Giving the Gift of Exploration
I’m about to head out to a meeting of planetarium folk, a conference I’ve attended every two years since 1978. It’s always a lot of fun and there’s such a diversity of people who do the job well and love doing it. They give of themselves for the sole purpose of exciting people about astronomy and space science.
I remember my first planetarium visit; it was back in the late 1960s. I’d never heard of a planetarium, yet the moment I stepped in the door, I was taken with the space. It immersed me in the stars. More than 40 years later, I’m still playing in planetarium spaces and loving the experience.
Astronomy (and all science, really) helps us explore the cosmos and understand it. The planetarium helps that understanding, along with the many books and publications dedicated to the subjects. It’s all there, if you want to open your mind to the cosmos, and if you’re lucky enough to have a planetarium nearby, then all the better. It’s exciting science education and I love being a part of it.
Those of us in the northern half of planet Earth are celebrating the beginning of summer today. Summer and late spring are planting times, and for millennia, humans have used this time to grow food. I always think of summer as a gift that we all get in return for the winter and its cold, nasty weather (at least, the winters around where I live).