Every year, the Naperville Astronomical Association hosts Family Night during one of our fundamentals in the summer. This year’s Family Night will be held on Tuesday, July 16th!
What can you expect during our Family Fun(damentals) Night? We will have hands-on activities for the family to share some astronomy related information. We promise your children won’t even realize they are learning during the summer, while they interact with our exhibits. We will share the constellations and illustrate the astronomical distances involved. Kids of all ages will be able to participate in hands-on activities while they learn how craters are formed, and about other astronomy related topics.
May ’25 — Rick’s Picks
Transient Events That Can Give Us a Good Enough Reason to Get Outside and Do a Little Observing All month: the planets continue their exodus from the evening sky this month. Uranus is now lost in the solar glare – it will reach conjunction on May 17 and return as a...
Astronomy Fundamentals: A Look at the History of Alvan Clark Telescopes
In the 19th century, Alvan Graham Clark was one of the premier lens makers for telescopes. His craftsmanship was sought after and many observatories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were built to house his refractor telescopes. In fact, smaller Alvan Clark...
The Cosmologist’s Puzzle: The Age and Expansion Rate of the Universe.
We are confused about how old the Universe is. Until recently, astronomers estimated that the Big Bang occurred between 12 and 14 billion years ago. Astronomers can place a lower limit to the age of the universe by studying globular clusters. Globular clusters are a...
April ’25 – Rick’s Picks
Transient Events That Can Give Us a Good Enough Reason to Get Outside and Do a Little ObservingAll month: the solar system balances morning and evening targets this month as Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Neptune move into the predawn sky, while Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus...