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Planetarium College Wide

located at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus

Maryland, United States of America, Planet Earth (4.5672 Gyr), going around a star named Sol, in the Milky Way Galaxy, in the Local Group of galaxies, an out lying member of the Virgo Super Cluster around 13.75±0.11 Gyr (billion years) after creation

Picture of Planetarium on Fenton Street

Directions to the planetarium. Astronomy is the oldest science and one of the few sciences that welcomes amateurs. Everyone who looks up at the stars with wonder is an astronomer.
"The Astronomer" Official Video Oh, The Story! a YouTube video. The words, libretto to the song "The Astronomer." The planetarium is open from Monday, August 27, 2012, until Friday, May 24, 2013.  There are exceptions though like Summer Planetarium Programs. This is an academic institution so there are a few holidays like around Thanksgiving and from Christmas to new year's day and Spring break March 18-24, 2013  for faculty and students and March 24, 2013 for staff when the entire institution is closed.  All evening planetarium programs include a star party after the show, if it is clear.  Star party means we look at the sky with telescopes.  We have a 13 inch (33.02cm) Dobsonian, a 3 1/2  inch (8.89cm) Questar, and a 4 1/8 inch (10.5cm) Edmund Astroscan telescopes that we bring outside the planetarium when clear.  If you own a telescope, but don't know how to use it, or you have a telescope and want to share with others, then bring your telescope to the star party, and we can have even more fun sharing, the more the merrier.  You do not need a telescope to participate in our star parties if it is clear, we have some telescopes!

WHEN Free Public Planetarium SHOWS and Occasional Celestial Spectacle
Saturday, 21 September 2013 at 7P.M. Mayan Calendars In the Planetarium.
13 Bak'tun 0 K'atun 0 Tun 13 Winal 14 K'in,  also 5 'Ix 12 Ch'en, and G4.
13Bak’tun0K’atun0Tun13WinalK’in, also'ix,  and G4 .
with correlation constant 584283.
Saturday, 19 October 2013 at 7P.M. When Was Creation, the universe is finite in time, it had a beginning, and the universe that we can know or interact with is finite in space, though very large since there is a maximum speed in the universe, the speed of light in a vacuum. Expansion drives order (this is a profound statement).  In the Planetarium.
Saturday, 16 November 2013 at 7P.M.
Black Bubbles (Holes), Gravity to the Max: or how c, G, and M make a bubble in the fabric of time-space (reality)!  In the Planetarium.
Saturday 21 December 2013 at 5P.M. The Day of the Sun's Return, the Winter Solstice  In the Planetarium.
Saturday, 25 January  2014 at 7P.M How are Stars Born? not the celebrities, but the gravitational controlled thermonuclear fusion reactors that are real stars. In the Planetarium.
Saturday, 15 February 2014 at 7P.M. African Skies hear creation myths and how at least 40,000 people got their freedom using the Drinking Gourd, the Big Dipper.  In the Planetarium.
Thursday, 20 March 2014 at 7P.M. The Vernal Equinox, the First Day of Spring In the Planetarium.
Saturday, 19 April 2014 at 7P.M. Quantum Gravity: or how c, G, and h create the fabric of Reality!  discover the smallest distances and times measurable and how the universe is pixelated. In the Planetarium.
Saturday, 3 May 2014 at 7P.M. Star Stories, some ancient, some old, and some new constellation star stories: good for children and adults of all ages.  In the Planetarium.
Monday 9 May 2016 at 7AM
 Transit of Mercury across the disk of the sun from the roof of the King Street Parking Garage.
Friday, 13 April 2029 at 8:30P.M.
View 2004MN4, now 99942 Apophis if it is clear from the roof of the King Street Parking Garage or some other high flat place in what ever down town Silver Spring has become that Montgomery College at Takoma Park/Silver Spring controls; or I can get the use of; if I am still alive and employed at the college at age 78, and there is a good chance that I will be as I went into debt for a larger house in late 2012  and will not be able to retire before 2026!  B612Foundation  Search on the Planetary Society with the word Apophis! More plans to save us this time Chinese.
Sunday, 13 April 2036 at a time still to be determined  We have a while. Clean up after the earth is hit by Apophis, the destroyer, only one change in 250,000 or be thankful much more likely.   View 2004MN4, now 99942 Apophis at age 85, most likely retired by then, but someone will be doing it and I will join them if I am alive, my father was still healthy at this age, maybe I will be as lucky.  B612Foundation.   Search on the Planetary Society with the word Apophis!
The planetarium shows 1,834 naked-eye stars, the Milky Way (the diffuse band of light caused by the disk of our own galaxy), and the five naked eye planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) under a twenty-four-foot dome with forty-two comfortable chairs.  The planetarium is located on Fenton Street on the Takoma Park/Silver Spring  campus of Montgomery College.  It is attached to the Science South building on the ground level and has a conspicuous silver colored domed roof. The stars are the province of all of mankind. An astrophysicist will answer questions about the universe. There is no admission charge for these public planetarium programs, but better than many that cost an admission price.  Several thousand people participated in planetarium programs last year.

Special Planetarium Programs

Planetarium shows for College Classes: 
AS, BI, CH, EL, EN, HS,  GL, MA, PH, PL, and others in the Planetarium. 		School Teachers and youth group leaders,
Grade Specific Field Trips for Classes in the Planetarium.
Music/LASER Light Shows,
public planetarium programs not strictly astronomical in the Planetarium. 		Traveling Talks and Navigation before 1492.
for groups that can not come to the planetarium.

Summer Planetarium Programs, Special summer workshop, when the planetarium is closed to the public: like teacher workshops, courses for grade school students, and occasional special programs when something very unusual happens in the sky like the transit of Venus in the summer of 2004 and 2012 (and who knows when the next bright comet may appear).

Astronomy Courses Offered in the planetarium, The only place in the Washington Metro area to take a college astronomy course in a planetarium.  Leaning communities of Linked courses like Astrophilosophy, "Does the Universe have a philosophy?" or Astrobiology, "You are made of the Dust of Exploded Stars!"
Engineering & Science Adventure Club at Montgomery College meets in the Planetarium on Friday afternoons at 3PM.
"Saturday Discovery" Planetarium Programs.  Youth programs at the College through WD&CE.
Geometric Algebra, Clifford Algebra, The Cliffhangers, special meetings for people who are mathematically minded.  Spingarn High School District of Columbia Public School, John  Buchanan's physics class presentations
Distributed Computing for High Performance Computing at Montgomery College a vision. Parkland Middle Aerospace Magnet Montgomery County Public School presentations
Astronomy, Geology, and Physics Education sites here and elsewhere.
Takoma Park Middle Montgomery County Public School  presentations.
  
Monthly Public Planetarium astronomy shows, grade specific shows for school groups, scout and other youth group programs, senior citizen and other adult group programs, monthly music/laser light shows, cultural astronomy shows (Havdalah, Whisper of Creation, Islamic Astronomy, Star of Bethlehem, and others possible) college astronomy courses, summer teacher workshops, summer youth courses, all from within a planetarium.  There was a naked eye comet called 17P/Holmes in Perseus on November 7, 2007 there was a show on it.  Astronomical present recommendations what to buy for the family.  Birthday Parties in the Planetarium?
Last updated Tuesday, 4:39P.M., 5/7/2013 by Dr. Harold Alden Williams, e-mail: Harold.Williams@montgomerycollege.edu   phone 240-567-1463