Solar System Ambassador Welcomes Intergalactic Hitchhikers at MSUM Planetarium
Saturday night, accessorize with your finest bath towel and head to the MSUM Planetarium for a goofy night under the stars.
The Minnesota State University-Moorhead Planetarium is hosting an event for intergalactic hitchhikers at 7 p.m. for Towel Day, May 25.
Towel Day (towelday.org) is an annual memorial day for fans of Douglas Adams, author of the sci-fi comedy series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Since towels are “about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have,” planetarium visitors are encouraged to bring their towels to receive a discount and participate in a contest for the coolest towel.
Solar System Ambassador Scarlet Gray Bernard will present a (Hitchhiker’s) Guide to the Galaxy in the planetarium, guiding guests on a tour of our place in the galaxy, discussing how we know what we know, and enhancing the presentation with the wit of Douglas Adams.
Besides a guide to the galaxy and a coolest towel contest, visitors are encouraged to compose some very painful poetry if they want to participate in a Vogon poetry contest, and to brace themselves for a Total Perspective Vortex to see “how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big [space] is.”
The planetarium has an admission rate of $2 per person, $1 per hitchhiker with a towel. Babel fish will be provided. More information can be found on the planetarium’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/msumplanetarium.
The Solar System Ambassadors Program of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers information and excitement about real missions that explore our solar system. Volunteer ambassadors in communities throughout the country are selected by JPL based on their backgrounds and on their plans for public outreach activities. JPL provides ambassadors with educational materials and training. However, the opinions of Ambassadors are not necessarily those of NASA or JPL. Further information about the Solar System Ambassadors Program is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.