Spaced Out

When we, the Phase I Scholars, went to the UW's planetarium for the Spaced Out class, we piled into comfortable seats in a round and slightly darkened room. Once we were settled, a UW graduate student began to talk about space and astronomy. Then the lights went out completely and we saw the night sky with all the stars. One thing we learned about stars and space was that the three so-called "stars" on Orion's Belt are not really stars at all but are places where stars are formed. Another thing we learned was that there is a star called Sirius. This was interesting because Sirius Black is a character in the Harry Potter series, and all of the Black family members in Harry Potter are named after stars.

We also saw the Northern Lights; learned about Polaris (the North Star); and heard about Crux, the Southern Cross, which is used by navigators to mark south. Overall, Spaced Out was a blast because all the things we did inside the planetarium felt like we were really outside watching the night sky. Spaced Out took our minds off of any earthly troubles.