The College and RiverDogs Celebrate Astronomy Day on April 25th

When you go to a Charleston RiverDogs game, there’s a good chance you’ll see some stars. Actor Bill Murray is an owner of the minor league baseball team and a number of players are preparing for careers in the major leagues, hoping to follow in the footsteps of former RiverDogs such as B.J. Upton (San Diego Padres), Carl Crawford (Los Angeles Dodgers), and Josh Hamilton (Los Angeles Angels).

College of Charleston students, staff and faculty volunteered to help teach science at a Charleston RiverDogs game in 2014.

This Saturday night, April 25, 2015, there’s an even surer bet that game attendees will be in the presence of stars. That’s because Astronomers Without Borders and the College of Charleston’s School of Sciences and Mathematics are celebrating Astronomy Day by hosting an international star party during the RiverDogs game at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park.

As the RiverDogs battle the mighty Savannah Sand Gnats, the College of Charleston will be providing a number of space-themed activities to help baseball fans better appreciate the heavens. Among the attractions available, weather permitting:

An inflatable Star Lab planetarium

Physics activities

A viewing station complete with binoculars and solarscopes

A crater impact station

A SmartBoard for kids to interact with Google Earth, Google Moon, and Google Mars

A lunar sample on display at the College in 2012.

Best of all, geology professor Cass Runyon has helped arrange a showing of a lunar sample on loan from the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. Gathered during the Apollo 14 space mission in 1971, these lunar rocks are “national treasures,” says Runyon, and believed to be about 3.9 billion years old.

“They’re priceless,” says Runyon, who has also organized the display of meteorite samples for the baseball game.

Geology professor Cass Runyon works closely with NASA to help bring lunar samples to the College.

For those taking a break from the game, College of Charleston faculty, staff, and students, including representatives of the Lowcountry Hall of Science and Math, will provide hands-on educational activities related to College astronomy, planetary geology, and NASA space mission classes.

To top it all off, baseball guests can mingle with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the rest of the Tune Squad as the RiverDogs celebrate a “Tune Squad” jersey giveaway.

The RiverDogs take the field at 6 p.m. on Saturday April 25, 2015 at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston. For tickets and more information about the game, visit the Charleston RiverDogs.