Astronomy Days returns to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences

Meet NASA astronaut Dr. Kjell N. Lindgren,

Posted 4:58 p.m. Jan 18 — Updated 4:58 p.m. Jan 18

Tony Rice

, NASA Ambassador

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science and Raleigh Astronomy Club will host Astronomy Days on Saturday, February 3 and Sunday, February 4, 2024 from 10 am to 5 pm each day. The annual event has grown to be one of the largest of its kind on the east coast with technology, telescopes, engaging talks by scientists from local universities, astronomy clubs, along with invited guests from NASA.

This year's theme is asteroids and meteors, our extraterrestrial neighbors.

NASA Astronaut Dr. Kjell N. Lindgren, a physician board certified in emergency medicine, will share his perspective aboard the ISS working with more than a hundred different scientific experiments, as commander of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, and as flight surgeon.

Kjell N. Lindgren was selected by NASA in 2009. He spent most of his childhood abroad and returned to the U.S. to complete his education and earn a Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Colorado. He is board certified in emergency and aerospace medicine. After serving as the Deputy Crew Surgeon for Space Shuttle mission STS‐130 and Expedition 24. Image: NASA/JSC

Dr. Lindgren will speak in the WRAL theater at the museum on Saturday at 11 am and 1 pm and again on Sunday at 11am.

There is plenty to do for all ages with more than four-dozen exhibits, activities and opportunities to get behind a telescope, including solar telescopes (weather permitting of course) that allow you to safely see the Sun's surface in incredible detail.

I'll have talks on both days about the history (and future) of solar eclipses across the Carolinas, sharing a sneak peak of eclipse maps from a soon-to-be-published book on the subject. I'll also be sharing behind the scenes images and stories about the Deep Space Network NASA and other space agencies use to communicate with spacecraft throughout the solar system and beyond.

On Sunday we'll roll our sleeves up and do some coding for astronomy. Building a Python script from scratch to generate a map of the best places to see the April 8, 2024 eclipse. Each of my talks, as are nearly all of the other talks, are appropriate for all ages.

Other talks range from getting started in astronomy to deeper looks at topics such as asteroids, black holes, and gravitational waves. NASA Ambassadors and a JPL scientist will share reports on missions such as OSIRIS-Rex which brought back samples of asteroid Bennu as well as upcoming ones like the Europa Clipper which search of life under miles of ice on Jupiter's frozen moon Europa.

More information about the event including a complete schedule of talks and other events is available on the museum website.

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