The Winnebago County Conservation Board will be holding an Autumn Stargazing program at Thorpe Park on Friday evening, November 17th . The program will be held at the park entrance beginning at 7:00 PM, and will last 45-60 minutes. Thorpe Park is located five miles west of Forest City on “I”/345th Street.
During the program, Winnebago County Naturalist Lisa Ralls will give an informal tour of the autumn nighttime sky. The summer triangle will be disappearing in the west, but the first of the winter constellations, such as Taurus the Bull and Auriga the Charioteer, will be rising in the east.
The Pleiades star cluster will be easy to spot, and year-round constellations such as the Big and Little Dippers, and Cassiopeia, will also be visible. In addition, Jupiter and Saturn will be shining brightly, as well!
People will learn how to identify the brightest constellations, as well as some of the brighter
autumn stars. Fascinating tidbits of information will also be shared about what people are seeing and star charts will be handed out afterwards to help people identify the stars and constellations once they return home. People are encouraged to bring along lawn chairs, if they’d like.
In case of clouds, the program will have to be canceled and that announcement will run on
KIOW Radio (FM 107.3), as well as on the WCCB web site (www.winnebagoccb.com), the WCCB Facebook page, and the WCCB Twitter feed (@WinnebagoCCB). For more information about the Autumn Stargazing program, people can contact Lisa Ralls at 641-565-3390 or at [email protected].
