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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomers and the Mayan Calendar Workshop

27 & 28 January 2012

Calendar in the Sky connects the knowledge of the Maya to NASA science. The Maya weave astronomy, religion, politics, agriculture, architecture, engineering, and art together to form the rich tapestry of their culture. Maya calendars embody this interplay of science and culture. Calendar in the Sky presents articles and multimedia resources about Maya culture, modern science investigations carried out by NASA, and the science behind many of the year 2012 misconceptions.

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The Chicago Astronomers have the unique and special opportunity to attend a very interesting workshop regarding the 2012 "End Times"....in prepping for the most certain onslaught of questions and inquiries from our visitors, guests and fans - on the hoopla surrounding this long anticipated non-event. We have already been fielding the 2012 interest during our Chicago Astronomer Star Parties and Observation Sessions for some time now.

To better respond and answer questions intelligently, smartly and clearly, I have selected a few Chicago Astronomer members to attend this timely workshop. I had sent out a mass email on this to our active Chicago Astronomers and for those to contact me if interested. These responding individuals expressed interest and the ability in attending - but unfortunately, I had to narrow it down to four - from the instructions of the organizers of the event. There is a stand-by list, and if you would like to see if a space will open up, let me know and I'll add you to it.


Details of the event here:

Dear Educator,

We are pleased to inform you that your application has been approved to attend the “Calendar in the Sky” workshop for informal educators, to be held at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago on January 27-28, 2012. If you are not able to attend this workshop for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible. Below are some important details about the workshop:

LOGISTICAL INFORMATION
Date: Friday 1/27 – Saturday 1/28
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Location: Adler Planetarium
1300 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605
Food: Lunch and snacks will be provided on both days

OTHER INFORMATION

- We are planning a “Share-a-thon” session during the workshop. The intent of this session is to give workshop participants a chance to share with each other activities and ideas that they have used in public programs that are related to workshop topics.

- Appropriate topics include: Maya culture (including cosmology, architecture, mythology, mathematics, etc.), naked-eye astronomy observations of the Sun/Moon/planets, solar flares/CMEs, asteroid and comet impacts, magnetic polar shift, planet hunting, and the transit of Venus. If you are unsure whether or not a topic is appropriate, please contact us.

- If you are planning on participating in the “Share-a-Thon”, please let us know. Plan to give a presentation that is no more than 5 minutes in length.

Calendar in the Sky Website:

- The Calendar in the Sky project has launched a website! Please visit www.calendarinthesky.org to check out some articles and resources related to Maya science, NASA science and 2012 science.

- We will be creating login accounts for all workshop participants to make use of the discussion forum feature on the website. Please take a moment to confirm your attendance at the workshop and we will create an account for you.

More information will be coming your way prior to the workshop. We look forward to seeing you.

Space Sciences Laboratory
University of California, Berkeley
7 Gauss Way, MC 7450
Berkeley, CA 94720-7450

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I am very excited about attending this workshop and sharing the data and resources learned here. As my bloodline has Azteca roots, this is especially of interest to me.

I will cover and document this as best I can with narratives and pics - reporting on the event and having a great time meeting participants and fellow Astronomers from all around...

[Paulie pchris00]

Thanks to Joe for informing me of this workshop, thanks to the organizers for selecting me, and again, thanks to Joe for keeping me as one of the narrowed down Chicago Astronomer members attending.

In my application, I indicted that I have always tried to steer conversations away from talk of the Mayan calendar and related topics. I'm not very informed about them, mostly because I didn't see such topics as worthy of looking into. I also stated that since NASA finds this a worthy topic to educate about, maybe I should, too.

I'm getting excited about this. These programs are only being held in a few select cities, so we are truly privileged to participate. Congrats to the other CAs attending.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

I'm anticipating attending and covering this workshop and should all be pleased we were selected.

A rare opportunity to meet other educators, network - and learn Mezo-American culture and astronomy. We will all be better prepared to meet the End times.....

[Paulie pchris00]

It's going to take me a couple days to rest and recover from this very long week that isn't over yet. Then I'm going to go through my notes, resources provided to us at the workshop, and online resources before posting a full report. I'll try to have it done by the end of next week.

Parts were what I expected, while others were nothing like I expected. It was all interesting tp participate in. Thanks to everybody who put this together, and all of our fellow participants.

And if there was any doubt that I'm the Solar Czar, I got to be the Sun today, and everybody stared at me for a change.

[magic612]

I definitely have a lot to digest from this. It was a very enlightening experience, and I'll echo Paulie's thought that it had some things I expected, and others I didn't expect at all. But in two days, eight hours each, there really wasn't a dull moment for me. Nearly everything that was done kept my attention and was engaging on some level.

I'm looking forward to the myriad of ways I can share this information with others. Already had one of my Facebook friends ask about it, and I was able to offer an intelligent, detailed answer (inasmuch as FB allows that kind of thing without it being book-length).