Star watch: A stargazer checks out the waxing ‘gibbous’ moon last Thursday during Telescope Night at Fox Park in Oak Park. NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Mark Benson invites community on the last Thursday of each month. | ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Star party: Kids take turns viewing the night sky during Telescope Night at Fox Park last week. The last Thursday of each month, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Mark Benson invites community members to view our solar system. | ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Kids take turns viewing the night sky during Telescope Night at Fox Park last week. The last Thursday of each month, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Mark Benson invites community members to view our solar system. | ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Participants take turns looking through the telescope last Thursday, during a Telescope Night at Fox Park in Oak Park. | ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Kids take turns viewing the night sky during Telescope Night at Fox Park last week. The last Thursday of each month, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Mark Benson invites community members to view our solar system. | ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Participants take turns looking through the telescope last Thursday, during a Telescope Night at Fox Park in Oak Park. | ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Mark Benson, Oak Park’s very own ambassador to the stars, says his first public event since being named ambassador to the solar system by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Solar System Ambassador Program, was a huge success.
The event, a “Star Party” at Fox Park on April 26, attracted about 150 people, he tells Wednesday Journal in an email.
Stargazers were invited to come look at the stars (and moon) through Benson’s telescope and to bring their own optic devices. He said the event was “just an incredible turnout.
The next Star Party is set for May 31 at Taylor Park. More information is available about his new group at https://www.facebook.com/MarkBensonSSA/.
Tim Inklebarger