On Friday, January 31st, we had a planetarium show for the public, where the audience visited planets in our solar system, accompanied by the music of Beethoven. We answered the question: why to planets sometimes seem to move backwards in the sky? We had two shows, with one sold out!
The Bridgewater-Roxbury-Washington boy scouts visited the planetarium on Wednesday, January 17th, for a show and stargazing event. This event prepared the scouts for meeting the requirements of the Astronomy merit badge, and introduced them to the scale and structure of the solar system, the night sky, and more. Thanks to Pierce Johnson (Shepaug Junior, class of 2026) for presenting the size and scale of the solar system and stars.
On Friday, Dec 6, the Astronomy club hosted Northern Lights planetarium shows. These short (10 min) shows allowed us to view the northern lights in the planetarium by accessing the NOAA aurora forecast to find the best location on Earth for viewing them at that time. We also looked at sunspots and explored the connection between sunspots and the northern lights. In addition, we also offered a short tour of the solar system.
This photo shows the aurora forecast and the northern lights as shown in the Shepaug planetarium.
On Tuesday, November 26th, Mr. Peters's AP/ECE European history class came to the planetarium to explore the models and discoveries that were part of the Copernican Revolution. The students saw the contributions and models of Ptolomey, Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Newton and Galileo.
On Friday, November 22nd, the Astronomy club visited the John J. McCarthy Observatory, in New Milford. Thanks so much to the volunteer staff at the Observatory for teaching our students how to use their fabulous computerized telescope, and also for showing us their collection of meteorites.
Ms. Gambino’s Video Game Design class visited the planetarium on Monday, Nov 18, to gather background information for their space video game design project. Students had brainstormed areas of interest, including spacecraft design, spacecraft launches, galaxies and space exploration. Mr. Hermans presented examples of spacecraft, exoplanetary systems, black holes, asteroids, galaxies and the known universe.
On Friday, Nov 8th, the Shepaug Astronomy Club hosted a telescope making demonstration, with guest speakers from the Springfield Telescope Makers from Springfield, VT, and the John J. McCarthy Observatory in New Milford. Participants got to try out the experience of hand-grinding a telescope mirror, and also learned about different telescope designs. The goal was to leave everyone with the sense that they did have the ability to build their own telescope, and that the process would be both fun and challenging.
Eli Goldfine demonstrates the technique for rough-grinding an 8" telescope mirror.
On Friday, November 25th, the Astronomy club had a planetarium show about the origins of the Comet Tsuchishan-ATLAS, and afterwards observed the comet and other objects with telescopes. The comet, which was visible to the naked eye as recently as November 20th, was spectacular in a telescope, with a tail that stretched for at least 6-degrees of the sky. We also observed the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13), the Double Cluster in Perseus, and several multiple-star systems: Alberio, Polaris and Epsilon Lyrae (the Double-Double). Kudos to Astronomy Club member Pierce Johnson for setting up and running some of the telescopes.
The Shepaug Planetarium presented a domecast from the US Space and Rocket Center, Music of the Spheres, featuring a musical performance by Tchaikowsky Competition-winning violinist Itamar Zorman. The live show was created by the staff at the the Intuitive Planetarium in Huntsville, Alabama, and was streamed live to our planetarium at Shepaug School. Mr. Zorman's performance was also streamed. In addition to his performance, we were able to hear his thoughts and commentary on the show. The planetarium staff and Mr. Zorman collaborated on selecting topics and visuals that complemented the music. Highlights included a tour of Tycho Crater on the Moon accompanied by Debussy's "Clair de Lune," and a Supernova explosion paired with Philip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach."
