Who doesn’t enjoy looking up at the night sky and pondering, admiring, or otherwise engaging the cosmos. Luckily, now is the time to meet with like-minded friends for the astronomy festival entitled Dark Skies Over Dinosaur. In what might be considered serendipitous timing, Dinosaur National Monument has received its dark sky certification making it the perfect venue for this week’s event. Now the astronomy festival can be enjoyed on a whole new level. The National Park Service and Utah State Park staff, with the assistance of several volunteer astronomers, will have events after dark as well as during the day, to get people excited about astronomy. There will be activities, events, discussion and of course star-gazing. Some of the planned programs include Astro Junior Ranger program, Fun with the Sun, Going Batty Ranger Talks, Ladies of the Night Sky Ranger Talk, Nights without Lights Ranger Talk, and Saving the Dark documentary. The festival starts Wednesday, August 28th and runs until Sunday, September 1st. For a detailed schedule be sure to go to the Dinosaur National Monument Facebook page, DinosaurNPS or the event page at nps.gov/dino. There is also information at www.ThisIsVernal.com. All the programs are free but the regular entrance fees to the monument will still apply.
