We've already had a number of science-focused events with young people at the White House, including Astronomy Night a few weeks ago.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Kicks Off "Educate to Innovate"

Even so, it is attracting a lot of attention at the astronomy meeting, including from heavyweights such as Michael Turner from the University of Chicago and the National Science Foundation.

NPR: New Clue to Universe's Darkest Mystery

He bought thousands of books including works on music, mathematics, astronomy, history, geography, magic, theology and philosophy.

ECONOMIST: Spanish empire

The installations dabble in every scientific discipline, including electricity, sensory perception, weather, light, astronomy and sociology.

CNN: San Francisco's Exploratorium opens in sparkling new home

The astronomy community has a long history of descriptive yet fairly unimaginative names - including the VLA itself, the Very Large Telescope in Chile, and the yet-to-be-built European Extremely Large Telescope (the design for which was chosen over the alternative Overwhelmingly Large Telescope).

BBC: Very Large Array telescope in public call for new name