Stargazing

Rem and I recently enjoyed an evening out at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.  It was a fun and educational visit.

I was fascinated by many of the exhibits.  Some were aimed at a younger audience but Rem and I both found them interesting.

I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of living on the International Space Station – their schedules, food, working weightless and more in the exhibit “Beyond Blastoff”.

Another exhibit, “Touch the Sun” has some incredible real time close-up images of the sun.

Chabot has a ‘dinner and a movie’ program that included entrance to the center and all the exhibits, dinner (with candlelight and flowers), the Planetarium show (if you attend the earlier dinner) and entry to a movie, which that night was Men in Black!

When the movie ended, shortly before 9PM, it was just getting dark enough outside for stargazing.

We were able to view the moon, stars and planets through one of the three giant telescopes that are part of the center as well as several other smaller telescopes set up by hobbyist, amateur astronomers and students.  The moon was stunning through the lens of the telescope.

We also saw Saturn (though I didn’t see much in the way of rings beyond a fuzzy blur of gasses) and a pair of stars, one shining gold and the other blue.

Chabot is not that far from home but we just hadn’t made it over there until now.  If you live in the area, please consider a visit.  Here is a link to other observatories around the country. Take a look and see if there is one close enough for a visit: US Observatories.

For another kind of stargazing, we went to see recently unveiled statues in a new park in my hometown of San Anselmo.

Wise Yoda.

Indiana Jones, from the movie created in San Anselmo in 1974.  However, my mom and I rather like the idea that we have a statue of Harrison Ford in town.

It is a sweet little park..

Thank you for coming by.