Galaxy Garden Updates

Dear Friends of the Galaxy Garden,

The Institute for Astronomy (IfA) at the University of Hawaii wrote a nice piece about the garden in their current newsletter

You can see it at: www2.ifa.hawaii.edu/newsletters

The IfA has also expressed interest in staging an event at the Garden in connection with the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. This worldwide event celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of the telescope that radically changed our view of the Universe. We'll provide more details as they become available.

Our garden is becoming known internationally! We have been working with officials from Chile who have asked us to help them create astro-tourism activities in their country, which ranks with Hawaii as the best place in the world to do astronomy. They visited the Galaxy Garden here and were so impressed that they are talking with us about building one in Chile! They brought us to Chile last month and we saw the site of a new botanical garden being built there. They are now considering whether we can do a Southern Hemisphere Galaxy Garden in Chile.

And Pekka Rautajoki, an amateur astronomer from Finland, visited the Galaxy Garden in July. Pekka is very active in astronomy activities and clubs in Finland, and is now an enthusiastic supporter of our garden too. You can see his photos taken on his trip to the Big Island at:

picasaweb.google.fi/prautajoki/Hawaii?authkey=ZEqsK1goe7A

We are still looking for support in the form of labor or money for weekly spraying to control insect pests. It takes a maximum of two hours and the cost of labor and materials is $50/week. Please consider sponsoring some of this ongoing activity to help keep the Galaxy healthy. Even one week support will be received with gratitude and a tax receipt for your donation to our non-profit organization.

Best wishes to All,

Jon

PS As our mailing list grows, it is possible we have duplicated your address. If you are receiving this more than once, please let us know,

Dear Friends of the Galaxy Garden,

Here are some recent developments concerning widening awareness of our special garden:

The Galaxy Garden was described by Jon Lomberg in a Powerpoint presentation given on July 4, 2008 at the Galaxy Forum near San Jose, California. This conference was organized by Space Age Publishing and intended to promote "Galaxy Awareness" in the 21st Century. We are grateful to Steve Durst, Founder of Space Age Publishing, for providing the travel support that enabled Jon to be there to show our unique contribution to this effort. Visit them at www.spaceagepub.com/

The International Space University was represented at the Galaxy Forum and has begun preliminary discussion with us about the feasibility of creating a Galaxy Garden for their campus in Strassbourg, France.

Representatives of the Chilean District of Coquimbo toured the Big Island last month, researching the way interested visitors can have astronomy experiences during their trip to Hawaii. They are just beginning to try to organize astro-tourism in their District, which, like Hawaii, hosts some of the best telescopes in the world. They were very impressed by the Galaxy Garden and have invited Jon to come to Chile for a meeting on July 24, to discuss a Galaxy Garden for the public gardens in Coquimbo.

Check the galaxygarden.net website for more about us. Look especially under Schools, News, and Guestbook.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Tony Tschopp and Good Turn Web Design for donating their expert services to manage our website. If anybody needs some webwork done professionally, contact Tony at ttschopp@hawaii.rr.com

.....and to Honaunau master gardener Jeff Garrison who brought three of our dracaena saplings back to vibrant health after a few months of TLC in his own nursery. These will represent there more globular star clusters in our garden when planted!

and finally HELP WANTED!!!!!!!!!!

We are looking for some gardening support in spraying the Galaxy Garden weekly with neem oil to control the insect inhabitants of our Milky Way, It takes about two hours with a backpack sprayer to do the entire garden. We seek somebody who could donate their labor or subsidize the cost, which is about $45/week for labor and materials. Even if you can do it or pay for it only one time, it would help us. Please contact Barbara DeFranco at 896-5509 to discuss details.

With thanks,

Jon