Views of Saturn, Jupiter, several constellations and many, many stars were the highlight of the Marine Park Alliance’s (MPA) Winter Solstice event on a frigid night in Seba Park along Gerritsen Avenue.
Dozens of local stargazers turned out for the event, which was the final in the MPA’s “Festival of Lights” winter events series and was held on Saturday, December 21st, in conjunction with NYC Parks and the Amateur Astronomers Association.
With five telescopes of different calibers and knowledgeable participants from the two nonprofits and the Parks Department, attendees were able to not only learn about the stars, but also to see them as close-up as the average person can hope to get.
“We’re wrapping [the year] up with our Winter Solstice celebration to mark the shortest day of the year — or, to put it differently, the longest night of the year — and to commemorate the darkness, the pit of the year, you might say,” MPA Executive Director Scott Middleton said. “We’re happy to have families out here and learn a bit about the night sky and to take advantage of the darkness. I think often people think of darkness as a bad thing, but it’s helpful to turn that sentiment on its head and think about what the darkness offers us.”
While it was a freezing night, families and individuals did show up to the event and lined up to peek at the view from each unique telescope. Members of the astronomy club explained to stargazers what they were seeing in the night sky and ways to recognize different constellations.
MPA staff and volunteers also showed star maps to attendees and passed out hot chocolate and lollipops.
The most exciting views of the night were Jupiter with four of its moons — clear enough that you could even see some of the color banding on the planet — Saturn with its ring and the Pleiades star cluster.
“I like to remind people to look up every once in a while,” Amateur Astronomers Association Observing Committee Co-Chair Rori Baldari said. “I like to remind people that we are all citizens of a beautiful, mysterious and vast universe. And while most of the time, we’re just running around with our daily activities and things we need to do, just every once in a while, take a moment to look up and realize that there is an entire universe above our heads. We live within that universe as much as we live anywhere else.”
