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Happening
at the Crossroads
January 26,
2009
by Coggin
Heeringa
Like
science centers throughout the world, Crossroads at Big Creek joins
with the Door Peninsula Astronomical Society in celebrating the
International Year of Astronomy 2009. One of the stated goals of IYAR
2009 is encouraging "...people to discover the excitement of personal
discovery like Galileo had when he looked through his first telescope
and saw the details of lunar craters, the moons of Jupiter and other
celestial wonders."
This year is the 400th anniversary of the
year a Tuscan mathematician named Galileo Galilei gazed through his
primitive telescope and changed forever our understanding of the cosmos.
Galileo
observed that like the moon, Venus has phases. He discovered the four
largest moons or Jupiter and he recorded his observations of sunspots
and the rings of Saturn. He also invented a horse-powered pump to raise
water and demonstrated that velocities of falling bodies are not
proportional to their weights.
Because his writings suggested
that the planets circle the Sun, Galileo got into a bit of trouble with
the Catholic Church and the Inquisition, but now he is considered the
Father of Modern Science.
On Saturday, January 31, at 10:30,
Professor Ray Stonecipher launches Crossroads' IYA2009 celebration with
an illustrated lecture: "Galileo" in the lecture hall of the Collins
Learning Center. The program has a suggested donation of $4 for adults
and $1 for students.
Each month of 2009, the Door Peninsula
Astronomical Society will focus on a different aspect of Astronomy. In
February, "Our Solar System" is the theme, with the Featured Activity:
"Spotting Craters" and the featured observing object being the Earth's
own Moon.
Tuesday night, February 3, at 7:00 pm the public is
encouraged to visit the Stonecipher Astronomy Center to learn about Our
Solar System with a program in our new planetarium. Multi-media
activities will enhance the planetarium show and weather permitting,
the Leif Everson Observatory will be open. This program is free and
promises to be exciting.
Elementary school teachers who want
to celebrate IYA 2009 in their classrooms will be pleased to learn
that, thanks to a grant, Crossroads will be offering a $200 scholarship
stipend to any classroom teacher taking the University of
Wisconsin-Green Bay class, " Astronomy in the Elementary School," which
will be held at Crossroads February 20, 21 and March 6. For details and
registration information, go to www.uwbg.edu/educationoutreach. The
enrollment deadline is February 9.
Crossroads is a donor
supported educational complex providing programs for life-long learners
in science, history and the environment. Trails are free and open to
the public. The Collins Learning Center is open daily 2:00-5:00. The
phone is 746-5895.
Many of
the Past News articles may be retrieved from this directory,
indexed and named in the following manner: 080101-news.htm
where
the first two numbers are the year, the second two the month and the
last two the date.
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