The author has prepared a light half hour planetarium program entitled “Everything You Wanted To Know About the Summer Skies: But Were Afraid to Ask.”

Besides introducing beginners to the best sky sights now, we will also tackle such questions as: Do Aliens Exist? Will the World End when the Mayan Calendar Stops, three and a half years from now? Why Was Pluto Demoted? Can you have a Star Party without Movie or TV Celebrities?

If such questions have kept you awake at night, you are invited to this program at the Frostburg State Planetarium. And if you think that it is impossible to answer these serious questions in just a few minutes, I challenge you to come and find out for yourself. If large throngs of the curious show up, there will be repeat programs every half hour until it gets dark and the real stars come out.

The Frostburg State Planetarium is in Tawes 302, just a few steps to the left as you enter the front entrance of Tawes Hall. Tawes Hall, the former FSU Natural Science building now has classrooms for the smaller liberal arts classes, offices for some faculty and several research laboratories.

Next year, when the University Lane Center undergoes renovation, a number of offices there will be temporarily shifted to Tawes Hall. Tawes Hall is behind the Performing Arts Center, across the street from the Compton Science Center and near Frostburg State’s clock tower. There are a number of handicapped parking spaces close by as well as a sizable parking area next to Frampton Hall. (Call (301) 687-4270 for road directions.)

The June public programs will start at 7:30 p.m. on the following dates: this Friday, June 21, June 24, June 26 and June 29. These programs were scheduled for the parents of our orientation students on their first night at FSU. As the parents often don’t fill the seats, I thought I would invite any of the public to see the program.

No reservations or tickets are necessary, just arrive early. If there are more people than can be seated, the shows will be repeated every half hour, (at 8 p.m., 8:30 p.m., and so on.).

On the nights when the evening moon can be seen if the weather permits (June 24, 26 and 29), we will set up a telescope outside before the first program at 7:30 p.m. for those who would like to view the moon during the day close up.

The Cumberland Astronomy Club will meet this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the LaVale Public Library with a featured speaker on meteorites, who is also a collector. The LaVale Public Library is just off the National Highway, about a mile east of the State Police Barracks off Campground Road. All interested are invited to attend.

The Cumberland Astronomy Club will have public telescope observing sessions on two consecutive nights when the moon is growing in the evening sky towards the end of June (to view the moon’s craters and the planet Saturn).

The first session will be in Meyersdale, Pa., at the train station after 9 p.m. on June 26. The second telescope session will be near the soccer fields on the far side of the Frostburg Recreational Complex on the east side of Frostburg on June 27, also after 9 p.m. (At either site, it will not get really dark until after 10 p.m.)

Skilled telescope observers who will likely be at one of these sessions include Craig Coleman of Pennsylvania, Mark Rudy, Steve Vincent and Stephen Luzader, the last three from Maryland. If it is overcast, not even these sky-gazers can ward off the clouds.

Mid-June features the year’s earliest sunrises (about 5:47 a.m. in the greater Cumberland area). The year’s longest daylight will occur on June 21, the first day of summer (about 15 hours of sunlight in this area).

The year’s latest sunsets will occur in late June, when the sun disappears about 8:47 p.m. The fact that these times occur in three different weeks is due to our clocks being based on the average apparent shift of the sun along its path, rather than the actual sun.

The actual solar day length varies during the year because we are farthest from the sun in early summer and closest in early winter. (The closer we are to the sun, the faster the sun moves along its apparent path; the farther we are from the sun, the more slowly the sun seems to move.) This is why our summer season is a few days longer than the fall and spring seasons. The winter season is the shortest of all.

The moon has retreated into the morning sky and can be seen in the early daylight hours today and the next few days. This Friday at 5 a.m., the crescent moon will appear over the brilliant planet Venus and the modest planet Mars, which will be only 2 degrees (four moon widths apart) next Sunday.

Readers are invited to submit comments or questions to Dr. Doyle at (301) 687-7799 or rdoyle@frostburg.edu .