On July 13, 2016 six graduate students from CIERA participated in Astronomy Night at Ravinia, which was organized by Northwestern alumnus Dr. Donald Lubowich, Coordinator of Astronomy Outreach at Hofstra University. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed a number of pieces inspired by the solar system, and concert-goers also got to view a high-definition movie from NASA on the big screens. Astronomy enthusiasts brought their telescopes and set them up along the sculpture path outside the tent area.
The evening kicked off with #AskAnAstronomer on Ravinias Twitter feed, which was displayed on the big screen. Within the tented area, the CIERA students set up hands-on astronomy demonstrations, from a vacuum pump to show how objects perform in space, to a plasma globe which dazzled the crowds, among several other activities. The students enthusiastically engaged with the public, answering all types of astronomy questions, from the moment gates opened at 5pm, to the very end of the stellar evening at 10pm. Northwestern's Science in Society joined in the fun with a moon-dust demonstration and an art gallery of scientific images. Volunteers from Boeing gave away fun prizes via a trivia game and invited selfies with a life-size cardboard astronaut.
Read the pre-event Northwestern News Story, and post-event coverage in The Daily Northwestern.
Astronomy Night at Ravinia was last held four years ago. See the photo gallery from 2012.
Please click on a photo to see a larger version.
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Graduate Student Michael Zevin with curious learners |
Plasma Ball Demonstration |
Orchestra plays Holst's "The Planets" |
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Graduate Student Paul Williams |
Paul Williams explains distances in our Solar System |
Ravinia screens show #AskAnAstronomer Twitter Feed |
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Crowd at the Science in Society tables |
Science in Society tables |
Future Astronomers |
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Therma-Chromatic demonstration |
Our hardworking and enthusiastic volunteers |
Dr. Donald Lubowich |
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Cody Dirks and Michael Zevin at the CIERA tables |
Graduate Students Katie Breivik and Kyle Kremer at the gravity table
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Graduate Student Katie Breivik |
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Kyle Kremer and Michael Katz |
Kyle Kremer explaining how to measure distance with papertape |
Kyle Kremer with vacuum pump demonstration |
Photos by Gretchen Oehlschlager.
Orchestra photo courtesy of the Ravinia Music Festival.