By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
August means that the Perseid Meteor Shower is coming, and at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center this year it means a party – the Perseid Meteor Shower Watch Party.
Free, family-fun activities begin at 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9. Participants can rotate through various activities until 10:30:
• An inflatable planetarium, which allows for viewing the sky even if the weather does not cooperate.
• A craft to make a constellation luminary – a good, take-home reminder.
• Glow-in-the-dark wiffle ball, a crowd favorite from years past.
• Smores, with the fire pit manned by a local Boy Scout troop.
• A “moon dust” footprint photo, in which visitors can have a photo taken of their own re-enactment of the footprints Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left 50 years ago.
• And a craft to make solar-system hats, courtesy of the Great Bend Public Library.
A special event is the egg-drop, lunar landing STEM experiment (participants design and build a landing craft to support an “eggstranaut.” The challenge, said Kern, is to build a safe, durable lunar lander for the least amount of money.
“Once it is dark enough outside, we will also encourage families to stargaze and look for the Perseid Meteor Shower show,” said Mandy Kern, program specialist at the center.
The Perseid shower results when debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet enters the atmosphere. As the particles burn up, they appear as shooting stars radiating from the constellation Perseus. The Perseids occur each year in August.
“With this year being the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, our annual watch party will have a special nod to the moon,” said Kern.
The Kansas Wetlands Education Center is at 592 NE K-156 Highway, northeast of Great Bend.
Visitors are free to bring lawn chairs or blankets.
“The party is a good way to celebrate the end of summer before school starts,” said Kern.
For more information, contact the KWEC at 877-243-9268.