Astronomy Day on Saturday

Grand Teton National Park will join with the Jackson Hole Astronomy Club to celebrate Grand Teton Astronomy Day on Saturday, August 11th. Several family-oriented activities are planned, offering park visitors and local residents an opportunity to learn about stars, star clusters, sunspots, galaxies and much more.

Several astronomy-themed videos will be shown in the Colter Bay Visitor Center auditorium including a showing of the highly acclaimed documentary “The City Dark – A Search for Night on a Planet that Never Sleeps” at noon.  Specially filtered telescopes will be available to safely view sunspots and other solar features from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. on the back deck of the Colter Bay Visitor Center.
At 9 p.m., Robert Hoyle, former professor of astronomy and park ranger, will present a program at the Colter Bay Amphitheater titled, “Watchers of the Sky.” This educational program focuses on the cultural history of astronomy and how early sky watching evolved into the sciences of astronomy and astrophysics.

As a finale, several telescopes will be set up from 10 p.m. to midnight along the shore of Colter Bay for participants to view stars, galaxies, nebulae and other celestial objects. Anyone planning to attend the evening program and telescope observation session should dress warmly as evening temperatures at Colter Bay can be quite chilly, even in August.

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