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| Volume 23 Number 2 |
Memphis, Tennessee |
November – December 2007 |
In this issue:
- The sky is falling! You can watch it happen when you observe nature’s fireworks, coming soon to a sky near you.
- Heavens-Above is a Website to help you determine when you can observe the International Space Station and other satellites in your sky.
- Bad Astronomy.com is a Web site devoted to correcting some of the poor science information and misconceptions people have about things astronomical.
- The Kepler Mission is a NASA program which will search for extra-solar planets that are Earth-like and which may be inside the habitable zone of their parent star.
- The International Polar Year is an international effort to study the Earth’s north and south poles over a span of 24 months. Will they discover the secret location of Santa’s workshop?
- Pluto: “It Is What It Is,” say astronomers who are displeased with the International Astronomical Union committee’s decison to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet.
- The Starcount project is an interesting way to get directly involved with NASA using only your brain, your eyes, and a discarded toilet paper tube.
- Podcasts are a new way to keep up with the latest space and astronomy news whether the major networks report it or not.
- Les Etoiles Francaises! A new star show presented in the French language is showing in our star theater.
- Moon Phases will display the current appearance of our Moon, its “age” since the start of its latest journey around the Earth began, what fraction of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun, and the upcoming significant phases of our nearest celestial neighbor. Your browser must be able to run Java applets to display this page correctly.
Visit our award winning ThinkQuest Web sites:
Download and install 
if your computer doesn’t already
have the ability to view and print PDF files.
Multimedia Star Show Study Guides contain
statistical information about the solar system, a glossary of terms used in
each program, and activities for classroom use before and after your visit
to Craigmont Planetarium.
- Our Place in Space is a program for kindergarten
and first grade in which students help animal characters solve a crossword
puzzle. We learn why we have day and night, what makes the Sun appear so big,
and why it seems to move across the sky. We invent star pictures, and we travel
through and beyond our solar system to learn about our place in space.
- The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket is a program
for grades 2 and 3. Two young children build a cardboard rocket and explore
the solar system. They travel into the stormy clouds of Jupiter and fly through
the rings of Saturn. They land on Venus, our Moon, Mars, and Pluto, and fly
past Mercury, Uranus, and Neptune.
- Lunar Odyssey has something for every member
of the family. We pay tribute to the first Moon landing missions and to the
rocket pioneers who made space exploration possible. Join us as we revisit
the Moon in the future and become tourists. See what hotel accomodations on
the Moon might be like in one sixth of Earth’s normal gravity. Learn
the origin of the Moon and explore its mythology too.
Read Dennis Cowles’ scholarly astronomy articles:
These articles were originally published in Southern Skies, journal of the Southeastern Planetarium Association. They are excellent research, resource, and background information. As time permits we will put more of them online.
We last updated Skylights Online
on October 24, 2007.
Contributors: Billie Castle, Arthur Goodell, Rachel Hildebrand, Amy Moody, Michelle Picheloupe, and Chelsea Wagner
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