Blogtrek

SUUSI and Mars

It's that time of the year again, when I register to go to the Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute (or SUUSI). So what am I going to do this year?

I enrolled in a workshop to empower my voice, and I also signed up for contra and swing dancing. I am also going on some nature trips, including one to a swimming place in a river.

I am giving three workshops, on Astronomy, Stories of the Sky, and Weaving Paper Polyhedra (see my SUUSI site for details). This will be the first time I have given Astronomy as a workshop to SUUSI, although I have given it to other organizations. So this should be interesting.

Especially since besides SUUSI, the event of the year is Mars. It will be coming closer than it has for the past 15 years; not only is there an opposition this August, but this occurs when Mars is closest to the Sun (perihelion), and hence to Earth. Mars is going to shine big, red, and blazingly bright in the southern sky on all clear nights at SUUSI. This is a planet which we may have our hopes on, that we may be able to walk on it someday, and find out if, perhaps, there ever was life on Mars. And it will be there in the sky, tantalizing us with hope as we go to SUUSI to the enjoyment that provides. This will be the Martian SUUSI.