MORGANTOWN — Want to gaze into the wonders of space, but don’t feel like standing outside in winter’s cold?
WVU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy is offering shows — including a holiday show — for star gazers.
Haley Wahl, a PhD student, and Planetarium Assistant Coordinator, helps with the planetarium program, working behind the scenes. She’s had a love for stars since she was a child. She grew up stargazing and fell in love with astronomy.
“It’s really good to learn basic astronomy facts and just be really familiar with all that and communicating my interest with the public and sharing my passion with others is really what I love about the planetarium,” she said.
One of the main shows the planetarium puts on is called “Night Sky Tonight,” which features the night sky over Morgantown, highlighting constellations and planets.
“Season of Lights,” the holiday show, goes over worldwide customs and historical, religious and cultural rituals practiced during the winter solstice. Kids’ shows are also popular at the planetarium.
“All our planetarium shows, we try to make it really interactive. Especially for the children’s shows,” Wahl said.
“Larry Cat in Space” is a show about a cat who travels into outer space.
“Earth, Moon, Sun” is one that goes over basic things about space for the kids.
“We like to do those for children’s shows, and those always get really popular. With the intros we just kind of bring it down a little bit,” she said.
Another aspect for the planetarium is the observatory with a large telescope on the roof of White Hall. Wahl said, weather-permitting, the observatory is open to the public on evenings of planetarium shows.
“One of our undergraduates does that and he just goes and shows people the telescope and kind of has it move around and opens the dome. Even if you can’t see anything, it’s still fun to see the telescope and get to talk about it,” Wahl said.
Wahl said one of the main goals of the department is to provide a inexpensive, easy way to teach children about science. Admission to the planetarium shows are free. Spots are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Community and school groups are welcome to make reservations.
“It provides schools with a service and you don’t pay anything. You just make a reservation. It’s a really easy way for the community to learn about science like this,” she said.
On the flipside, it’s fun for Wahl and the planetarium team to show the public the science of the sky and experience astronomy in a casual setting.
“It’s definitely good to broaden people’s interest and just show them that physics and astronomy isn’t difficult. It’s really accessible and we try to bring it down to that level and just show people and just give them the basic overview of what’s out there,” she said.
