Gemini Outreach
Assistant Alyssa Grace
(right) prepares families
before they enter
our StarLab portable
planetarium for a show on
the current night sky.
Gemini North
astronomers Julia
Scharwaechter (center)
and Kristin Chiboucas
(right, in black) watch
children make marks
(representing galaxies)
on a balloon, which they
used to understand how
the Universe expands.
in hands-on astronomy-related activities, or
be entertained by demonstrations offered by
the staff at all of the Maunakea observatories.
At the Gemini booth, we received hun-
dreds of guests, many of whom (especially
children) took in a star show inside of our
StarLab portable planetarium, modeled
the expanding Universe with balloons and
markers, sorted galaxies by morphology,
26
GeminiFocus
and colored images of Kea and Pachón —
the twin mascots of our twin telescopes.
“My first AstroDay experience did not disap-
point,” said Gemini North outreach intern
Hannah Blomgren. “It was rewarding to see
the passion and enthusiasm of the astrono-
my community out in full force, and to watch
that excitement being transferred to others.
July 2018