Look, up in the sky
A celebration of nature’s fireworks will take place a bit before the Fourth of July.
Friday, June 30 is Meteor Watch Day, and night.
A meteor, sometimes called a “shooting star,” is space debris from a comet or asteroid that burns when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.
Shawn Laatsch, director of the Emera Astronomy Center and Jordan Planetarium, says millions of meteors — most the size of grains of sand or dust — enter the Earth’s atmosphere each day. While this totals about 100 tons of space debris, it all burns up in the atmosphere.
Laatsch has been fascinated by space since his grandfather showed him the Big Dipper — the seven brightest stars of the constellation Ursa Major.
And in second grade, he volunteered at a planetarium show in his hometown of Wausau, Wisconsin and got to “turn out the lights and turn on the stars.”
He was hooked. Laatsch enjoyed all things space, including the 1977 movie “Star Wars” and Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” book and PBS series.
Now Laatsch, who also is president of the International Planetarium Society, is sharing more about archaeoastronomy — the role of astronomy in ancient cultures and civilizations, including to track days and plant crops.
The planetarium has programs at 7 p.m. Fridays for the public to learn more about the sky. Information about summer offerings at the Emera Astronomy Center is available on the website.