Yuri’s Night Global Astronomy Month (GAM 2018)
Yuri’s Night is a global celebration of humanity’s past, present, and future in space. Yuri’s Night parties and events are held around the world every April in commemoration of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human to venture into space on April 12, 1961, and the inaugural launch of the first Space Shuttle on April 12, 1981.
In Nigeria, the activity which held on the 14th of April, 2018 at Julius Nyerere Crescent, Asokoro, Abuja brought about excitements to the public. One of the Organizers, Mrs. Olayinka Fagbemiro who is the National Coordinator for both Astronomers without border (AWB) and the Universe Awareness (UNAWE) said in her words, ”Regardless, we had an eventful Yuri’s night. On arrival at the venue for the event, we set up our Telescope and like a magnet it attracted many curious bystanders. They wanted to know what the Telescope could do and the purpose for the event. This created an opportunity which we used to educate them about Astronomy, Yuri Gagarin and the capability of our Telescope & Binoculars.
We had giveaway flyers that had top facts about Astronomy, Space travel and Yuri Gagarin. We also had light refreshments for our audience. The clouds made it impossible to view any stars and the moon nevertheless, curious people used it to view objects in the distance. We had a star chart in order to show people the location and names of stars. We had several people that were seeing a Telescope for the first time, Kids that were excited about Astronomy and lots of questions to answer.
It was a lovely day and another step in the right direction for Astronomers without border Nigeria. One People, One Sky”. find below some pictures from the night party.