Star Party

At Minocqua Winter Park on May 7, 2022

Event Details

Stargazing with the Northwoods Explorers at the Minocqua Winter Park, Saturday, May 7th. Program begins 8:30, stargazing 9-10:30 PM

With good weather we hope to view the crescent moon with many of its craters, then a few deep sky objects far from our Milky Way -- M101 The Pinwheel Galaxy some 21 million light years distant and M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy 23 million light years away, and M81 and M82, two galaxies that are 12 million light years away. All of these are Spiral Galaxies, similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our other targets will be M3 and M13, which are Globular Clusters, each with hundreds of thousands of stars in a cluster. These objects are part of our galaxy but not in the spiral arms, instead they are found above and below the spiral disk of the Milky Way Galaxy. Come learn more about how these objects fit into the big picture.

Program begins at 8:30 with a short talk on our place in Space.

White light flashlights are NOT ALLOWED! Please use red lights or cover your white light with many layers of red cellophane or a thick red balloon. A white light shined into dark-adapted eyes is painful, and ruins their view for another twenty minutes and they might miss something important!

If the weather doesn't cooperate, we will hold a short program inside the Chalet.

Visit the Northwoods Explorer's website for more information. https://www.thenorthwoodsexplorers.org/