The Planetary Society Visits Camp Imgur

While I normally make the videos for The Planetary Society, I also jump at any chance I can to share space with people in any way I can! Recently we’ve been in communication with the good people over at the website Imgur. They have a cool community that is often searching for inspiration from space.

Last weekend they were hosting a weekend camp for their members and invited me to come out and talk about space and The Society! I headed up to Camp Navarro and enjoyed some archery and classic dunk booth fun in the Redwood camp before giving my talk. Of course, I brought them this special message from our CEO, Bill Nye.

About 250 people were watching and listening as I rambled on about LightSail and our cosmic duty to share the majesty of the universe. We laughed, we were inspired, we all became friends! It was really a blast.

But the best part was later that night, when about 50 people went on a star gazing hike with me. We trekked up a dark hill and onto a raised opening in the forest where we could clearly see the arm of the Milky Way pouring across the sky. I pointed out constellations with my laser and answered a barrage of awesome space questions the best I could. I was proud of the young group’s desire to learn more about our cosmos and thrilled to see the stars inspiring them. Here is a long exposure photograph that Joseph Engo (@Joped) took that night.

We are looking forward to expanding The Planetary Society’s social networking range to reach more audiences. Imgur is a sanctuary for nerds, geeks, indoor-kids, and all the other labels that have been taken back and given a positive spin. I can’t wait to interact more with them and share the joy of space exploration on their site!

(Keep an eye out next week for a special post on Imgur about our petition to keep the Europa mission funded).