Saturday, May 18, 2013 1:30PM to 9:30PM

Barrington Town Hall Lawn

283 County Road, Barrington RI 02806

The Barrington Recreation Department and The Astronomical Society of Southern New England (ASSNE) are co-hosting a FREE day of family fun, education and amazement on Saturday, May 18, 2013, weather permitting.

At 1:30PM until 6:00 PM, about a dozen telescopes specially filtered to allow views of our own star—The Sun—will be set up on the Barrington Town Hall Lawn that borders County Road (RI Route 114). Children accompanied by their parents are welcome to look at sunspots if they appear and through specialized Hydrogen-Alpha light telescopes to see solar flares and prominences that can extend half a million miles into space.

Later, at about 7:30PM, as dusk falls, more than twenty large telescopes will be set up in two locations to permit public viewing. Children and their parents are welcome. Jupiter and its moons will be visible from the main Town Hall lawn, and early in the evening we hope to catch views of Venus and Mercury before they sink below the western horizon.

On the side of the Town Hall near the Library ASSNE Astronomers will guide guests to view Saturn and its rings—a crowd favorite and our own Moon - with amazing craters, mountains and lava basins.

Barrington’s Astronomy Day has grown in recent years and is probably Rhode Island’s largest ongoing astronomy event. Previous Astronomy Days drew more than 200 daytime visitors and over 1,000 at night and last year’s event drew almost as many until clouds moved in.

The public is reminded that this is a weather-dependent event and there is no rain date. If it is partly cloudy the event will go on. If it is overcast, or raining, it will not. The public is invited to go to ASSNE’s webpage  http://www.assne.org to see if the event has been cancelled. A cancellation notice should appear shortly after noon.

The Astronomical Society of Southern New England is a non-profit association of amateur astronomers who serve Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts with educational outreach programs at schools and local venues as well as public viewing, including Waterfire Providence and operating the observatory at UMass Dartmouth for public nights. The ASSNE motto is:  “To Educate and Inspire.”

For more information about The Astronomical Society of Southern New England, check online at http://www.assne.org/.