It's my birthday and I'll stare at the sky if I want to.

Alas, it became overcast...

"April 12, 2008, will be the second International Sidewalk Astronomy Night and we [the Sidewalk Astronomers] invite all amateur astronomers to join us! We'll have telescopes out on the street corners, in front of movie theaters, in state and national parks, in city-centre parks... anywhere there are crowds of people!

"Our goal is to take scopes to the public on the same night worldwide, reaching hundreds of thousands of people and uniting amateur astronomers on different continents. We also hope many amateurs will try and like this different approach to astronomy outreach and will continue to hold sidewalk observing sessions throughout the year."

Got other plans, or it's overcast where you are? Don't worry: National Astronomy Day is on May 10 this year.

Here's a post about some public outreach that I did on National Astronomy Day in 2005, when I had my 'scope out on the corner of Republican and Broadway in Seattle.