On May 6, 2017 nearly 300 people gathered at the RAFES observatory for UNT’s monthly star party. This one, however, was different, as Explorium invaded the property with live music, activities and more.
As the sun began to set, Mellow Mushroom arrived to set up their pizza truck, and Kona Ice set up their famous shaved ice truck. Live music played soothingly from the 7Feathers area as local musicians took to the mic to entertain the crowd. Children made meteors out of clay, had their faces painted, and bought glow sticks to hang around their necks and wrists for fun in the dark.
The quiet of the evening lent itself to informatve and educational ‘Star Talks’ about what was going on in the universe that night. Children and their families explored the property and looked through all the various telescopes set up in domes, huts, and around the ‘Star Talk’ landing. Volunteer students from UNT and Ryan High School helped children with crafts, directed traffic, and sold raffle tickets to raise money for our emerging children’s museum.
Several prizes were donated by local artists, businesses and friends of the museum. Part of the ticket sales for the evening were also given to Explorium to help us launch our project.
If you missed out, don’t worry! UNT does a star party every first Saturday of the month, 30 minutes before sunset. Check their website for details: http://astronomy.unt.edu/starparties.html
As always, we appreciate everyone who attended and showed interest in our project. And a big THANK YOU to UNT for their partnership!
Enjoy this recap of our Star Party: