NEWS RELEASE
UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
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The Arboretum at the University of Guelph is offering a series of planetarium programs. Guest instructor Trevor Chandler will lead these programs inside his planetarium. The first night is on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Two other programs are available on June 13 and July 16, 2019. Families are welcome and encouraged although children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
The planetarium series will highlight the night sky that is visible in the evening sky at the time of the presentation. These presentations will change from month to month and season to season as our planet “goes through the motions."
Constellations and objects that are visible at a given time of year will be looked at and time will be spent getting to know a selected region of the sky in greater detail.
At least one constellation will be selected each month, highlighting its mythology and brighter stars including their names, lore and meaning, and then few of the astronomical objects located within the boundaries of the featured constellation will be looked at. If weather conditions permit, participants may be invited outside under the stars to see the real deal through a telescope.
Our May, 2019 featured Constellation is Virgo, the maiden. Virgo is the second largest constellation in the sky. It is also a Zodiac constellation, meaning that the sun, moon, and planets sometimes pass through its boundaries. Its Lucila (brightest star) is one of the bluest in the sky, a beautiful beacon called Spica.
Virgo also contains The Realm of the Galaxies, an enormous concentration of distant galaxies of which our very own Milky Way galaxy is an outlying member.
At the center of this realm lies a truly gargantuan galaxy given the very small name of M87. At the very heart of M87 lies one of the largest supermassive black holes known, which was photographed for the very first time in April 2019.
The registration fee $15 per person plus a $10 fee per transaction plus H.S.T. (you can register multiple people per transaction and multiple planetarium programs per transaction).
Please register by May 7, 2019 to help ensure there are enough people to run the program. Registration and further information is online at: www.uoguelph.ca/arboretum. For more information call The Arboretum at 824-4120 extension 52358.
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