<<< Return to Newsletter Archives list FEBRUARY INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF ASTRONOMY EVENTS Monday February 23 at the Como Planetarium in St. Paul, MN In conjunction with Galileo's birthday on Feb. 15, NASA is releasing images from its Great Observatories: the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory to more than 100 planetariums, museums, nature centers, and schools across the country. Como Planetarium is a selected site to unveil a large, 9-square-foot print of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 that combines the optical view of Hubble, the infrared view of Spitzer, and the X-ray view of Chandra into one multi-wavelength picture. "It's like using your eyes, night vision goggles, and X-ray vision all at the same time," said Dr. Hashima Hasan, lead scientist for the International Year of Astronomy at NASA Headquarters in Washington. You will be the first in the Twin Cities to see a matched trio of Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra images of Messier 101. Each image shows a different wavelength view of the galaxy that illustrates not only the different science each observatory conducts but also how far astronomy has come since Galileo. This event is co-hosted by the Minnesota Planetarium Society and will include a survey of the current sky and a domecast with the Mayo Planetarium, Rochester, Minnesota. The show begins at 7 p.m. and lasts one hour. Cost is $4 per person. A map to Como Planetarium can be found at planetarium.spps.org/ TECH FEST 2009 A FREE family event where you can
www.theworks.org COMING IN APRIL Participate in the 100 Hours of Astronomy with the Anoka-Ramsey Community College Astronomy Club, Minnesota Planetarium Society, and Minnesota Astronomical Society. Thursday April 2. Details to follow. |
