Astronomy tour to visit several SWI libraries next week – The Daily Nonpareil

A national tour discussing the upcoming total solar eclipse will stop in Council Bluffs and several other southwest Iowa communities in the coming several days.

Kevin Manning, an astronomer and former NASA consultant, will speak at the Council Bluffs Public Library on Thursday at 7 p.m. as part of a tour called Look Up to the Stars.

Elsewhere in The Nonpareils area, Manning will visit public libraries in Clarinda at 7 p.m. today, Sidney at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Glenwood at 2 p.m. Thursday, Shenandoah at 6 p.m. Saturday and Atlantic at 7 p.m. Monday, according to the tours website, lookuptothestars.com, as well as library websites.

After that, the tour departs for Illinois and Indiana.

A release from the Council Bluffs library states that Manning worked as a consultant on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory with NASA and is a passionate science educator.

Come experience an educational and entertaining exploration of the universe, the stars and other celestial wonders, as well as a refreshingly large perspective gained by looking up at the sky, the library said in the release.

Following Mannings presentation, weather permitting, an outdoor star viewing with a custom-designed telescope will be offered.

The event is free and open to the public.

The program, The Universe & An All American Total Solar Eclipse, explores eclipses and other celestial events using positional astronomy to determine the location of objects in the sky at a particular date, time and location, according to the tours website.

A total eclipse of the sun will take place Aug. 21, with Iowa except for a tiny sliver of Fremont County that will be in totality experiencing a partial eclipse.

Another eclipse-related opportunity is coming up next week when the University of Nebraska at Omahas David Kriegler will present a public lecture June 10 at 6 p.m. and June 11 at 2 p.m. at the Durham Science Building.

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Astronomy tour to visit several SWI libraries next week - The Daily Nonpareil