The Garma Experience 2007

With the great success this past weekend for Gove Amateur Astronomers in presenting our "Astronomy at The Point", at the 2007 Garma Festival I feel compelled to let you all know about it.

Starting with a stall in the festival grounds from midday on Saturday the 4th Aug, we were barely unpacked and the information hungry festival attendees were booking tickets to our Saturday & Sunday evening shows and purchasing our Astronomy charts, books & map lights.
I am delighted to thank the efforts of our Club Volunteers Tony, Eleonore, Michael & Patrica ,Stephen and his guest Inez.
Without these great people, this event would not have been possible.
A special thank you to Tony & Eleonore who worked tirelessly from beginning to end, I am sure they will be glad to get back to work to recover, from our days starting at dawn & not finishing till after midnight !
Tony spent most of each day manning his Solar Telescope which shows in exquisite detail the solar flares on the disk of the sun, to the delight of festival attendees.
Both evenings saw groups of 60 to 70 people at 8, 9& 10 pm, gathering at the point for a laser guided tour of the constellations with Yolngu stories of their creation & purpose.
I was particularly honoured to have Yolngu elder women Djerrk Yunupingu in the Sunday night group, she was able to teach me new things about the Yolngu stories as I shared them with the tour guests.
Each tour was followed by a viewing session through one of 2 scopes present, each ably manned by either Tony, Steve or Michael.
I have to thank our Yolngu hosts & the Yothu Yindi foundation who allowed us to use "The Point", which they are seeking to make a permanent "Healing Place" camp, to be headed up by well known Yolngu Elder Woman, Gulumbu Yunupingu.
I look forward to Participating in Garma 2008, as this Festival goes from strength to Strength.

The success of Garma 2007 bodes well for the "Arnhemland Astronomy and Science fair" being hosted by GAA this month, from the 20th to the 25th Aug, here in Nhulunbuy. Details are at http://www2b.abc.net.au/science/sweek/search.asp
the webpage for linking to "National Science Week" NT events.