Seeing stars with Stellar Vista at Fredonia Public Library

Friends joined from Orderville, Kanab and Fredonia on Wednes­day, January 14, at Fredonia Public Li­brary. Eric and Mi­chael from Stellar Vista Observatory were there to teach us all about the science of light.

Geared toward youth, but interest­ing enough to keep adults and children engaged, we learned about the spectrum of colors present in each type of light. Eric had special cards we could look through to see the light and we tried them on many differ­ent types of bulbs that Michael brought from home for experiment­ing. The kids learned how to graph and compare the presence of the various colors and described the ap­pearance of the bands of light.

As the night pro­gressed, we were able to move outside and measure the light in the night sky in various parts of the parking lot. We were taught that these mea­surements can help us know if the sky is healthy. Not only is it nice to be able to see the starry sky, but many animals depend on a healthy night sky. The darkest spot we were able to measure was just over 20 and the darkest measure­ment on the scale is 23 so we’re not doing too bad!

We ended the night viewing Saturn and Orion’s belt with the telescopes and a cup of hot cocoa. Thank you, Stellar Vista Observa­tory, for a fun evening. We will do it again on February 12, at 6 p.m., and hope you will come join us!