Mar. 02, 2011 - Issue #802 : Education 2011
Look up
Star Party reveals the cosmos
"Because of our northern latitude and long winter nights, we are able to see events that are more difficult to see in the south," co-ordinator and astronomer Sherrilyn Jahrig shares, "and a lot of those have to do with things that don't happen often, like the appearance of certain comets."
Edmonton also occupies prime real estate to witness various other cosmic phenomena such as noctilucent clouds and a great deal of Aurora. As Jahrig explains, "If we didn't have light pollution in Edmonton we could actually see aurora quite often. But most people haven't seen it. They have to get out to a dark place."
Elk Island Park offers just the right recluse from artificial light. Hundreds of telescopes and assistants will be stationed on picturesque Astotin Lake on Saturday night. In addition, this year the Star Party will also offer expensive night vision telescopes and goggles to use.
Besides star gazing, the festival also offers a wide variety of activities and heated venues to warm up in. The golf course restaurant will be alive with dining and a lantern-lit patio for dancing. Children can revel in the Snowlar System—the massive orbits carved in the snow. All kinds of games, prizes and zipfy sleds will be provided free of charge.
Come shed the cloak of street lights and witness the majesty of the stars. Shuttles to Elk Island Park leave from Kingsway Mall on the half hour starting at 3 pm until 8 pm. V
Sat, Mar 5 (4 pm – 10 pm)
Star Party
Part of the Winter Light Festival
Edmonton City Hall (moved from Elk Island Park)
WINTERLIGHT.CA
More stories in Snow Zone »
vueweekly.com comments: powered by DisqusPrivacy Policy:
Vue respects your privacy. We will not forward your personal information to any other organization except as required by law, and will use your e-mail address only to respond to your comments. We reserve the right to edit and remove comments for length, clarity and/or if they are illegal or inappropriate. Your email address is never shown to visitors to vueweekly.com. Read the whole policy at: http://vueweekly.com/privacy
Comments policy
Comments go online directly without first being seen or reviewed by editors at Vue. Don't personally attack people, don't be defamatory, don't be spam-atory, don't hawk your band, don't pretend to be someone else, be clear, be on topic, be nice. Read our extended comments policy here. »
We use Disqus for our comments system. What's that all about?
We found that managing the comment community at Vue was easier to do with a system like Disqus. If this isn't straightforward to you, get help here.