IOTA Booth at NEAF 2012 - Astronomy Outreach and Engagement

1. IOTA at NEAF 2012 The IOTA Booth At The2012 Northeast Astronomy Forum Bruce Berger, Ted Blank, Al Carcich, Ken Coles, Steve Conard, Bruce Holenstein IOTA 2012 Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV

2. North East Astronomy Forum • Co-hosted by Rockland Astronomy Club and Sky&Telescope • 4000+ attendees over 2 full days (Sat. and Sun.) • All major Astro vendors, Magazines, Clubs, Imagers, etc. • Founded by Allan Green (RAC president) and Al Nagler (TeleVue) • Also: Northeast Astro Imaging Conference & Solar Star Party

3. Goals Exposure for IOTA New Members IOTA-VTI info/sales Feedback from NEAF attendees on IOTA Ideas for improving future booths (NEAF, Arizona Expo, etc.) Participate in the Vitja occultation efforts on Friday night (misses recorded by both teams)

4. IOTA-VTI Activity 3 VTI’s were sold using Walt Morgan’s $15 discount offer for units purchased within a week of NEAF. Olivier Thizy of Shelyak Instruments (France) saw and used the VTI at the booth, and now markets and sells them along with his own spectroscopic devices.

5. Outreach:E-MAIL Signups In addition to offering candy (a NEAF tradition), our email signup table prominently displayed the Lunar Occultation reductions of Bob Sandy. Over 35 email addresses were collected and contacted.

6. Outreach:Hands-on Demos and Real Equipment Volunteers brought their own occultation kits and made them available for examination during the weekend. Advantage: real gear, ability to show visitors how everything actually “connects up” Disadvantage: potential for damage or loss Result: No damage or loss Bruce Berger demonstrates a Canon ZR recorder to some visitors.

7. Outreach:Handouts etc. Visit IOTA on Yahoo Groups! Please visit us on our Yahoo Group, IOTAoccultations@yahoogroups.com. Feel free to join the group and post a message telling us a little bit about yourself, your geographic location, background and equipment and we will try to connect you with a more experienced member in your area. Beginner questions are welcome!

8. Ten-Inch Travel Scope Bruce Berger brought, assembled and demonstrated the 10” travel occultation scope to visitors

9. Activity:“Record your own occultation video” LED board has one light which goes out for 3 seconds every 30 seconds. An ST80 and PC164-EX2 camera were set up to offer visitors an opportunity to record their own occultation video. An LED board with a blinking LED (on for 30 seconds, off for 3 seconds) was set up in the FOV of the scope. In the event, the number of visitors was too large for each to take the time to make a recording. So each visitor was offered the opportunity to analyze an existing recording on a laptop with Limovie. Orion ST80 was available for “live” recording of “occultations” of the LED board. Bruce Holensteindemonstrating the scope and camera to Zhang Liu of Hubble Systems Ken Coles and Ted Blank preparing the laptop with Limovie for real-time recording and analysis by visitors.

10. Activity:“Analyze an Occultation Video with Limovie” Visitors were offered an opportunity to analyze a pre-recorded video of the LED occultation simulator with Limovie. Using the simulated movie gave the advantage that the “stars” were large and easy to see in the short time available for each visitor to process the file. Each visitor processed the file and obtained a light curve, showing how the software is able to analyze the video and deliver scientific results. We also allowed visitors to view and interact with Occult Watcher

11. 10am to 6pm Saturday 10am to 4pm Sunday Hundreds of visitors Non-stop activity Demonstrations Equipment demos Q&A Ken Coles, Steve Conardand Bruce Berger explain the processing of recordings.

12. Al Carcichand daughter Alexandra with Steve Conard, demonstrating the 10” IOTA travel scope. Steve Conard taking a visitor through the Limovie demo

13. Budget NEAF Booth charge: $430 Booth: $175 (non profit rate @ 50%) Extra 8’ table: $50 Extra chair: $5 +3 admissions @ $25: $75 Power: $125 Banner: $200 (one-time) Storyboards: $200 (one-time) Handouts: $20 Total: $850 One-time: $400 Recurring: ~$450 IOTA initial donation: Banner: $200 Other donations: Donations from attending members and their companies covered the remaining costs Display Equipment: provided by the volunteers (personal equipment)

14. Feedback / Results / Recommendations Steve Conard followed up with an email to each person who left their contact information (35 total) 4 responses: 1 no, 2 future, 1 interested. Interested party has been in touch with Al Carcich and wants to attend a future event. Has been invited twice but could not make it. IOTA-VTI exposure was useful and led to several sales and new outlets Multitude of IOTA websites can confuse first-time visitors. Need a single web point of contact geared more toward the “first contact” visitor. Need list of IOTA members by geography who are willing to be mentors to new members or those just interested in learning more (i.e. future members) Need a single IOTA person willing to connect new members with local mentors Application deadline for NEAF 2013 is March 1, but earlier is better to get the best booth location