[AANC Contacts] Jane's monthly podcast, JPL open house this weekend

[Jane Houston Jones]

Last August, I sat in a huge tent in the middle of an Ontario (Canada) field
waiting to give my talk at the annual Starfest star party. The speaker
before me was playing a drum, and singing and telling star stores. The
drummer was Wilfred Buck, a Cree First Nation Elder and Science Educator
with the Manitoba First Nation Education Resource Center.

Wilfred travels the length and breadth of the Canadian province of Manitoba
presenting starlab planetarium shows to nearly 60 First Nation schools with
17,000 students. While he drummed, he sang songs and told star and
constellation stories he gathered first-hand from Cree First Nation Elders.
When it was dark, he took us out into the field and pointed out the
constellations while he told even more star tales.   :-) 

I was literally star-struck with his presentation and stargazing stories,
and asked him for a copy of it. Over the months, we became friends, and I
asked him if I could write up some of the stories and share them with
others. He said yes, and then then invited me to the annual First Nation
Science Fair in late March (it was awesome!!). Here is how I presented his
stories on my blog last year. http://is.gd/b8Lps

Recently, I asked him if I could do one of my monthly NASA podcasts about
the Cree Constellation stories he shared at the August star party and he
said yes and he even reviewed my script.  :-) 

So with the rich Cree constellation paintings as a base, Wilfred's stories
as the glue, I added some ancient star charts and constellation stories from
other cultures to make May's What's Up podcast. And here it is:

The SSE(Solar System Exploration) web version has related links - stories of the Night sky, including one
video of Wilfred telling a big bear tale, so click through the links.
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup-view.cfm?WUID=364

Youtube might be easier for some:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=JPLnews#g/u

iTunes: 
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nasacast-whats-up-video-podcasts/id252873
558

Please share with story lovers you know.  :-)

Oh, and this weekend is JPL Open House. On display will be Hubble's
Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 - the camera that saved Hubble! constructed
when I first visited JPL on a visitor tour over 20 years ago.  This year 
you can see Mars Science laboratory in the SAF during Open House!

I'll be in the Solar System exhibit area this year accessorized as Galileo
(big porkpie hat with feather, colorful stockings, etc.  I'll be holding a 
Galilean telescope replica and pointing to missions displays for future missions to
the outer planets. Stop by and say hello!  :-)  Get all the details here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Over and Out!  Jane

-- 
Jane Houston Jones
Monrovia, CA
Blog: http://jane.whiteoaks.com/
My What's Up podcast for May 2010: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/whatsup.cfm
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jhjones  http://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn