The University of Connecticut’s planetarium on North Eagleville Road gave students the opportunity to see the stars on Feb. 4. from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in their first weekly event of the spring semester. Tickets for weekly planetarium shows on Tuesdays are available for free online. Physics PhD students Kelcey Davis and Madisyn Brooks ran the event.
“I always start out with just the sky as it is right now, right here in Storrs,” said Davis. She then showed the sky an hour later, then what the night sky looks like in an area with no light pollution.
Davis spoke about ongoing research in UConn’s physics department, starting with Aleksandra Kuznetsova who studies planetary formation. Davis displayed a protoplanetary disk, a cloud of gas and dust which was swirling around to form a star. Davis said that Kuznetsova looks at images from the James Webb telescope and other telescopes to learn how planets form.
Cara Battersby studies the Milky Way Galaxy and numerical simulations which allow her to simulate different types of conditions, according to Davis. She then showed a brighter version of the sky with a ring showing a higher density of stars.
“When we think about the night sky, we chunk it up in all different kinds of constellations. Any area of the sky that you look at is designated as part of one of these constellations. They’re made up of the brightest stars in our night sky,” said Davis.
She went on to present a bird’s eye view of the Milky Way, with constellations visible from Earth highlighted. The constellations took up a tiny portion of the galaxy, showing how little of our galaxy is easily visible with the naked eye.
Chis Faesi studies how stars form from gas and dust in distant galaxies using images from the Hubble Telescope and James Webb Telescope. Davis showed an image from a galaxy 30 million light years away, where individual stars could be seen. She displayed images of dust and active star-forming regions.
At the end of the event, Brooks and Davis asked the audience if they had any questions or viewing requests. People shouted out their favorite planets and were shown images of Mars, Venus, Uranus and Pluto.
The planetarium was restored in 2024 thanks to an effort by UConn’s physics department, spearheaded by Professor Matt Guthrie.
Davis and Brooks discussed the accessibility of the event with The Daily Campus.
“Our first official show was for blind and visually impaired people,” said Davis. “I feel better after doing that if somebody came in who was blind or visually impaired, I’d be happy to talk them through things.”
Brooks said that the building had removable chairs, which made the building more accessible for people in wheelchairs.
“We can accommodate people with wheelchairs, people with walkers [and] people with motorized scooters,” said Brooks.
Brooks said that students interested in astronomy could attend a public science lecture featuring herself and Davis titled “Astronomy on Tap” on Feb. 19, located at Hops 44 in Storrs, Conn.