Space, the final frontier

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, March 2019; written by Pat Tully

This Tuesday, March 5 from 5-7pm, the Ketchikan Public Library is partnering with the University of Alaska – Fairbanks’ Museum of the North to hold an Outer Space Fair. Create your own solar system banner, imagine extraterrestrial creatures, design a model space telescope, and paint glow-in-the-dark constellations. Come to the Outer Space Fair to whet your appetite for all things astronomical!

The Library has a variety of informative, entertaining and awe-inspiring materials on space science. Interested in learning how our understanding of constellations, heavenly bodies, and the earth’s place in the universe has changed over the centuries? Check out The Astronomy Book, by David Hughes (520.9 HUGHES). Hughes explains the evolution of our ideas about the universe from Ptolemy, Galileo, and Newton to the present day.

If DVDs are more your thing, try 400 Years of the Telescope: A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought (DVD 522.209 FOURHUN). This PBS Home Video tells the story of space optics starting with the first primitive telescopes developed in the seventeenth century by Hans Lippershey.

Are you of a more practical frame of mind? The Total Skywatcher’s Manual, by Linda Shore (523 SHORE), gives advice on selecting a telescope, identifying constellations, photographing the night sky, even planning star parties. For family activities, check out Astronomy Lab for Kids, by Michelle Nichols, (520.78 NICHOLS). Nichols provides 52 activities to get your kids excited about stargazing.

Space Atlas: Mapping the Universe and Beyond, by James Trefil (523 TREFIL) captures the beauty and wonder of the heavens with full color maps, photographs and other illustrations of the planets, stars, galaxies and other space phenomena.

For a quixotic and heartwarming account of a man’s obsession with the stars, read the story of Frank Kovac, Jr. in The Man Who Painted the Universe, by Ron Legro (522.292 LEGRO). While working in a Wisconsin paper mill, Kovac created a 22-foot rotating globe planetarium in the woods, with over 5,000 glow-in-the-dark stars. The Kovac Planetarium remains an attraction today, inspiring new generations with a love of outer space.

The Alaska Digital Library has ebooks and audiobooks on astronomy, accessible using your Library account number. The collection includes Mike Brown’s How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. Brown tells the fascinating story of how Pluto was demoted from planet status in 2006, and the firestorm of controversy that occurred as a result.

Check out all these and more at the Ketchikan Public Library!