Friendly reminder: If you read this blog post or look for constellations in the night sky, it counts towards an activity badge for Summer Library Challenge. Make sure you go back to Beanstack or talk to a staff member to mark your activity! You can attend Summer Nights, Cosmic Sights: Exploring the Summer Sky to complete this activity (Look for Constellations) in person, more information below.
Last month, four brave individuals embarked on the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit in 54 years. Aboard NASA’s Orion Spacecraft named Integrity, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen, successfully completed Artemis II, the first of the Artemis campaign, piloting a flyby around the moon. Over nine days, the four astronauts took hundreds of photographs from within the spacecraft and experienced a solar eclipse of the moon from space, before returning to Earth. A mission full of firsts: first person of color (Glover), the first woman (Koch), the first non-US citizen (Hansen, Canadian), and the oldest person (Wiseman, 50 years old) to date to travel beyond low Earth orbit and around the Moon; the furthest distance humans have traveled from Earth (252,756 miles); and the first mission to use the Orion Spacecraft and technologies, which may be used for future missions to Mars. (Below images taken from official NASA site).
I’ve always been a bit starstruck with the concept of exploring the great cosmos; blame it on watching reruns of the original Star Trek with my dad, visiting the local planetarium on field trips, or maybe it was spurred on by the re-labeling of Pluto as a dwarf planet. As a kid, I had memorized all of the important constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere, always searching for Orion first, then Ursa Major. When I first heard of the Artemis II Mission, that childhood spark reignited. I caught myself looking up at the night sky again, spotting Orion and Ursa Major. If you can find those two constellations, I was told as a kid, they can help guide your way back home, a rudimentary compass built into stars hundreds of lightyears away. There’s something so calming about star gazing, wondering what’s really out there and could we ever make the journey to other planets; the same, unchanging night sky that our ancestors also looked up at and dreamt about.
If you ever felt that same draw to the stars, check out the upcoming Summer Nights, Cosmic Sights: Exploring the Summer Sky program hosted by the Great Lakes Astrophotography Society on July 14, 9pm-11pm, at Westlake Porter Public Library’s Friends Pavilion! Use state-of-the-art telescopes to explore planets, nebulas, galaxies, star clusters, and more to capture amazing astrophotography images. Registration starts on June 14th, 2026 at 9:00am. In case of inclement weather, the program will be rescheduled for July 15 at 9pm. Bring your own picnic blanket and portable chairs. Tweens-Adult.
Check out our astronomy materials at Westlake Porter Public Library by clicking the link here.
