Honoring Astronomy Day

Find ways to honor Astronomy Day this year. The date occurs on Monday, April 21. Here are some ideas of what you can do:

Take a tour of a local observatory. If you don't have a big observatory nearby, check with local astronomy clubs for private observatories that may be open to the public at night to allow for some advanced stargazing.
Visit a planetarium. If it's cloudy you can still see the night's stars. Planetariums will usually walk you through what the night sky looks like in your location at that time of year so that the next clear night that comes along you will be able to go out and identify stars, constellations, and planets from what you learned at the planetarium.
View the meteor shower. The Lyrids occur overnight on the 21st. The meteors will occur all night but after the nearly full moon rises it will be hard to catch fainter ones. Take some time to see what else you can spot in the night sky and when the moon comes out, turn a pair of binoculars on it to see the mountain ridges and valleys.
Borrow some astronomy videos from the library. Try the Cosmos series or some of Nova's space-related shows.
Pick up a book or magazine on astronomy and learn more about your favorite subject, whether that be starwatching, the science of exploding stars, or the creation of the universe.

Enjoy the Astronomy Day holiday!