Virtually everyone at CFHT was involved in the preparations for the Open House, from preparing the building to presenting exhibits, organizing school visits, and printing programs.

Since the morning and early afternoon were dedicated to school children, we had prepared bags, stuffed with information about the observatory and telescope, a mini CD-ROM, and a CFHT pencil.

The 2001 CFHT calendar was also ready on time for display and to be sold to the public (information on How to order is available here). On the theme of the structure of our galaxy, the Milky Way, 12 gorgeous true colors images obtained with the CFH12K wide-field imaging camera are presented, along with a description of each image. This calendar will not only decorate walls with living colors, it will also introduce the lay person to the structure and evolution of our galaxy.

Posters were carefully prepared, on subjects ranging from Optical illusions to Adaptive Optics. CFHT instruments and the science done with them were also explained.

Crawling on all fours, moving tables... this was a change for the astronomers and some engineers, who usually sit quietly almost all day long!

Grant had a lot of fun making sure our 1/10 model of the telescope would move when plugged to a computer.

A group effort was needed to install the big tent.