Starry Night

photograph by Marsha Jorgensen
BY MARSHA JORGENSEN
The Canton Schools’ annual Astronomy Night at Cherry Brook Primary School, after having  been delayed numerous nights due to cloudy skies, finally took place on March 9.  Over 20 Canton High School students volunteered to help that evening on a variety of hands-on astronomy related stations in the cafeteria or outside on the telescopes.
The CHS students contributed their knowledge about the night skies and astronomy, inspiring Canton’s youngest science enthusiasts in the community to share in their passion and wonder about our universe and science.
Especially popular this year were stations that asked the second graders to calculate their age and weight on various planets in our solar system based on their period of revolution and mass, using novel calculators.
The moon crater station,  where students drop “asteroids” onto the moon’s “flour” surface to see resulting impact craters, was also a hit.
The true highlight, however, for the evening was being outside and using the telescopes to view objects in the night sky.
This night is the result of a Canton Education Foundation grant more than ten years ago when five telescopes were purchased to facilitate a community partnership between schools in an annual community science event.  Within the last three years an Astronomy elective course has been added to the CHS curriculum to continue fostering a passion for physics and astronomy.