Each Friday at 7pm during the latter part of the spring semester (March 27 – May 1), the Manfred P. Olson Planetarium at UWM displayed Spring Stars and their Myths, an hour-long, $3 admission educational event designed to teach people about constellations, galaxies and the meanings behind them.
The exhibit was hosted by UWM astronomer and planetarium director Jean Creighton, a Greece native with a deep fascination with and knowledge of Greek mythology.
Creighton began each show by explaining the equinoxes, solstices and seasonal changes.
Seasonal change is based on the celestial sphere, an imaginary astronomical sphere with the Earth at the center, she conveyed. Equinoxes are used to describe the transitions from winter to spring (vernal) and summer to fall (autumnal). They are based upon a projection of the Earth’s equator over the celestial sphere, this called the celestial equator. The vernal equinox occurs when the sun crosses the celestial equator into the northern hemisphere, and the opposite holds for the autumnal equinox. Solstices occur when the sun reaches a point furthest from the celestial equator, thus bringing the longest day of the year (summer) and the shortest (winter).
After this introduction, she began presenting the Milky Way galaxy as it compares to the UWM campus.
This is done by comparing distances from the solar system to other points in the galaxy to distances from the planetarium to other places on campus and worldwide. The center of the planetarium represents the solar system. Her first example was the distance to the black hole in the center of Milky Way being similar to the distance from the planetarium to Maryland Ave. Other examples included the distance to Hercules galaxy, which is about 500 million light-years away, or the distance from the planetarium to Caracas, Venezuela, and to the Sombrero Galaxy, that being the distance to the northwest Wisconsin/Minneapolis area.
The primary focus of the shows was to explain the constellations’ Greek mythological backgrounds. Creighton explained five constellations: Bootes, Virgo, Hercules, Leo and Cancer, explaining the myths in the latter four.
Bootes was used in conjunction with the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893 and 1933, Creighton points out. The 40-year span explains the light-year distance from the Earth to Arcturus, the central star of the kite-resembling constellation. This was determined with a telescope helped by the photocell, which was a groundbreaking piece of technology back in the early 1930’s.
Virgo is essentially explained by the story of a young woman named Persephone, Creighton explains in conjunction with mythology. She was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. The former mysteriously disappeared, and Demeter eventually found out through the sun that the god of the underworld, Pluto, took her daughter away. Her deep depression stemming from this leads her to stop providing agriculture, and people and animals suffer. Therefore, the highest god, Zeus (and Pluto’s brother), steps in and rules that Pluto can have Persephone for six months and Demeter can have her for the same period. While Persephone is with her mother, the latter is active in her craft, thus explaining the Greek theory of the growing season.
The constellation is characterized by the Sombrero Galaxy and its, according to Creighton, crushed box sort of shape. Spica is the constellation’s brightest star and is the easiest place to look when locating the constellation.
Bootes and Virgo are connected via the “tail” from the Big Dipper. Creighton expresses it as “Arc to Arcturus and Spy to Spica,” because if one follows the arc from the end of the tail, he/she can spot both stars. In addition, the Big Dipper makes up the body and tail of the mythological bear-shaped constellation Ursa Major.
Hercules was destined to be indomitable from birth. Creighton explained how he choked two serpents as a baby, these snakes sent by goddess Ida to kill him and his little brother. In addition, she covered how he defeated Leo the lion and used his bow and arrow to kill Stymphalian birds. Finally, she went over the story of the Ceryneian Hind, a mythological deer belonging to Artemis, who threatened to kill Hercules for trying to kill the Hind. Hercules explains how he was on assignment, and she relents, and so does he.
Hercules can be identified by its ultra-bright cluster, M13, and its abnormal humanoid shape.
Leo is more easily recognizable, it being highlighted by a backwards question mark formation with the bottom star of that mark being its brightest, Regulus. The shape makes up the head of the lion. In order to ingrain the names of the stars into the audience, Creighton makes a Harry Potter reference to the character Regulus Arcturus Black.
Cancer, like Leo, is well-connected to the myth of Hercules, Creighton explained. It is the story of the crab who was sent by Ida to distract Hercules in his battle with the largest creature in Greek mythology, Hydra. He easily killed the crab in his eventual slaying of Hydra.
The constellation is illustrated by four stars in a peace sign (or Mercedes-Benz logo) formation and the Beehive Cluster.
After explaining the mythology, Creighton simulated the evening transition into the night, darkening the room to where the audience could only see the spring stars.
The first request she made was to identify Venus and Jupiter, which could be seen on a straight axis with the Moon. Then, she told everyone to identify the Big Dipper. After that, she showed the Arcturus and Spica connection. From there, she, engaging the audience, found the other constellations, along with Gemini (characterized by twin stars Castor and Pollux) and Ursa Major.
Her trademark command for the audience was for them to clap once if they think they found a constellation, and then to clap twice more if they correctly identified it.
After showing the constellations and explaining their odd shapes, she progressed the simulation until a morning sky showed up, in which she took follow-up questions and concluded the show.
Audience members were able to rate the show by taking a poker chip and dropping it into one of five boxes, each box with a number of stars (1-5) over it.
Creighton talked about the amount of time and of crew members it took to build the show.
“It took three people, probably the better part of over… I think we’ve been working over it for over six weeks, maybe even eight weeks,” she said. “Not all the time, not full time, but several people had to put their talent in and use some pictures that I even knew where to find. It takes a long time to get it where it is.”
Two spectators, Thomas Wettstein and Chris St. Martin, provided feedback on their motivation to see the show, what they received from it, and their favorite parts.
“Actually, I’ve gone to planetarium shows in the past and I just kind of wanted to see what UWM’s show would be like compared to UWSP and some other things I’ve been at too,” said St. Martin. “It was a great show overall and kind of what motivated me to come tonight as well; see it with my friends.”
“I just kind of the spring time, like what you can actually see for constellations within the spring night sky, compared to other times of the year,” he added when talking about what he got out of the event. “I’ve seen it kind of more through like winter and what not, that time, and then also kind of learning the history too, the Greek mythology that plays into it as well.”
Despite his interest in the history surrounding the constellations, his favorite part was when the night sky was displayed.
“I’d probably say like when we got out of the history part and talked about the actual formation of the constellations,” he said. “Truly seeing what the stars look like, now living in the city, it’s a little harder to see that. So kind of actually showing where in the sky to look for those constellations and taking a look at everything. I think that is the most rewarding aspect of it.”
Wettstein came with St. Martin and a female UWM student.
“I’m actually with a UWM student here tonight,” he said. “She suggested it and I haven’t been to a planetarium before, so I thought it would be cool.”
The show was a learning experience for Wettstein.
“I didn’t know anything about the Greek mythology coming into it,” he said. “I guess I’ve seen the Milky Way before in Door County in summertime, but haven’t really seen the constellations before in that sort of detail. So it’s kind of cool to have somebody who’s knowledgeable about astronomy to sort of describe it to me.”
Like St. Martin, Wettstein’s favorite part was seeing the constellations in the simulated sky.
Creighton will host a Mother’s Day special on May 10, 2015, from 2-3pm, covering the spring sky and the transition into the summertime. The next set of shows will happen on two three-day sets: July 22-24 and 29-31, 2015.