The Minnesota Planetarium and Space Discovery Center

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

June eNewsletter from the Minnesota Planetarium Society

In this issue from the Minnesota Planetarium Society

Celebrate the Summer Solstice with the Minnesota Planetarium Society
President's Message
Happenings in Space
June Skies

Celebrate the International Year of Astronomy and the Summer Solstice

Come celebrate the arrival of summer with the Minnesota Planetarium Society at the Minneapolis Central Library on Monday, June 22 from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This event is co-sponsored by the Library Foundation of Hennepin County. Here is your chance to travel past the Sun out into the universe through the Society’s ExploraDome sky theater that has been wowing school kids throughout Minnesota, learn something new about astronomy and telescopes from the MN Astronomical Society, and expose your kids to the world of Astronomy through Astronomically-related games. We also hope you'll take this opportunity to see the future site of the Minnesota Planetarium and learn more about how we can make it a reality.

ExploraDome shows will be held on the half-hour. The dome holds 25 at a time, so reservations are recommended. To reserve your spot, please send your name, phone number and time (by the half-hour) to the phone number or email address below. The 6:30 show is a special presentation in Pohlad hall featuring our planetarium colleagues around the world, and is open to all.

The Minnesota Astronomical Society will be there to talk telescopes and give hands on help. Astronomically-related games for kids and other displays make this worth a drop in visit anytime between 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. We hope you can come out for a wonderful night with the Minnesota Planetarium Society!

Summer Solstice Celebration

Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall

Monday June 22

4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Send ExploraDome reservation requests to:

sally@mplanetarium.org OR

651-999-7300

Please include name, number in your party, and time, with your phone number or email address for confirmation.

Other activities do not require reservations.

This celebration is free and open to all, so spread the word!

The International Year of Astronomy is a celebration of numerous astronomical and scientific milestones, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope to study the skies. iya2009.org

A Happening Time at MNPS

On July 20,1969, Neil Armstrong’s first words from the moon were, “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.” Today, a different eagle has landed. The Planetarium Society will soon move its office to the Central Library on Third and Nicollet. This may seem like one small step but it is a giant leap for all of us.

As we relocate to our permanent address, our public partners: Hennepin County, the City of Minneapolis and the State of Minnesota are all enthusiastically behind our efforts. We have the momentum to move forward with raising the operating and capital money to build a state of the art planetarium for all Minnesotans and support first-rate program development for science, technology, engineering and math education.

As you reflect on that historic event, remember your first trip to a planetarium and the wonder that experience stirred in your imagination. Consider the enormous impact our Planetarium will have on our children.

Angus Vaughan, President, MNPS

A Happening Time in Space

Since our last newsletter, space has been a busy place. The groundbreaking Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared) ran out of liquid helium coolant after 5 years and 9 months of operation, way beyond the 2.5 years initially specified. It will continue as a "warm" mission with two of its less-sensitive detectors. But in the same week, the Hubble Space Telescope got some marvelous new eyes, and the European Space Agency launched Herschel and Planck. Hubble's new WFC3 camera will give it greatly improved sensitivity in the ultraviolet and near infrared bands, sure to lead to exciting new pictures of ionized gas regions around hot stars. Herschel has the largest mirror ever put in space, and its infrared detectors will study the origins of planets, stars and galaxies. And Planck is the next generation of satellites to study the tiny but important details of the cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang.

To top off this fantastic week in space, check out the picture at antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090516.html.

Bright, Shiny Happenings in the June Skies

Around 10pm the Big Dipper is almost overhead. Follow the handle of the Dipper to “arc to Arcturus”, a ruddy star in Bootes. Continue along that same line to “speed on to Spica” in Virgo, about 30 degrees above the SSW horizon. To your right, Saturn shines about the same altitude above the WSW horizon and Regulus in Leo lies about 15 degrees right and lower of Saturn. Reddish Antares in Scorpius shines brightly in the low SSE. In the east, bright Vega in Lyra dominates about half way between zenith and horizon. From Vega, Altair shines lower to the east and Deneb is lower to the NE.

For the early risers look east at about 5am to see bright Jupiter in the south and brilliant Venus in the east. Good sources of sky maps include
skyandtelescope.com/skychart
skymaps.com
heavens-above.com

Happy summer solstice on June 21.

Moon conjunction highlights

Date	Time	Look for
June 6	9:15 pm	Moon blocks Antares in Minneapolis (tough to see in twilight)
June 13	after 1 am	Bright Jupiter near Moon
June 19	5 am	Brilliant Venus near Moon (faint Mars just above Venus)
June 26	10 pm	Regulus right of Moon
June 27	10 pm	Saturn above and right of Moon