The sky's fastest mover is our first stop.    We'll explore every aspect of the moon: its phases, motions and eclipses.    We'll examine its surface and explain why it has dark regions and craters.     Every student will receive a "Moon Watcher's Guide."

CLASS # 2:  THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Monday, July 1, 2019  7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
We explore our own little niche in the galaxy.   Our solar system consists of a blazing hot star encircled by a retinue of exotic worlds: Rapid Mercury, brilliant Venus, verdant Earth, blood-red Mars, giant Jupiter, magnificent Saturn, strange Uranus, and azure blue Neptune.  (We won't forget poor, neglected Pluto.)  Join us for this odyssey through the solar system.

CLASS # 3:  THE SUMMER CONSTELLATIONS
Monday, July 8, 2019   7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
We explore the summer night sky!   Learn to find the constellations that adorn the summmer evenng sky:
Cygnus the Swan, Hercules, Scorpius the Scorpion, Sagittarius the Centaur and many more!

CLASS # 4:  COMETS AND ASTEROIDS
Monday, July 15, 2019     7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Tens of thousands of asteroids and comets careen through the solar system!  Today's class takes students to the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.  We also venture out to the Kuiper Belt, the origin disk of the short period comets and the Oort Cloud, the expansive reservoir of long period cometary nuclei.   How many unknown comets are approaching the inner solar system?  Could Earth soon be devastated by an impacting asteroid?   

CLASS # 5:   THE NEARBY STARS
Monday, July 22, 2019   7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
We visit the nearby stars.  How do astronomers know what they know about the stars?  This class will teach students the basics of stellar astronomy.    How do we know the distances to the stars, their sizes and temperatures?   We'll use the H-R Diagram ("The Astronomer's Stone") to learn how to decipher star light to understand the stars.

CLASS # 6:  SPACE WEATHER
Monday, July 29, 2019   7:00 - 8:30 p.m. 
We venture into the upper atmosphere today to learn about the northern lights, meteor showers and the green flash!  Solar storms to corona mass ejections, we discover the mechanisms behind the different types of space weather.   We'll learn the causes of the aurora and meteor showers.

CLASS #  7:  GALAXIES AND CLUSTERS
Monday, August 5, 2019   7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
GALAXIES:  the building blocks of the Universe.   The Milky Way, our home galaxy, is but one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the cosmos.   What is its structure and history?     How do the galaxies differ in size and composition?    We'll go far afield to explore the Local Group, and the local supercluster.

CLUSTERS:   Astronomers divide star clusters into two main types:  Large, old and distant globulars and small, young and relatively nearby galactic clusters.   This class focuses on both enormous galaxies and comparatively small star clusters.

CLASS # 8:  THE BIG BANG
Monday, August 12, 2019   7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
We end the Celestial exploration summer classes at the very beginning of the Universe! Cosmologists believe that the cosmos began about 13.8 billion years ago in a single event dubbed "The Big Bang."  This class takes us as far back in time as it is possible to travel.  How did scientists determine how the Universe was born?