UMaine Jordan Planetarium Invites Star-Gazers to April 4 ‘Stella-Baloo’
Contact: Alan Davenport, 581-1341; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — The universe will open for discovering stars, planets and more when “Stella-Baloo” comes to the UMaine campus April 4, a public event sponsored by the Maynard F. Jordan Planetarium and the Penobscot Valley Star Gazers (PVSG).
As part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 celebration, the Bangor-area day of discovery activities — titled Stella-Baloo — is open to the public from 1-10 p.m. It presents a rare opportunity for families to explore astronomy and the world of telescopes, and also to learn through hands-on activities and demonstrations.
Stella-Baloo is free, and includes refreshments. Program schedules can be downloaded at either the PVSG web site (www.gazers.org) or the Jordan Planetarium site (www.galaxymaine.com).
Afternoon events include an on-going “Star Cat Prowl,” a series of activities that explore all types of space and sky topics. Children who complete the Prowl will earn a Science Lion certificate and a chance to win one of several Galileo telescope kits to be awarded. The Prowl includes identification of a glowing gas, making a constellation projector and four-season sky guide, seeing different telescope types and having a photograph taken with the Jordan Observatory’s 10-foot Alvan Clark refractor telescope.
Stella-Baloo featured events, based at the planetarium in Wingate Hall, include a PVSG telescope clinic and a primer on buying telescopes for aspiring astronomers, an Astro-Science Demonstration program with physics lecturer David Clark and, weather permitting, daytime sun viewing and night sky talk and telescope party at the Jordan Observatory. Daytime activities run from 1-5 p.m.; night programs begin at 7 p.m., rain or shine.
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s work with an early, homemade optical tube that proved the Earth orbits the sun and not the other way around.
Many organizations around the world are participating in the celebration. Some of the events this month alone include “Globe at Night” (March 16-28), “Earth Hour 2009” (March 28), “100 Hours of Astronomy,” (April 2-5), and National Sidewalk Astronomy Day (April 4). Earth Hour 2009 is an initiative in which billions of people world-wide are being asked to reduce light pollution by turning off the lights for an hour at 8:30 p.m. local time, and look to the skies.
The Jordan Planetarium also will celebrate the International Year of Astronomy with a special program on the history and modern uses of telescopes, “Two Small Pieces of Glass: The Amazing Telescope,” which the planetarium will premier this spring.
For more information and mailed schedules, call the Planetarium 207-581-1341.