Planetary alignment
Mount Royal’s soccer field was flooded with people on the evening of Feb. 27 as the campus community and hundreds of people from across the city came out to see a special astronomical event.
Dr. Stephen Jeans, PhD, professor of Astronomy courses in the Faculty of Science and Technologheld a Star Party with help from his colleagues and staff in the Department of Chemistry and Physics and astronomers from The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in Calgary (RASC), Calgary Centre.
When the decision was agreed upon to have the Star Party, “It came together because of the support from Chemistry and Physics Chair Dr. Raphael Slawinski, and tenacity of Administrative Assistant Barbara Lindsay,” Jeans says.
Twelve RASC astronomers, each equipped with a telescope (and a couple of bonus scopes belong to Dr. Jeans) joined students and community members to catch a glimpse of at least five other planets in our Solar System. Faculty members operating telescopes included Dr. Mehdi (Nader) Dehghany and Dr. Dylan Webb, and MRU astronomy student Matthew Salvatore.
In 2022 Jeans held his first Star Party at MRU when Jupiter was very bright and close to Earth, about 300 people showed up to that event. This year, a rare occurrence of the solar system’s planets all visible on the one evening inspired another community viewing. Jeans took extra measures to ensure the event was fully accessible to anyone who wanted to come, understandable and fun for all ages too.
The planets were in a line from the Sun, providing different observing targets as the sky darkened. “So you could start at sunset and catch Venus and Mercury on the horizon, followed by Jupiter, Mars, etc. and that is what we did, we followed the parade of planets,” explains Jeans.
According to Jeans, the next time that will happen will be in 2040. “Normally when I host a Star Party I end up with two or three planets in the sky, not all of them.”
Due to some light cloud cover and haze, not all of the planets were fully visible . Those in attendance did not get to see Neptune and Uranus but did get a glimpse of most of the other planets, including Jupiter with its own parade of Galilean Moons.
Jeans said prior to the event a few parents had reached out asking if they could swing by early due to bed times and it being a school night. What he didn’t expect was for that invitation to spread so he was pleasantly surprised to see hundreds people out early for the event, prior to the official start time.
He prepared handouts of star charts for children along with some 3D-printed planet-like toys from colleague and Laboratory Instructor Dr. Megan Gillies. Jeans greeted the crowd, started setting up telescopes and teaching people how to use them. As the night progressed more and more people showed up, forming lines at each telescope station that stretched 50 or more people long across the soccer field.
“I expected a lot of people because this is something I have been doing my whole career,” says Jeans, who also lectures at Ambrose University in Calgary.
Star Parties offer Jeans and other faculty members a chance to connect with high school students who might soon be in his classes. In between teaching people about what they were seeing, he answered questions from parents and students about MRU’s Bachelor of Science program.
Faculty members from the University of Calgary as well as people in the community who were just curious or wanted to learn more were in attendance. The event also brought out a few people with their own telescopes and binoculars who wanted to use them, so Jeans helped them get set up.
“Then once they knew how to use their own telescope and what they were looking for, people started lining up and they started sharing what they had just learned. This is the community effort that I like to encourage. The smiles on their faces were incredible, you could see the light of science.”
