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What's New
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03/31/2009
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Mark your calendar! April 11 is Yuri's Night at the Belmont.
The Austin Planetarium will have a wonderful program ready with
Richard Garriott & Torvald Hessel as speakers, with a Q&A session to follow.
There will be food, drinks, silent auction and more. Check out
our Yuri's Night page for more details! Tickets are $25. Free access
after 10:30 pm.
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03/22/2009
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We have a winner! Tiffany Metze won the Celestron telescope. Thanks
to everyone who donated and purchased raffle tickets. Next raffle:
Win a Zero-G flight with Richard Garriott!! More details soon.
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03/19/2009
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We're gearing up for Austin under The Stars. Your last chance to
win a telescope this round! Hope to see you at St. Stephens Episcopal
from 6 pm on March 21.
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03/3/2009
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The Zilker Park Kite fest was a great success! Thanks to
everyone buying raffle tickets. Remember, the drawing will be
after Austin under the Stars which is scheduled for the evening
of March 21.
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03/1/2009
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The Austin Planetarium will be at the Zilker Park Kite festival.
Just like past years we will be raffling off a telescope and
you can win (free) prizes with our Space Wheel of fortune!
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10/16/2008
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The Austin Planetarium won a "Best Of Austin Award"! We won the "Best Starry-Eyed Dream" award, and
they also have a very nice write up about our project.
Check out the Austin planewtarium blog for more details
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09/19/2008
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We started to build a new website, and you are looking at the first results!
Obviously we are not done yet, but you can see where we want to go. There
will be tons of more updates in the weeks to come, so stay tuned!
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07/10/2008
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We're proud to announce no less the two new business sponsors:
NAKA Media
&
MOSAK Marketing!
We are very grateful for their support, and excited to see the speed of
our project picking up! Please contact us at 512-577-3900 to learn more
about corporate sponsorship.
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07/08/2008
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The President of the Austin planetarium, Torvald Hessel, started
the official Austinplanetarium blog! There are so many developments
going on with the project that we felt the need of an ongoing
blog. Right now you can see it here: http://austinplanetarium.blogspot.com/
hopefully we will be embedding this soon on the austinplanetarium.org website.
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06/08/2008
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We updated our donations page and are now accepting recurring
donations! We received a lot of requests for this feature and
now we have made it as convenient as possible. Check it out
here.
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05/28/2008
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We are very pleased to announce the election of a new board member:
Seth Roland! Seth has extensive financial investment experience
as well as business and computer programming. Seen Seth's experience
and prior experience as treasurer for another non-profit, Seth has taken
over the position as treasurer from Steve Rung.
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05/06/2008
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Pecan Street Festival was a great success!
We talked with many
hundreds of people and raised over $1600. Also the telescope raffle
was a great success, and we are pleased to announce that Ben Weaver
from Pflugerville was the lucky winner. Congratulations Ben! But of course
we would like to thank everyone for being so generous, and next Pecan
Street you have another chance winning a telescope!
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04/24/2008
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FOTAP will have a large booth at the 30th anniversary
edition of the Pecan Street Festival. If you did not
win the telescope at the kite festival, this is your next chance!
The festival is May 3 & 4. For more information on this
free event please check: here.
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03/11/2008
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Thank you Austin for your GREAT support!
Over two events (Zilker Park Kite Festival & Austin Under the Stars)
we raised over $1200 over hundreds of donations. We contacted the
winners of the telescope raffle, more information on this to come!
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03/08/2008
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Austin Under the Stars is a GO!!
Please see
Astro News section
for more details.
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12/23/2007
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FOTAP is happy to announce a new business sponsor:
The Exchange Club of Austin!
Please see our sponsor page
for more details.
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10/21/2007
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FOTAP's fall 2007 Newsletter is out!
Read it here in PDF format.
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09/01/2007
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The Austin Planetarium is pleased to announce that we have
an updated business plan! Please visit our
Business Plan page for details.
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05/04/2007
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On the fourth of May, FOTAP will organize a star-party at
Kathy Caraway Elementary school. We will also set up our mobile planetarium, and our newest
business sponsor Global Imaginations will have set up one of their
awesome globes. This event starts at 7:30 and is free and open to the public.
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04/12/2007
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FOTAP is happy to announce a new business sponsor:
Global Imagination!
Please see our sponsor page
for more details.
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03/04/2007
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FOTAP will be present again at this year's Zilker Park Kite festival!
Last year we had a telescope raffle, and we received more then 250 (!)
individual donations. This year we will have a raffle for brand new
binoculars. Come visit with the family and give our Space Wheel Of
Fortune a Spin and a chance to win! For more detail on this free family
event, please visit www.ZilkerKiteFestival.com
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12/13/2006
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The Austin Planetarium is pleased to announce that Rebecca Johnson has
accepted a position as a member of our Board of Directors. Rebecca is the editor of
StarDate magazine and handles media relations for The University of Texas at Austin
McDonald Observatory. Her previous experience with the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope public affairs office, and Sky and Telescope
magazine will be invaluable.
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12/05/2006
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The Austin Planetarium celebrates our 3rd birthday! The Austin Planetarium was
incorporated on December 2, 2003, and received our IRS 501(c)(3) approval on
February 3, 2004.
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11/15/2006
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After extensive research and a visit to the San Antonio Challenger Learning Center,
the FOTAP Board authorized submission of an application to establish a Challenger Learning
Center in conjunction with the planetarium. For more information about the Challenger
Center for Space Science Education and their interactive mission scenarios, see
www.challenger.org.
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October, 2006
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Our web counter broke the 20,000 visitor mark! We receive
currently about 1500 visitors per month and this is steadily increasing.
Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers more and more people
know about FOTAP and visit the website. let's see how fast we can
break the 50,000 mark!
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08/24/2006
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Board director Torvald Hessel was invited by News 8 Austin to give an
interview about the change of status for Pluto as a planet. The interview
can be seen here.
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08/13/2006
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Austin Under the Stars was once again a great success! We were blessed with clear skies
and several hundred curious visitors showed up for a chance to look through one
of a dozen telescopes. Additionally we gave away free tickets to the planetarium
and more than 220 people were treated to a free planetarium show.
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August 12, 2006
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Mark your calendars for August 12! This is the date for the annual Austin
Under the Stars star party, hosted by St. Stephen's Episcopal School and the Austin Astronomical
Society. Of course FOTAP will be present with an information table and out mobile planetarium.
Please check out the site of AAS for more
information on this event.
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July 25, 2006
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Board Director Torvald Hessel has been invited to give a presentation at the 2006 conference
of the International Planetarium Society in Melbourne, Australia. This presentation will be
given on July 25. The abstract you can read here.
In addition, Hessel will participate in a brainstorming session on building a planetarium
in Sydney, Australia.
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July 5 & 7, 2006
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On the evening of July 5 and 7, we have an excellent chance to see the International
Space Station with Space Shuttle Discovery docked! Please check the July
AstroNews page for more details.
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June 29, 2006
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Board director and Treasurer Sharleen Forrest, reported that the second
Audit of FOTAP has been completed, and that IRS form 990 has been submitted.
For details on these forms, and similar reports of FOTAP and other non profits,
please visit www.guidestar.org.
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May 19, 2006
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As a repeat for last month, FOTAP organized a star party with our mobile planetarium,
this time on the East side of town: Manor Middle School. Once again, this was a huge succes
with 225 visitors in our StarBubble! Grassroot support like this proves once again:
Austin needs a planetarium!
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April 21, 2006
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FOTAP organized a star party with our mobile planetarium at the Spicewood
elementary school. This event was to close off 'Science Day' and we had hoped about 100
people would come out. To our surprise about 500 people showed up, and we treated
more then 300 people to a free planetarium show! Additionally we raised about $1100.
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March 5, 2006
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The Zilker park Kite festival was a great success. We received more then
150 donations! This once again, proves the overwhelming public support for a planetarium
in Austin. The winner of the telescope was Ethan Hendrickson from Round Rock.
Congratulations Ethan! We hope you will have some great observing time with
the telescope.
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February 23, 2006
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The Austin Planetarium is pleased to announce that Dr. Mark Diaz,
Superintendent of Manor ISD, has taken a leadership role with FOTAP. Dr. Diaz has
joined us as a member of our Advisory Council. His extensive experience in education
and fundraising will be an incredible asset to the group's goal of building a
planetarium in Austin.
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March 5, 2006
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On March fifth the Austin Planetarium will man a booth
at the annual Zilker Park Kite Festival. We'll use our new Space Wheel of
Fortune to award prizes, and we will again hold a raffle for a brand new
telescope! If you would like to read more about the festival please click
here.
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January, 2006
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Each quarter we send out our newsletter, and this January was the fourth
edition. To download a copy in PDF format please click
here.
If you would like to get the newsletter delivered to your mailbox each quarter
you can click here.
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December, 2005
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Our web counter broke the 10,000 visitor mark! We receive
currently over 30 visitors per day and this is steadily increasing.
Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers more and more people
know about FOTAP and visit the website. let's see how fast we can
break the 20,000 mark!
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October, 2005
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October is the month of our annual public meeting. Please contact
us for time and location if you would like to atend.
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August 16, 2005
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If you made a donation to the Austin Planetarium at
the Austin Under The Stars event you made a chance to win a 80 mm StarHoc
telescope which was donated to FOTAP by Hardin Optical. We are pleased to
announce that Eric Holt of Round Rock was the winner. We would like to thank
all the people that made a donation to FOTAP, and Eric: congratulations and we
hope that you will have a lot of fun with this telescope!
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August 13, 2005
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Despite some initial cloudiness Austin under The Stars was a great success.
We had over 120 visitors in our StarBubble and gave about ten shows. FOTAP
raised about $500 in donations. We would like to thank all the volunteers
and the public to make this event such a success!
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July 16, 2005
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AUTS has been postponed
Due to the weather Austin Under The Stars has been postponed
until August 13.
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July 16, 2005
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The Austin Planetarium will be participating at
Austin Under the Stars on July 16. Click
here for
more information on this great event, right here in Austin!
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July 2005
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This July listen for us on KUT radio! A donation has been made
to KUT in FOTAP's name, and we and this website will be mentioned
on KUT radio.
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April 15-16, 2005
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The Austin Planetarium will be participating at the
2005 Centex star party at Canyon of the Eagles. Click
here for
more information on this fun event.
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February 2005
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Torvald Hessel, Director of the board of the Austin planetarium, gave
two presentations about the history of Planetarium design. The first was given to
the Austin Astronomical Society, and the second for the Dell Jewish Community Center.
Both presentations were received very well. The same presentation will be given
at the CenTex star party in April.
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January 18, 2005
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Endorsement letter received from Mark Yudof,
Chancellor of the University of Texas System
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December 13, 2004
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Endorsement letter received from Mary Ward,
Superintendent Dripping Springs Independent School District.
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November, 2004
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The Austin Planetarium sent out 350 holiday cards
and donation envelopes. Happy winter solstice!
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July 2004
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We now offer secure online donations through Network for Good
and through Paypal.
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March 2004
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The Austin Planetarium announces that their website at
www.AustinPlanetarium.org is ready to go live.
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February 2004
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The Austin Planetarium is pleased to announce that the organization
has received approval of their 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the IRS
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December 2003
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The Austin Planetarium (FOTAP) has been incorporated.
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© 2004-2009 Austin Planetarium
Last updated: 10/3/2009
