Anyone Out There?
The 2018 North Carolina Science Festival will feature the Statewide Star Party as a signature event, thanks to generous grant support from the North Carolina Space Grant.
During this 6th annual Statewide Star Party, astronomy clubs, state and local parks, universities, planetariums, science centers, nature centers, and libraries will host public skywatching sessions at 37 sites across North Carolina on Friday, April 20, and Saturday, April 21, 2018. About 4,000 visitors and 200 STEM professionals and volunteers are expected to participate.
This year’s Star Party theme is “Anyone Out There?” Star Party participants provide the curiosity, and host sites provide the telescopes. Hosts will lead hands-on activities from the Star Party kit that will help visitors explore the question of whether there is life elsewhere in the universe, how we might find it, and what it might look like.
2018 NC Statewide Star Party Locations
Friday, April 20
- Apex: American Tobacco Trail
- Asheville: Lookout Observatory
- Atlantic Beach: Fort Macon State Park
- Carolina Beach: Carolina Beach State Park
- Cary: Fred G. Bond Metro Park Boathouse
- Chapel Hill: Pritchard Park
- Charlotte: UNC Charlotte Observatory
- Charlotte: McDowell Nature Center
- China Grove: Rowan Public Library
- Conover: Conover Branch Library
- Durham: Old-North Durham Park
- Fayetteville: Fayetteville Soccer Club
- Franklin: Macon County Public Library
- Jamestown: Cline Observatory
- Kill Devil Hills: Nags Head Woods Preserve
- Raleigh: Prairie Ridge Ecostation
- Raleigh: Wilkerson Nature Preserve
- Rocky Mount: Braswell Library
- South Mills: Dismal Swamp State Park
- Statesville: Lake Norman State Park
- Sunset Beach: Ingram Planetarium
- Swansboro: Hammocks Beach State Park
- Sylva: Jackson County Airport
- Whiteville: Steve's Retreat
- Yadkinville: Yadkin County Park
Saturday, April 21
- Boone: ASU Dark Sky Observatory
- Burnsville: Bare Dark Sky Observatory
- Cashiers: The Village Green
- Charlotte: Discovery Place
- Garner: White Deer Park
- Gastonia: James H Lynn Planetarium
- Greensboro: Greensboro Science Center
- Grifton: A Time for Science
- Hiddenite: Rocky Face Mountain
- Lumberton: Robeson Planetarium
- Nebo: Lake James State Park
- Waxhaw: Cane Creek Park
2018 Star Party Kit Materials:
- Star Party Poster
- 2018 Tips for Hosting a Successful Skywatching Session (with "Anyone out there?" sky tour)
- Web Resources: Anyone Out There?
- Web Resources: Skywatching 101
- Activity: Life in the Extreme (from Night Sky Network)
- Activity: Imagining Life (from NISE Network)
- Activity: Ice Orbs (from NISE Network)
- Activity: How Do We Find Planets Around Distant Stars (from Night Sky Network)
- Star Maps: Where Are the Distant Worlds (from Night Sky Network)
- Kepler Star Wheel
- Children’s book: Older Than the Stars
Click here for 2017 Star Party Kit Materials
For more information, please contact:
Mickey Jo Sorrell and Amy Sayle
Coordinators, NC Statewide Star Party
Email: starparty@unc.edu
Phone: 919-445-8324
The Statewide Star Party is made possible with the support of NC Space Grant and the NC Science Festival.