A schedule of some official and unofficial activities surrounding Barack Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20:
TUESDAY, JAN. 20 (INAUGURATION DAY)
Gates to the Inaugural Ceremony open at 8 a.m. The inaugural festivities are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. They will include:
_ Musical selections of The United States Marine Band, followed by the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
_ Sen. Dianne Feinstein provides call to order and welcoming remarks.
_ Invocation by the Rev. Rick Warren.
_ Musical selection of Aretha Franklin.
_ Biden will be sworn into office by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
_ Musical selection of John Williams, composer/arranger with Itzhak Perlman, (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet).
_ Obama will take the Oath of Office, using President Lincoln’s Inaugural Bible, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. Scheduled around noon.
_ Obama gives the inaugural address.
_ Poem by Elizabeth Alexander.
_ Benediction by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery.
_ The National Anthem by The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters.”
After Obama gives inaugural address, he will escort outgoing President George W. Bush to a departure ceremony before attending a luncheon in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
The 56th Inaugural Parade will then make its way down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.
Later that day, the Presidential Inaugural Committee will host 10 official inaugural balls:
_ Neighborhood Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
_ Obama Home States (Illinois and Hawaii) Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
_ Biden Home States (Pennsylvania and Delaware) Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
_ Midwest Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
_ Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
_ Western Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
_ Commander in Chief’s Ball at the National Building Museum.
_ Southern Inaugural Ball at the National Guard Armory.
_ Eastern Inaugural Ball at Union Station.
_ Youth Inaugural Ball at the Washington Hilton.
Unofficial balls include:
_ Congressional Black Caucus Inaugural Ball at the Capitol Hilton.
_ Creative Coalition Inaugural Ball at the Harman Center for the Arts.
_ Recording Industry Association of America’s ball for Feeding America.
_ BET’s Inaugural Ball at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
_ Africa on the Potomac inaugural celebration at Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va.
_ American Music Inaugural Ball at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
_ Inaugural Purple Ball at the Fairmont Hotel.
_ Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Ball at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel.
_ Inaugural Peace Ball at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
_ Impact Film Fund ball.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21
_ The president, vice president and their families will participate in a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.
You can watch live moments of Obama Inauguration in these sites
http://cnn.com/live
http://bbc.com/obama
More interestingly, GeoEye-1, the powerful imagery satellite that is perhaps best known as the “Google satellite” , will be focusing its lens on the Inauguration of President Obama . The company notes that while there will be plenty of cameras covering the event on the ground, and some in the air, GeoEye-1 will be the only one offering a perspective from space.
The satellite will be 423 miles above Washington, D.C. on January 20 at 11:19AM EDT. While it will be moving 17,000 miles per hour, it will still be able to look down at the Earth and see objects about a half meter in size. The image above (which I actually had to shrink due to upload size limits) is one the satellite took a few weeks ago of the area. Last month, we posted a picture that the satellite took of Google’s campus.
