Keep Looking Up!

Have you had enough of things that go BOOM in the night?  I thought not.  Have we got an experience for you!

This Friday, July 8 at 9pm at the Lyons Library and Saturday, July 9 at 9pm at the Decatur Sears Center Northeast Nebraska Astronomy Club (NENAC) invites people of all ages to a discusion of “Celestial Fireworks!”  At the end of their lives, stars can do a variety of interesting things: from the surface explosions of white dwarfs, to instabilities in more massive stars that cause them to brighten and fade.  Then there are the supernovae!  A supernovae can increase a star’s brightness to as much as 10 billion suns!  All this has and is going on around us in our own Milky Way Galaxy.  This weekend Pastor Gary Fugman will lead a discussion on the brighter points of these celestial fireworks and you are invited!

Then free July star will be given and explained and, weather permitting, we will observe celestial fireworks in the July night sky with large astronomical telescopes.  Friday, we will observe at the Cory and Tracie Martin residence 3 miles south of Lyons and Saturday we will observe at Fugman Observatory on the south side of Decatur.  You are encouraged to bring your own telescope or binoculars to observe celestial fireworks as well.  The planets Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will also be available to see in the telescopes.

For more information on this and future NENAC presentations, including the August 11 Perseid Meteor Shower Party, google “nenacstars” or call Pastor Gary Fugman at 349-1953 and Keep Looking Up!

Questions for Consideration:

How can the “surface” of a stars be hotter after the star explodes?

Does the fact that you are made of stardust, the remains of exploded stars, give you a sense of unity with the universe?