Training
ASDC, in partnership with the Dark Sky Discovery team based at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, will offer flexible training and support to the 10 centres who have been awarded the grants.
The format of this training will be decided upon in relation to the needs of the ten participating centres. However, we would like to offer all successful grantees the opportunity to attend a free of charge ‘Stargazing Academy’ on March 8th 2012 at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh specifically designed for this project. At this academy we will give you a stargazing masterclass, discuss a variety of formats that work for the events and train you on a variety of activities you can use at your stargazing activities as well as sharing your collective activities with other centres. The Stargazing Academy is likely to run from lunchtime on Thursday 8th March to the early part of the dark evening to include the potential for real stargazing and to facilitate ease of travel to Edinburgh. Travel costs for attending this day are eligible to be taken from the £1500 grant, and we will pay for your food at the training. For anyone who cannot attend the training academy, we can offer a series of informal conference calls and online resources.
Resources and Activity sheets
There are many ideas and resources for Hands-on activities on The Dark Sky Discovery website: www.Darkskydiscovery.org.uk. In addition, the BBC Stargazing Live programme broadcast on 16 - 18th January 2012 and filmed at Jodrell Bank, has a host of resources such as audio guides to the night sky and star maps which are free to use: www.bbc.co.uk/tv/features/stargazing/activity-cards.shtml
BBC Stargazing Live also publicised the Dark Sky Discovery partnership and resulted in over a million hits to the Dark Sky Discovery website.
ASDC, in collaboration with Dark Sky Discovery, will also provide training for centres to run a variety of low-cost hands-on activities that work well at stargazing events.