Planetarium show &

Telescope viewing

The El Camino College astronomy department will host a free planetarium show AND telescope viewing session, open to everyone, on Friday,April 21, beginning at 6:30 p.m.The event will begin in the planetarium, followed by a telescope viewing session on the roof of the math building starting at approximately 8:00 p.m., weather permitting.

Also,there will be an “early bird” planetarium show for ECC employees, their families and any eager, early arrivals. This show will begin at 5:00 p.m. so ECC employees can enjoy the show immediately following their workday. Both shows are open to everyone.

Once again, we do this to thank the taxpayers of our district for supporting Measure E, our school bond initiative, which allowed the astronomy department to purchase our new planetarium projector. We are hoping to offer events like this once per month for the next few months. Watch for upcoming announcements.

For those of you who aren't familiar with whatour planetarium show is, please read on.

·  Have you ever wondered what the Los Angeles night sky would look like if there was no light pollution?

·  Would you like to learn some constellations that are visible in the spring night sky?

·  Are you curious what that bright object was in the sky that was visible a few nights ago?

·  Are you curious which of the objects in the sky are stars and which are planets?

·  Would you like to know what the Moon looks like tonight?

·  Do you wonder what the location of the Sun, Moon, and planets were at the time you were born?

·  Are you curious about how the sky will look like in 10,000 years? Or maybe 2000 years ago?

We will answer all of these questions and more!

Have you ever seen:

·  the Milky Way?

·  other nearby galaxies, with your naked eye?

·  anything as it actually appeared 2 million years ago, without human re-creation or animation?

·  the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) or the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis)?

·  a meteor (a.k.a. a falling star or a shooting star)?

·  a meteor shower or meteor storm?

·  a manmade satellite orbiting Earth?

After the planetarium show, the answer to all of these will be YES! All will be visible in the planetarium and some will be visible with the telescopes after the planetarium show. Saturn will be spectacular! Come enjoy the skies, both the way the ancients did and in ways they could only dream about.

For more information, contact David Vakil at (310) 660-3134 or by email at .

A weather update will be placed on voicemail at (310) 660-3373.

Friday, April 21, 2006