Become an Amateur Astronomer

If you’re interested in getting involved in science and astronomy don’t miss the Philadelphia Science Festival, which is well under way with  110 different events to choose from over a 10 day period. Community Astronomy Night takes place Friday April 27th where you can look through a telescope right on the street corner. No rain date, so come on out regardless of the weather. All of this is ramping up to National Astronomy Day, where The Franklin Institute will have activities and will be giving away a telescope.  Unfortunately, you can only see so far through that telescope, so you’ll miss out on White Dwarf stars that are about 12 billion years old. They’ve been cooling off this whole time. This can help us see what conditions were like in the early universe. Also, the SpaceX Falcon is set to launch in a little less than a week. The company SpaceX has been quite successful in it’s testing and will usher in the next phase of space exploration. All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.[audio: st20120423.mp3]