Supermoons and celestial activity prompt rising interest in SFU’s ‘star party’

Thanks to a summer of notable celestial activity, including a third supermoon, interest in SFU’s weekly star party—Starry Nights—is about to rise to new heights with plans to expand the program online, inviting even more to join. Organizers say the sky’s the limit when it comes to welcoming an increasingly enthusiastic crowd to learn more about astronomy.

The program has been attracting crowds of more than 200 star-enthusiasts to the SFU Burnaby campus and its Trottier Observatory on clear-weather Friday nights, and hundreds more are expected to join in a new monthly online event starting September 29.

“People everywhere continue to be captivated by astronomy and the activity of the moon and stars, particularly over the past year, and we hope to open the window to that world a little wider,” says Joanna Woo, a lecturer in SFU’s Department of Physics.

“Hosting Starry Nights via a livestream lets us expand the audience and provide what is equivalent to front-row access to all our viewers, using cameras that see much more than the human eye. And no one has to wait in line; everyone gets to look through the telescope at the same time.”

A Starry Nights facilitator, Woo’s own research involves observing compact groups of galaxies to determine whether or not they significantly grow their core densities as a result of their group environment and interactions.

Led by SFU Science Outreach and volunteers from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Vancouver, Starry Nights is a free event that takes place every clear-skied Friday night for community members to discover the many celestial objects visible to the human eye or through small telescopes, including the moon, distant stars, constellations, and planets in the solar and elsewhere in the cosmos, without the need for their own equipment or any previous knowledge of astronomy. 

AVAILABLE SFU EXPERTS

CYNTHIA HENSON, manager, Outreach and Engagement, Faculty of Science
sfuscienceoutreach@sfu.ca 

JOANNA WOO, lecturer, Department of Physics; facilitator, Starry Nights
j_woo@sfu.ca

CONTACT

RAY SHARMA, SFU Communications & Marketing 
778.782.3210 | ray_sharma@sfu.ca

ABOUT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Who We Are
As Canada’s engaged university, SFU works with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge that improves life and generates real change. We deliver a world-class education with lifelong value that shapes change-makers, visionaries and problem-solvers. We connect research and innovation to entrepreneurship and industry to deliver sustainable, relevant solutions to today’s problems. With campuses in British Columbia’s three largest cities—Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey—SFU has eight faculties that deliver 364 undergraduate degree programs and 149 graduate degree programs to more than 37,000 students. The university now boasts more than 180,000 alumni residing in 145+ countries.