Julian Starfest is Born
Last year, while attending the annual Christmas party of the Julian Bed and Breakfast Guild, three Guild members, all astronomers and B&B owners, hatched an idea. Not being too sure that is wasn’t the wine, or the time of year, but Mike Leigh of Observer’s Inn, Scott Baker of Mountain High Bed and Breakfast and Observatory and Chuck Kimball of Artist’s Loft B&B, we were in good spirits, and as we sat around a table, “Julian Starfest” was born. We knew we had a good sky here in Julian, with two of us having observatories for our guests at our B&B’s, and we wanted to share it with the rest of the astronomical community. What better way to do that than to hold an RTMC-like event here in San Diego! The concept was easy, find a large open area with a good horizon, invite all the big vendors to display their wares, and then get as many astronomers up to spend the weekend. The concept was easy, the implementation is another story.
We decided on Menghini Winery as our “large open area”, which is one of the few areas in Julian that can handle a crowd and didn’t have a forest of trees around it. It also has the added benefit that wineries bring, wine and beer in the afternoon. So our first meeting was at the winery, trying to decide where we were going to put everyone. Our second meeting was to meet with the local organizations (Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association) to get support and funding. So things began to fall into place.
Mike Leigh, a former and long time employee of Meade Instruments, began making phone calls, and before long, we had our first big sponsor. With Meade under our belts, Vixen Optics decided to join us, as well as Celestron and OPT. Scope City was next, and although Orion said they couldn’t attend, they’d be happy to send us something for the raffle. More and more vendors will be coming on board, and we hope to fill the entire exhibit area.
Once we started spreading the word about Julian Starfest, the excitement grew. We’ve gotten a lot of enthusiasm from the astronomical community, and guest speakers are lining up to speak during the day. At this time, our speaker line-up includes Scott Kardel of Palomar, Lisa Bruhn of the IDA, Dr. Paul Etzel of Mount Laguna Observtory, and many more.
We’ve also arranged for a behind-the-scenes tour of the 200” Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain. This tour will be an optional event, for a very small number of people, and will include a bus ride up to Palomar, the tour of the scope, a box lunch and beverage and time for the museum and gift shop, before returning to Julian. The tour highlights will be seeing the scope “up close and personal”, the basement workshops and a “ride” on the dome. This tour is limited to 45 people.
For details, visit http://www.julianstarfest.com/
We decided on Menghini Winery as our “large open area”, which is one of the few areas in Julian that can handle a crowd and didn’t have a forest of trees around it. It also has the added benefit that wineries bring, wine and beer in the afternoon. So our first meeting was at the winery, trying to decide where we were going to put everyone. Our second meeting was to meet with the local organizations (Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association) to get support and funding. So things began to fall into place.
Mike Leigh, a former and long time employee of Meade Instruments, began making phone calls, and before long, we had our first big sponsor. With Meade under our belts, Vixen Optics decided to join us, as well as Celestron and OPT. Scope City was next, and although Orion said they couldn’t attend, they’d be happy to send us something for the raffle. More and more vendors will be coming on board, and we hope to fill the entire exhibit area.
Once we started spreading the word about Julian Starfest, the excitement grew. We’ve gotten a lot of enthusiasm from the astronomical community, and guest speakers are lining up to speak during the day. At this time, our speaker line-up includes Scott Kardel of Palomar, Lisa Bruhn of the IDA, Dr. Paul Etzel of Mount Laguna Observtory, and many more.
We’ve also arranged for a behind-the-scenes tour of the 200” Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain. This tour will be an optional event, for a very small number of people, and will include a bus ride up to Palomar, the tour of the scope, a box lunch and beverage and time for the museum and gift shop, before returning to Julian. The tour highlights will be seeing the scope “up close and personal”, the basement workshops and a “ride” on the dome. This tour is limited to 45 people.
For details, visit http://www.julianstarfest.com/
