AstroCon 2005

The AANC board is pleased to announce "AANC-CON 2005", the AANC Conference and Workshops to be held at the Randall Museum, San Francisco, on August 27th, 2005. The conference will be hosted by the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers, and sponsored by both AANC and the Western Amateur Astronomers.

This year's theme is "Celebrating Bay Area Astronomy" and we have an impressive lineup of speakers and activities. We will also be celebrating John Dobson's 90th birthday!

Our speakers include Timothy Ferris, Lynette Cook, Steve Gottlieb and Richard Crisp; with additional presentations by Bob Schalk and ASP's Marni Berendsen. The $25 registration fee will include all speakers and workshops plus lunch. That evening, we'll have a star party at the Randall and deliver our 2005 awards. If you have not received your awards ballot, please contact me as soon as possible. In addition, we hope to have a workshop on astronomy clubs and land use issues; focusing on the relationships (good and bad) between the park systems and amateur astronomers.

We need your help in a couple of ways. First, visit the conference web site.

( http://www.planitarium.net/aanc/aanc-con2005/program_guide/ ) Second, register for the event. Currently, you can register online via PayPal, or contact kennethfrank@planitarium.net if you wish to mail your registration or pay on site. We need to know how many attendees to expect and we're hoping that each club will send five people.

AANC has acted as a forum for communication in the Astronomy Community, funded public outreach events, seeded money for educational programs, and is once again holding its annual conference and awards.