Manfred Olson Planetarium

One of my favorite activities is to give guided tours of the night sky to people in the planetarium. I show the audience how to extend the Pointer stars, the front ones of the Big Dipper, four to five times to locate the North Star. This time of year, I ask the audience to repeat the saying “Arc to Arcturus and spy Spica” to find a bright red star in Boötes and the brightest star in Virgo, respectively.  I also point out that the Summer Triangle straddles the Milky Way, the collective light that comes from billions of stars in the plane of our galaxy.

Earlier this summer, I had an opportunity to go on a sailboat on Lake Michigan with Victoria and stargaze offshore. We were able to see bright Venus in the west over Milwaukee’s skyline with the sky in many shades of orange fading into blues. I used my own advice in the planetarium to hop from one constellation to another.  About an hour from the shore, we were able to see many constellations such as Cepheus, Cygnus, and Hercules as easy as you like. We were not able to see Virgo (most stars were embedded in the city glow) or any stars of Aquila other than Altair. But we were able to see the Milky Way, which I haven’t seen in 30 years in person since I was a graduate student observing at the James Clark Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

For most of us, seeing a dark sky is not something we can do every day. I am thrilled that the planetarium gives more people the opportunity to experience the beauty and awe of the night sky.