AstroFest 2008 - Rationale
Because SAO is a fully online program, participants either never or very rarely get to actually meet each other or their instructors. It has been suggested for some time now that SAO should organise a series of face-to-face gatherings in various countries around the world so that the SAO community can come together and meet each other! Hence AstroFest was born.
The inaugural
AstroFest 2007 was held in Quanah, Texas, USA, where we had access to the Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus, which belongs to the very generous folk of the Three Rivers Foundation.
The 2008 AstroFest will be held in Australia. The weekend's events will be held in the Yarra Valley, a
beautiful wine growing region just north-east of Melbourne. AstroFest will continue on Monday in Melbourne
at the Hawthorn campus of Swinburne University campus at the Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, who run SAO.
AstroFest will include a series of astronomy lectures, hands-on demonstrations and night observing, as well as a chance for SAO alumni and students to present their own research results.
(The October graduation ceremony follows directly from AstroFest 2008, taking place on Tuesday 21 October.)
