Public Invited to Mount St. Helens ‘Star Party’ on Saturday

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A former NASA astronaut will be visiting the former moonscape scenery around Mount St. Helens on Saturday in order to take part in a happening being dubbed a “Sky and Star Party” at the Science and Learning Center at Coldwater.

The event is open to the public from 3 p.m. until midnight with a suggested donation of $10 per person. That donation includes access to all of the special speakers, activities and dinner. There are also limited overnight reservations available for people who may want to stay late, camp out and view dark sky objects deep into the night. Camping is $30 per person and includes the overnight stay, breakfast and a guided morning walk or hike, in addition to the sky viewing public events.

Former NASA astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger will tell the crowd tales from the heavens beginning at 7 p.m. Craft activities will be offered from 3 to 5 p.m. and a pasta dinner accompanied by live music from Jawbone Flats will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Additionally, Greg Cermak, NASA’s solar system ambassador, will be on hand to share information on volcanoes in the inner solar system beginning at 3 p.m. Howard Knytych, an instructor at Mount Hood Community College and a Rose City Astronomers member, will speak about cryovolcanism and Pluto beginning at 4 p.m.

Later on, the amateur astronomers from the Friends of Galileo club out of Longview and the Rose City Astronomers of Portland will offer up their telescopes and assorted knowledge and enthusiasm so visitors can peer deep into the solar system and learn about what they see. An introduction will begin at 8 p.m., followed by extensive telescope viewing and a guided constellation identification walk.



The success of the sky viewing depends on the weather, but all other activities will go on as scheduled no matter the earthly conditions.

Weather updates will be posted to Facebook at www.tinyurl.com/2017mshsky. 

The Sky and Star Party is being hosted by the Mount St. Helens Institute, the U.S. Forest Service, Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club and the Rose City Astronomers. A full schedule is online at www.mshslc.org/events/#skyandstar. Questions can be submitted by email to kquatermass@mshinstitute.org