UWM Planetarium puts on “Constellations of the Zodiac” event

For just three dollars, students and the general public viewed a presentation on the various Constellations of the Zodiac, followed by a participatory activity where audience members looked at pictures of the night sky and tried to identify the constellations in the sky, as if they were outside.

UWM’s Manfred Olson Planetarium was the sight for the first out of six events in this series that occurred on Nov. 7.

Dr. Jean Creighton, the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium on campus, put on the presentation, which consisted of going through the constellations and telling the stories of the Gods and Goddesses that bear their names.

At the beginning of the presentation, Creighton clarified the definition of a constellation. According to Creighton, a constellation is a “defined area of the sky. In other words, it’s not a connect-the-dots; it’s not a pretty picture. It is in fact a patch of sky.” She also explained that there are also different objects within constellations.

Creighton said in her presentation that there are 88 “official patches of the sky,” and that there are 12 Constellations of the Zodiac. The reason for the 12 is that the sun passes through 13 of them, said Creighton. But, the ancient Babylonians weren’t really fond of the number 13, so they took one off and became 12. According to space.com, the Constellations of the Zodiac are Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Ophiuchus and Sagittarius.

The Manfred Olson Planetarium is connected to the Physics Building, South of the Engineering and Mathematical Science building. According to the planetarium website, the “planetarium was erected in 1965 and was named after Manfred Olson (1903-1966), a professor of physics from 1931 to 1963.”

“…I want to share the stars with our audience; I want to share the stars with our campus community and but also our more general public; people love this,” said Creighton. “They love coming to a place where they can learn more about the sky, about astronomy, about how the universe works, and how they can find things in the sky. So, I enjoy very much enjoy doing them.”

Milwaukee resident, Steve Anderson, was one of the audience members, and he had a lot to say after the presentation

“I think it’s like a pretty human thing to relate to this event, I mean the stars in our environment are something that we are hard wired to be in touch with,” said Anderson. “And it’s interesting to see it from someone who is an expert, because you learn things and it’s just very human to want to understand like, what is this thing that’s going on around us, what are these stars, what do they mean, why are the there?… It’s like being in nature….”

Hannah Keitel, a Milwaukee resident, was also in the audience and wasn’t previously aware that these events were even going on and said that more people should attend.

“I think more people should come to it, because it helps the life of the college…” Keitel said. “…I grew up in a small town in Minnesota and we had a college and everyone went to everything that college held and it really promoted the community and it helped the college itself grow. And there is so many, you know, experts in various fields who are here that, you know, they host all of these events and I think that more people should come to them because you can continually be learning and educating yourself even when you’re not in college.”

Charo Martin-Kingsby, a student helper at the Manfred-Olson Planetarium, said that these events give participants something close to the real world.

“I think it is a good way to get people who are somewhat interested in space a chance to see things that are, not necessarily what we see in sci-fi films, but something a little bit more close to reality,” Martin-Kingsby said.

For more information on the Manfred-Olson Planetarium’s programming events, you can visit them online at www.uwm.edu/planetarium or follow them on Twitter @UWMPlanetarium.