday and didn't go the lectures, I *may* have sampled a lean spot in the event. Perhaps anyone who went at different times (any time other than 1-2pm Sunday) had a different experience.Dave

Dave,

Yes, you certainly did sample a ‘lean’ spot. If you called between 1pm and 2pm Sunday, this was during the first lecture that day given by Dr. Andrew Newsam of JMU so it’s not surprising that his stand was empty at the time. The time of his lecture was in the published timetable. It’s also the reason why the hall was not as busy as you would expect it to be, as many visitors cleared off to the lectures every time one was on. Perhaps Kevin Sweeney of Brownstown Observatory (or do you mean Alan Shattock’s stand?) was away for a brief period but he was certainly in the hall virtually all day patiently demonstrating his imaging techniques to a constant stream of interested people. As far as I am aware, he and Alan looked after each other’s stand when one or the other was away for short periods. I’m sure Kevin would have been only too happy to discuss his observatory and imaging had you waited for him to return. He gives his time freely so deserves some breaks having already spent six hours talking to visitors on Saturday! I’ve no idea what happened to Armagh Planetarium but there’s a lot happening up there at the moment so perhaps they had to withdraw.

It’s a bit unfair to suggest the lectures would be probably unproductive when you didn’t actually go to any of them. You missed an excellent line-up of speakers both on Saturday and Sunday whose talks were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who attended. Certainly they were as good as any of the lectures I’ve heard at the WSP. You definitely would have enjoyed Andy Newsam’s talk on Robotic Telescopes at 1pm Sunday, so it’s a shame you did not attend it, then enter the hall and catch Mike Edmunds lecture an hour later. I spoke to Andy later in the hall about the various JMU distance courses and his work on quasars, a particular interest of mine. If you didn’t go to the lectures, then you didn’t sample a major part of what was on offer. The cost was negligible; €10 would have got you into the three lectures on either day as well as the hall. Incidentally, the individual on the Raelian stand is an interesting guy and had you taken the time to talk to him, I think you would have found the discussion quite entertaining, even if you totally disagree with his beliefs. The dinner on Saturday night was good and you could have met and talked to some of the lecturers at length, including ESA astronaut and Head of ESA Astronaut Corps, Gerhard Thiele. He was also in the hall on Saturday but unfortunately was unable to attend on Sunday.

Gordon

Gordon - nice to hear from you! And I appreciate your response.

I thought I'd hit a lean spot... That said though, I was still surprised at the paucity of stands and associated material. But I take your point that most of the folks were away at the lecture. We got there a little late to go to the 1pm lecture, which as you say, was in the published timetable. But then the published document also mentioned Armagh Planetarium... I was very disaapointed that they weren't there - it was such a good stand last year.

I have to say that if David Moore can send a voicemail reminding us that the Expo was on, it would have only been fair to either mail or send another message detailing exhibitors who had pulled out. That would have been the right and courteous thing to do. And I have to take issue with describing Marsh's Library as a stand - about 20 leaflets (all the same) on a table is all it amounted to. But I guess the extra line on the A4 ad page helped to fill it up a bit more.

The cost of the Expo is negligible, as are the lectures. But by the time you add in travel and parking plus time, it soon mounts up. I'm lucky in that the Expo was just a 2 hour round trip - others were probably not that fortunate and I can only imagine their disappointment if they had relied on Armagh being there.

Kevin was diligently at his stand all the time I was there! Same as last year. Unfortunately, as you rightly say, he was always busy with another attendee when I had the chance to speak with him. But no harm.

I felt that if the quality of the setup in the exhibition hall was an indication of the lectures, then I would be even more disappointed. Perhaps I should have held on - I picked up the JMU handouts and they look great.

As for the Raelian stand, the Skeptics (predictably) gave me a rundown of medallions, mountains and racing drivers and so on though they *did* recommend going over to have a chat. But I went to the exhibition for more technical reasons and whilst I respect everyone's opinion, I didn't want to waste my time and the Raelian's time on a fruitless discussion (from my perspective).

Whilst I appreciate you taking the time out here (especially here!) to give the alternative view and add in the bits that I clearly missed due to poor timing on my part, I still feel very disappointed that Ireland can't do better in terms of an annual expo than what happened at the weekend. I know a lot of people put a lot of hard work into organising it - but if you want some constructive feedback, then I think a rethink is required. I for one will continue to support anything that moves my hobby forward - to a point. I do of course still have to sample Connacht, COSMOS and Whirlpool. Hopefully they will offer me something more.

Having read some of the posts here over the last few weeks its clear that there could have been at least a few more stands at the Expo - but these were either turned down, ignored or whatever. And that in my book is a sad loss to me and to the amateur astronomy community as a whole.

Anyway, once again thanks for your comments and I hope others on this board take from both our posts and come up with a balanced judgement - hoorah to free speech! I also hope that the organisers of Expo 2004 take on board constructive feedback and make next year's show unmissable!

Cheers

Dave