Need a printable star chart for the current season?   Click here!  

For: April 21-27

On Tuesday night the planetarium welcomes recording artists “Stars of the Lid” for a live concert in the dome at 8pm.   Tickets are free but can only be obtained through the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. 

Thursday evening from 5:30 to 8:30pm, we will partner with WILL television, the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum, Central Illinois Aerospace, local libraries, the Krannert Art Museum, the Chanute Air Museum and others for “Rocket Into Space.”   Watch a large rocket launch, see a short planetarium show, and participate in continuous activities for the kids in this free event.   

This Friday and Saturday at 8pm, we present the last film in our festival, “To Fly.”  This was the first two-story tall film shown by the planetarium and the inaugural film presented by the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

For:  April 28 – May 4

If you are a boy scout in need of assistance to acquire the Astronomy Merit Badge, the Staerkel Planetarium has two upcoming workshops where we got through strategies for each of the requirements.  You can attend either May 7 or May 13 from 7pm to 9:30pm, but advance registration is required.  See our web site for more information and a registration form. 

This weekend the planetarium also opens a program on Native American astronomy called “Spirits From the Sky, Thunder on the Land.”   This is a wonderfully written show by the Adler Planetarium on how the Pawnee tribe saw the sky and used it as a calendar.  See our web site for a full schedule. 

The Last Quarter Moon will rise at 1am tonight in the southeast.

For:  May 5 - 11

Get ready for the best evening showing of the planet Mercury of the year! Being the closest to the Sun, Mercury is not easy to locate. There are only a few times during the year when you can catch a good glimpse of it. Mercury is nicely place in the west-northwest for the entire month of May. New Moon occurs tonight. Look tomorrow night for a thin crescent Moon in the northwest. Mercury will be just below the Moon and a little to the left.

The Moon continues eastward each night until Saturday when it will appear near the Beehive Star Cluster in the constellation of Cancer. Saturday also marks another open house at the CUAS Observatory, southwest of Champaign. Join us if the skies are clear. See www.cuas.org for directions.

For: May 12-18

Tonight our Moon, just past its first quarter phase, is near the star Regulus in Leo and the planet Saturn. Saturn will be the brighter of the two and farther east. Saturn is wonderfully placed for viewing in the evening sky so, if it is clear tonight, get that telescope out and use it! The rings can be seen at about a ten degree tilt - something we won’t see for a couple of years. Saturn is also at a point in its orbit where a line drawn from the Sun to the Earth, then to Saturn makes a 90 degree angle. During this time, you should be able to see the shadow of the planet itself on the ring system.

Also don’t forget Mercury, which reaches its highest point above the horizon at dusk in the west-northwest.

For:  May 19-25

The planet Mars appears as a relatively bright reddish “star” about halfway up in the western sky. Since Mars orbits the Sun, it will slowly appear to move eastward in front of the background stars. If you have binoculars, you’re in for an interesting sight in the sky this Thursday and Friday night. Mars will appear to pass in front of a star cluster called M44 or the Beehive. The Beehive is just visible to the unaided eye in a very dark sky, but binoculars should show it nicely as a loose group of roughly two dozen stars.

For those who like to stay up late on a Friday night, look for the Moon to rise just after midnight below the planet Jupiter.

For:  May 26 - June 1

As we approach the month of June, the planetarium will temporarily reduce its public schedule by suspending Saturday programming and adding Thursday matinees. We’ll do programs for the kids Thursdays at 10 and 11am and then have our regular Friday night shows. Of special interest is a brand new show called “Solar System Safari” that takes into account all of the changes in how we view the solar system, such as “what is a planet?” For those who didn’t get to see their favorite 35mm wide-screen films in March and April, know that we are running them again on Friday nights. Be sure to check out our schedule at www.parkland.edu/planetarium.

Congratulations to all of the local high school graduates, including my daughter Randi, of whom I’m very proud. Good luck!