COMMUNITY NEWS
By Randy B. Young
Correspondent
If winter weather and cabin fever have you feeling like you need “a little space,” Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC and the state’s amateur astronomers have you covered. Once again, Morehead hopes to inspire curious North Carolina citizens from all across the state to bundle up and look up.
Last Friday evening in its historic dome planetarium theater, Morehead announced plans for April’s annual North Carolina Statewide Star Party (ncsciencefestival.org/starparty)—the thirteenth annual statewide celebration of science and astronomy, typically drawing thousands of avid observers.
The event will feature free, public skywatching events at more than 40 sites across the state on April 4-5. Free kits of hands-on astronomy activities are provided to the selected event hosts to help them engage the public at their Star Party events. With sites and event plans being solidified, the goal of Friday’s gathering was matchmaking—pairing participating venues with local astronomers and their telescopes.
As such, representatives from various parks, museums, nature centers and libraries met Friday with Morehead organizers and members of local astronomy clubs like Chapel Hill’s “CHAOS,” the Chapel Hill Astronomical and Observational Society (https://chaosastro.org), and RAC, the Raleigh Astronomy Club (https://raleighastro.org/).
“In Chapel Hill, we’ll be at the Chapel Hill Public Library from 4 to 6 p.m., on Friday, April 4,” Sayle said, adding that several other Triangle sites would be participating, including:
- Wake County Parks at the American Tobacco trail (White Oak parking area),
Friday, April 4, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
- Triangle Land Conservancy (Three Bears Acre site in Creedmoor),
Friday, April 4, 6-10 p.m. (registration required)
- Eno River State Park (Fews Ford Access),
Friday, April 4, 7-8:30 p.m.
- Durham County (Old North Durham Park in Durham),
Friday, April 4, 7-10 p.m.
- Pittsboro (Chatham Community Library),
Saturday, April 5, 2-3:30 p.m.
“At our site on Friday afternoon, it’s going to be primarily lunar observing,” said Dale Morgan, Environmental Educator with the Chapel Hill Public Library. “And we’ve arranged with couple of members of CHAOS to bring their telescopes.”
“There’ll be a lot of hands-on activities,” Morgan added. “Also, we have a new director of the library since May 2023, and she’s an official NASA Solar System Ambassador, so she’s going to give a talk.”
“I’m helping the Chapel Hill library with Dale, so we’ll be there,” said CHAOS president Jayme Hanzak. “We’ll be able to provide a look at the moon, though, and also the Sun through a solar telescope.”
CHAOS President Jayme Hanzak. Photo by Randy Young.
“RAC members are at Durham and Raleigh sites mostly,” Hanzak explained. “RAC is covering venues in Raleigh and maybe farther to the east; CHAOS is basically covering Durham and Chapel Hill. Our members just find out where there’s an astronomer needed.”
With this year’s theme of “Your Place in Space,” the Statewide Star Party will be a signature event of the 2025 North Carolina Science Festival, a month-long celebration of science that happens each April. Launched in 2010, it’s an initiative of UNC’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and has grown into one of the largest celebrations of STEM in the world.
The Science Festival (“ncscifest.org”), highlights the educational, cultural, and financial impact of science in the state, engaging a wide range of public audiences and inspiring future generations. The Statewide Star Party is made possible with the support of North Carolina Space Grant and the NC Science Festival.
“The Space Grant provides the funding that really allows us to make the Star Party (happen),” Morehead Science Education Specialist and Statewide Star Party coordinator Amy Sayle, PhD said at Friday’s gathering.
“The Science Festival started off as a one-week event,” said Morehead’s Mickey Jo Sorrell, who coordinates the Star Party with Sayle and is also CHAOS secretary. “Around the second year, we were contacted by Jobi Bridgers Cook (Associate Director of the NASA/North Carolina Space Grant).”
“I’d also like to credit Denise Young (PhD), who worked for Morehead and now heads the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences,” Sayle added. “She had the (Statewide Star Party) idea first and then gave it to us to make it happen. She used to be here at Morehead and, along with Todd Boyette, she got the North Carolina Science Festival started.”
This April’s highlights for those attending any of the Statewide Star Party events will be myriad, weather permitting of course.
“We picked April 4th and 5th this year because that offers us a first-quarter moon,” Sayle explained, “which is great for hosts who are putting on an evening event, but it’s also great for hosts who are putting on an afternoon event like some are. That way, sites also have the moon as an observing target and also the sun too if they have a safe way of observing.”
Sayle cautioned astronomy fans to investigate the sky beyond the clickbait, as she’s had a number of inquiries related to late January’s “rare planetary alignment.”
“The planets are always aligned,” Sayle said, laughing. “The planets basically orbit the sun in the same plane, and that’s why they’re always looking lined up,” she added. “This doesn’t mean that they’re all clearly visible in the same line across the night sky. The planets are simply at various points in their orbit.”
Still, Sayle admitted that there are plenty of jaw-dropping night-sky sights to see. “I know the planets are doing really fun things right now this month, January,” she said, “and in April, we’ll still have Jupiter and Mars and the moon in the night sky.”
In the meantime, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh will host its annual “Astronomy Days” early in February, featuring representatives from CHAOS, RAC, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, delegates from university physics and astronomy departments, and many other presenters.
“The Solar System is the theme—exploration of the Solar System,” said CHAOS member Walter Fowler. “That’s February 1st and 2nd, but it’s even worth going just to see the museum.”
Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and local astronomers are earning high marks in community engagement—in fact, stellar marks.
This reporter can be reached at Info@TheLocalReporter.press
I thoroughly enjoyed this article, but did not find an explanation of the anagram STEM, nor the term “clickbait”. I’m sure that I can, and will google both.Best regards, James