{"id":746645,"date":"2026-07-06T15:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/746645\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T15:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:00:11","slug":"bgsu-presents-9-part-series-america-250-in-the-planetarium-july-13-31-bg-independent-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/746645\/","title":{"rendered":"BGSU presents 9-part series, America 250 in the Planetarium, July 13-31 \u2013 BG Independent News"},"content":{"rendered":"

From BGSU PLANETARIUM<\/p>\n

The BGSU Planetarium invites the community to celebrate American discovery, innovation, and values through topics in astronomy, history, art, music, and more in a special nine-part series of talks.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0America 250 in the Planetarium series will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting at 7:30 p.m. July 13 \u2013 31. All of the America 250 in the Planetarium programs are free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

The first program in the series,\u00a0\u201cAmerica\u2019s Missions to the Moon: A History of Adventure,\u201d will be presented July 13 at 7:30 p.m. by Andrew Layden, professor, BGSU Department of Physics & Astronomy.<\/p>\n

From the unmanned lunar probes of the early 1960s, through the Apollo missions to the Artemis missions of today, Layden will trace the development of America\u2019s lunar discovery and the spacecraft that made it possible. There will be ample opportunity for questions and discussion to place these events into the context of the politics and technology of these decades of American history. The talk will be followed by the planetarium show \u201cDawn of the Space Age\u201d at 8:45 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second program in the series, \u201cPamphlets Before the Revolution: Voices from a Growing Crisis,\u201d will be presented July 15 by Michelle Sweetser, head librarian, BGSU Center for Archival Collections, and Special Collections chair.<\/p>\n

Long before the social media barbs and trolling of today, men engaged in debate through the publication of pamphlets. Learn more about the 18th-century \u201cpamphlet wars\u201d between British and American thinkers who argued in print about taxation, British administrative and governing policies, and colonial rights. View several original pamphlets, published between 1765 and 1774, along with selections of other colonial and early American material held by the BGSU Center for Archival Collections. The presentation will be followed by the planetarium show \u201cNavigating with Lewis & Clark\u201d at 8:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

The third talk in the series,\u00a0\u201cThese are the Voyages of the Starship(s) Voyager,\u201d will be presented on July 17 by Kate Dellenbusch, teaching professor, BGSU Department of Physics & Astronomy.<\/p>\n

The twin NASA Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft launched in 1977 and together made a Grand Tour of the gas giants of our solar system, providing breathtaking images of those worlds along the way. At more than 13 billion miles from Earth, the Voyagers are the most distant manmade objects, and in 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to enter into interstellar space. Voyager 2 followed this historic milestone in 2018. After nearly 49 years in space, most of their systems have been turned off, but as they venture ever farther from the Sun, they continue to send data back to Earth and teach us about the environment where the solar wind interacts with interstellar material. How do we know they have now entered into interstellar space? How long can they continue to function and return useful scientific data as their power dwindles, and what might the future hold as these robotic emissaries of humanity continue into the cosmos? The talk will be followed by the planetarium show \u201cThe Wright Way to Fly\u201d at 8:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

The fourth talk on July 20, \u201cFrom Rivalry to Cooperation: The Story of American and Russian Space Exploration,\u201d will be presented by Daria Filippova, teaching professor, BGSU Department of Mathematics.<\/p>\n

Since the 1950s, and arguably even earlier, the Soviet Union and the United States have invested enormous effort and resources in the exploration of space. Initially, this endeavor was driven by intense competition, leading to milestones such as the launch of the first artificial satellite, the first animals in space, the first human orbital flight, and ultimately the first human landing on the Moon.\u00a0Over time, however, cooperation between the two nations proved increasingly productive. From the historic Apollo\u2013Soyuz mission in 1975 to the development and operation of the International Space Station, collaboration became an important part of humanity\u2019s journey beyond Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since childhood, Filippova has been fascinated by space exploration and has visited numerous museums, launch sites, training facilities, and other locations connected to the American and Russian space programs. In this presentation, she will share the history of this remarkable transition from rivalry to partnership, drawing on both historical events and personal experiences.\u00a0The talk will be followed by the planetarium show \u201cDawn of the Space Age\u201d at 8:45 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amilcar Chall\u00fa, professor, BGSU Department of History, will present \u201cNavigating with the Stars in the Vast Early Americas\u201d on July 22 for the fifth talk in the series.<\/p>\n

His talk explores native and European astronomical knowledge, both scientific, technical and popular in the Americas around the time of the American Revolution. The talk will be followed by the planetarium show, \u201cNavigating with Lewis & Clark\u201d at 8:45 p.m. <\/p>\n

On July 24, the sixth talk of the series will be \u201cRevere\u2019s Moon,\u201d presented by Dellenbusch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Americans grow up hearing about the midnight ride of Paul Revere, often through Longfellow\u2019s famous poem \u201cPaul Revere\u2019s Ride.\u201d This telling of the story takes many liberties with the historic events of April 18-19, 1775, but it paints a memorable picture of the daring journeys made by Revere and several other riders who set out to warn their fellow colonists of the movements of British forces. Longfellow makes several uses of Moon imagery in his poem. What role did the position and phase of the Moon really play on that momentous night?\u00a0\u00a0The talk will be followed by the planetarium show \u201cThe Wright Way to Fly\u201d at 8:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

The seventh talk in the series,\u00a0\u201cGlass Astronomers:\u00a0 Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler in American Opera,\u201d will be presented on July 27 by Ryan Ebright, associate professor, BGSU College of Musical Arts.<\/p>\n

The American composer Philip Glass is perhaps most famous for his bicentennial opera \u201cEinstein on the Beach,\u201d a groundbreaking collaboration with avant-garde director Robert Wilson that was loosely inspired by the life and ideas of physicist Albert Einstein. Among Glass\u2019s more than two dozen subsequent operas, scientists are recurring subjects, including two 17th-Century astronomers whose work revolutionized humanity\u2019s understanding of the universe. In this multimedia presentation, attendees will learn how space and those who study it are dramatized musically in Glass\u2019s operas Galileo Galilei (2002) and Kepler (2009). The talk will be followed by the planetarium show \u201cDawn of the Space Age\u201d at 8:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

On July 29, the eighth talk in the series,\u00a0\u201cThe Universe as Model:\u00a0 Alexander Calder\u2019s Mobile Sculptures in American Art History,\u201d will be presented by Andrew Hershberger, professor, BGSU School of Art.<\/p>\n

Starting in the early 1930s and continuing throughout his life, the American artist Alexander Calder (1898-1976) created a remarkable body of sculptures that he called \u201cmobiles.\u201d Unlike most, if not all, earlier sculptures in art history, Calder\u2019s mobiles actually moved and often rotated on a variety of axes. Perhaps the innovative and mechanical aspects of these mobile sculptures caused the French artist Fernand L\u00e9ger (1881-1955) to describe them as \u201c100 percent American.\u201d Calder himself proclaimed of the mobiles that the \u201cunderlying sense of form in my work has been the system of the Universe.\u201d With those words, Calder shared the inspiration he received from the way planets revolve around stars, and the way moons revolve around planets, etc.<\/p>\n

Connecting to the theme of innovation in this America 250 lecture series, Calder has often been hailed as the inventor of moving sculptures. Thus, Calder\u2019s mobiles fit the theme of American discovery and innovation while also connecting to the discipline of astronomy. The talk will be followed by the planetarium show \u201cNavigating with Lewis \u00a0& Clark\u201d\u00a0at 8:45 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the ninth and final program of America 250 in the Planetarium, \u201cFounding Voices Under the Stars\u201d will be presented by Dellenbusch. Attendees will experience the reading of seminal American documents such as the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights under the night sky of the day they were signed.\u00a0This program will also feature live fife and drum music performed by the Fort Meigs Field Music, featuring John Thompson on fife and Isaac Rapai on drum. The program will be followed by the planetarium show \u201cThe Wright Way to Fly\u201d at 8:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit the planetarium website at bgsu.edu \/planetarium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>Posted by: Julie Carle<\/a> on July 6, 2026. \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From BGSU PLANETARIUM The BGSU Planetarium invites the community to celebrate American discovery, innovation, and values through topics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-746645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}