Special Conference Events

Dinner at Mulate's: "The Original Cajun Restaurant" By popular demand, one of our included conference dinners will be at Mulate's in the small nearby town of Breaux Bridge. Very popular with locals and tourists alike, Mulate's features nightly Cajun music, dancing, and great food. You'll be able to select from:

hamburger steak with fries, cole slaw, green beans, and bread
fried catfish with jambalaya, fries, cole slaw, and bread
stuffed crabs with jambalaya, fries, cole slaw, and bread
Catfish Mulates (grilled catfish topped with shrimp etouffee) with jambalaya, fries, cole slaw, and bread
fried shrimp with jambalaya, fries, cole slaw, and bread
vegetarian dish.

Dessert and a non-alcoholic beverage is included.

Bring your appetite - this place is good!

Trip to St. George Observatory St. George Observatory is a private observatory about two hours south of Lafayette near the cities of Houma and Thibodaux. Owner Ken Stage opens the observatory and an associated biology lab to area schools and youth groups. The observatory's five telescopes range in size from 7" to 17" in a roll-off building configuration. Weather permitting, dinner and a speaker will be followed by a chance to look through the telescopes and the Messier Shootout (see below).

Thursday Night Speaker After dinner at St. George Observatory, our speaker will be Dr. Paulette Hebert (from Oklahoma State University). She is chair of the International Dark-sky Association Education Working Group, and will be speaking about light pollution.

Messier Shootout In the spirit of SEPA's annual Constellation Shootout comes the Messier Shootout, an outdoor event during our evening visit to St. George Observatory. Contestants will be challenged to find a number of Messier objects using telescopes, locating each in a matter of minutes. If there is no winner at the end of the first round of 5 objects, contestants will be given another list. The winner will be the person finding all 5 of those objects first.

Obviously, this contest depends on (relatively) clear skies.

To level the playing field, the planetarium will supply the telescopes. Contestants will have their choices of types and apertures in the 6" to 8" range. No computers. Just you, the sky, a telescope, and sky charts standardized for the contest. The number of contestants will be very limited based on the number of telescopes available, probably to about a half dozen contestants. Planetarium staff and local amateur astronomers will act as judges.

Watch for complete rules and entry forms when your conference registration package arrives in the mail.

Friday Banquet Speaker Dr. John Caldwell of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at York University in Toronto, Ontario, will speak about NASA's upcoming Kepler Mission designed to locate Earth-sized planets around other stars using a space-based telescope.


About SEPA Membership Conference Journal Fellowship Award Council By-Laws SEPA Region Planetariums History Links	Special Conference Events Dinner at Mulate's: "The Original Cajun Restaurant" By popular demand, one of our included conference dinners will be at Mulate's in the small nearby town of Breaux Bridge. Very popular with locals and tourists alike, Mulate's features nightly Cajun music, dancing, and great food. You'll be able to select from: hamburger steak with fries, cole slaw, green beans, and bread fried catfish with jambalaya, fries, cole slaw, and bread stuffed crabs with jambalaya, fries, cole slaw, and bread Catfish Mulates (grilled catfish topped with shrimp etouffee) with jambalaya, fries, cole slaw, and bread fried shrimp with jambalaya, fries, cole slaw, and bread vegetarian dish. Dessert and a non-alcoholic beverage is included. Bring your appetite - this place is good! Trip to St. George Observatory St. George Observatory is a private observatory about two hours south of Lafayette near the cities of Houma and Thibodaux. Owner Ken Stage opens the observatory and an associated biology lab to area schools and youth groups. The observatory's five telescopes range in size from 7" to 17" in a roll-off building configuration. Weather permitting, dinner and a speaker will be followed by a chance to look through the telescopes and the Messier Shootout (see below). Thursday Night Speaker After dinner at St. George Observatory, our speaker will be Dr. Paulette Hebert (from Oklahoma State University). She is chair of the International Dark-sky Association Education Working Group, and will be speaking about light pollution. Messier Shootout In the spirit of SEPA's annual Constellation Shootout comes the Messier Shootout, an outdoor event during our evening visit to St. George Observatory. Contestants will be challenged to find a number of Messier objects using telescopes, locating each in a matter of minutes. If there is no winner at the end of the first round of 5 objects, contestants will be given another list. The winner will be the person finding all 5 of those objects first. Obviously, this contest depends on (relatively) clear skies. To level the playing field, the planetarium will supply the telescopes. Contestants will have their choices of types and apertures in the 6" to 8" range. No computers. Just you, the sky, a telescope, and sky charts standardized for the contest. The number of contestants will be very limited based on the number of telescopes available, probably to about a half dozen contestants. Planetarium staff and local amateur astronomers will act as judges. Watch for complete rules and entry forms when your conference registration package arrives in the mail. Friday Banquet Speaker Dr. John Caldwell of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at York University in Toronto, Ontario, will speak about NASA's upcoming Kepler Mission designed to locate Earth-sized planets around other stars using a space-based telescope.