On November 7th and 8th, the 2009 Sea and Sky Spectacular took place in Jacksonville, Florida off the waters of the picturesque Atlantic Ocean. This much anticipated air show featured the prowess of the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels Squadron, as well as numerous military and civilian daredevils of the sky.  The Sea and Sky Spectacular represented just one of the many featured events of the "Week of Valor," which paid tribute to the brave men and women in uniform of the entire armed forces.  With the city of Jacksonville having a strong military community, it allowed for a wonderful opportunity for everyone to come out to support and thank our veterans and active duty military personnel for keeping our nation safe. Additional highlights from the week included a Veterans Day Parade, guided ship tours aboard U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels, Search and Rescue demonstrations, street festivals, Jacksonville Jaguars football game and much, much more.  Best of all, admission was free.

Celestron teamed up with Popular Science magazine as a featured vendor during this weekend event.  Representatives from Popular Science magazine included Account Manager, Alex DeSanctis and Group Director of Creative Services/Events, Michael Iadanza.  Representing Celestron included Marketing Manager, Michelle Meskill; Repair Department Supervisor, Daniel Fuentes; Technical Support Representative, Tyler Michaelis and I.  Together, we combined forces to promote astronomy awareness and to demonstrate our computerized and noncomputerized telescopes, spotting scopes, binoculars and SkyScout to a brand new audience.  We also hosted a two night "Take a Tour of the Stars" star party, which allowed thousands of guests to view celestial objects such as the Moon, Jupiter, double stars, galaxies and nebulas through telescopes.  Many of whom, observed for the very first time!  In addition to the general public who joined us at the star party, so did the performers!  How cool it was having the Blue Angels Squadron, their flight support teams and the UK's Parachute Regiment Freefall Team "The Red Devils," stop by for a look, and were all utterly amazed while observing our nearest neighbors in the Solar System.  Most importantly though, we sold hundreds and hundreds of raffle tickets for prize drawings of several Celestron products, including a NexStar 6 SE, NexStar 60 SLT, SkyScout, FirstScopes, AstroMaster 70 AZ and several binoculars.  Winners did not have to be present to claim their prizes, and all proceeds from the raffle drawing were donated to a very worthwhile and honorable cause - The United Services Organization (USO).  

Having been to several military air shows back home in California with my fellow Celestron coworkers throughout the years (MCAS Miramar), we knew how popular and exciting these air shows could be.  Sea and Sky Spectacular would be no different.  Several officials who spoke to us during the event, indicated attendance numbers for the two day event would exceed over 400,000 people!  In addition to the Blue Angels, the event also featured performances by the B-2 Spirit, F-15 Eagle, Short Range Recovery aircraft, F-16 Fighting Falcon, SH-60B Seahawk, A-10 Thunderbolt, Heritage Flight, The Black Daggers, The Red Devils, Czech Six, The Red Bull Helicopter, Daredevil Sean D. Tucker, Red Eagles and more.  It was the most sophisticated display of skill, advanced avionics technology and military might to be seen and definitely heard.  Jacksonville Beach was definitely the place to be, and there was nothing more stimulating to the ear than hearing the deafening roar of twin afterburners being ignited from an F/A-18 Super Hornet as it zips by, shaking the ground and cleansing your soul.  It's simply - the sound of freedom.

Popular Science magazine and Celestron are simply honored to be a part of this year's Sea and Sky Spectacular.  It's by far, the largest event we've attended this year.  With many US Military Veterans employed at Celestron and family members currently on active duty, we proudly support the US Armed Forces, and we proudly support the United Services Organization.  For more information on how you too, can become more involved to support the USO, please visit:  http://www.uso.org/. We are very grateful towards our US military forces and would like to sincerely thank them for defending and protecting our great nation and keeping us all safe.  We would also like to give a special "shout-out" and say "thank you" to David Liles of the Alachua Astronomy Club of North Central Florida for driving all the way down to Jacksonville to assist us and lend his astronomy expertise at last Saturday night's star party.  It was great seeing you again.  God bless our troops, and we pray you will all come home safely.