June 16th 2012 marks the day of the Benson San Pedro Valley Chamber of Commerce “Sun, Stars & Open Sky” event. Designed to celebrate the natural beauty and natural resources of our open skies, the event takes place at the Benson School Multipurpose Building and surrounding buildings and grounds. Running from 10 AM to 10 PM, the event will have educational and fun activities during the day and star watching at night with astronomers from the Huachuca Astronomy Club (HAC) and Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) available to provide guidance. These groups will also be looking at solar flares during the day and the public is welcome to join. The community is invited to bring their own telescopes and get help with using them or just looking through the telescopes that are there.

The keynote speaker David H. Levy, The Comet Finder, will present “A Night watchman’s Journey:  My Life as a searcher and discoverer of comets.” Levy is one of the most successful comet discoverers in history. He has discovered 22 comets, nine of them using his own backyard telescopes.  With Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California Levy discovered Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that collided with Jupiter in 1994.  That episode produced the most spectacular explosions ever witnessed in the solar system. The author or editor of 35 books and other products, Levy will also do a book signing. In 1998 Levy won an Emmy for his part of the writing team for the Discovery Channel documentary, "Three Minutes to Impact."

In addition to Levy, Ed Beshore, of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, will be presenting information about the upcoming OSIRIS-Rex NASA asteroid material recovery mission (http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/).

Also, the Pima Air and Space Museum will provide educational activities for children and families.

As a bonus, a defense contractor will have a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) on display. Qualified personnel will be available to answer any questions.

In celebration of this event the Chamber is introducing the “Hot as the Sun Chili Cook Off,” an International Chili Society sanctioned Chili Cook-off. The winner of this cook-off receives an entry into the World Championship Chili Cook-off in West Virginia.

Other activities under consideration include such things as a model rocket launch, solar ovens, paper airplanes, solar panels, solar hot water heaters etc.

If you would like to help with this event, contact Greg Hall by phone at 720-2117 or by email at bensonsunandstars@hotmail.com .

The Benson San Pedro Valley Chamber of Commerce is a 501c6 nonprofit organization established in 1949. The Chamber’s primary focus is to proactively support and promote our members business success. The Chamber also partners with the City of Benson and the Southeast Arizona Economic Development to bring increased economic growth to Benson and the surrounding areas.  For more information about the Chamber see www.bensonchamberaz.org, call 520-586-2842 or email info@bensonchamberaz.com.