Viewing the Night Sky

Saturday, May 22 • 9:30 p.m. • Lowe-Volk Park • 2401 State Route 598

Join members of the Crawford Park Astronomy Club as they share their knowledge and telescope skills with all who are interested in the celestial sights. Some of the targets for the spring are:

M41 – 2,300 light years away is Canis Major, an open cluster 4 degrees south of Sirius

Mars – is very favorable for a while longer

Castor – is 370 million years old, 50 light years away, consists of multiple stars and contains the 20th brightest star in the sky

NGC 2392 –discovered in 1787 by William Herschel, the Clown Face Nebula is 5000 light years away, found in Gemini

NGC 2632 – a very pretty sight is the Beehive Cluster, sometimes referred to as the Northern Jewel Box

M50 – an open cluster in Monoceros is 2,870 light years away, and contains 508 stars

M42 – the great nebula of Orion is 1,300 light years away and 12 light years across, and is the birthplace of stars

Andromeda Galaxy – the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way, a real sight to behold

Pleiades – 410 light years away, visible with binoculars, very young at only 20 million years old

Hyades – open star cluster 153 light years away, moving away from us at 100,000 mph

Crab Nebula – super nova remanent

Sirius – the brightest star in the sky is the Dog Star

North Star – also known as Polaris, is a double star

Asterism – Three Leaps of the Gazelle, once you have to shown to you, you’ll wonder why you didn’t notice it before!

Asterism – Big Dipper, our guide to the North star, includes a double star

There are a lot of other objects to view. What we see will depend on what the clouds are doing.

Book Club

Tuesday, May 25 • 6 p.m. • Lowe-Volk Park • 2401 State Route 598

Do you love nature and also love to read? With the abundance of books available for nature lovers, sometimes it is hard to choose the next great book to read. Join the Crawford Park District’s Book Club and we will figure it out together! Pre-registration is recommended as the club will be limited to 15 members. Come armed with your favorite book about nature or a nature centered book you want to read and be ready to make your case to the club! Meetings are held at the Lowe-Volk Park Nature Center the last Tuesday of each month

Infant Explorers: Flowers

Wednesday, May 26 • 5 p.m. • Lowe-Volk Park • 2401 State Route 598

Your first instinct may be to keep your babies indoors, but research tells us that infants in outdoor spaces benefit from access to a wide variety of sensory stimuli which they just can’t experience indoors. Join Crawford Park District Naturalist Abby and baby Vincenzo for a program about flowers that will engage your infants’ senses and get parents and baby out of the house for some fresh air! Dress for the weather, we will be outside for at least part of the program.