Dark skies equal bright stars – and the newly re-opened Rock Cliff Nature Center invites the community to come out and do a little stargazing this Saturday.
The nature center at the Jordanelle Reservoir re-opened July 1st after being closed for seven years due to flooding and infrastructure damage.
Hilary Lambert is the CEO of Wasatch Mountain Institute, an outdoor education non-profit. She says the institute collaborated on repairing the center.
She explained how her organization is working with the state park service at the center.
“And we really situate ourselves at the intersection of education and recreation," she said. "So we work primarily with school groups integrating the science content standards with outdoor recreation experiences. And we do that at the Rock Cliff Nature Center. That is our home base. And in addition to that, we have reopened the nature center for public use, and we staff the nature center in collaboration with the State Park and do community education events as well.”
One of these community events is the star party this Saturday. Lambert says it’s in conjunction with the first day of Latino Conservation week, which is a national week of celebration of the Latinx community’s contribution to conservation. It’s also an opportunity to educate the public about dark skies and why they’re important.
“And we'll have a couple of different telescopes set up, some provided by the state parks, some provided by our volunteers, and you'll have the opportunity to experience a dark sky," she said. "It's a really late moonrise. And so it should be nice and dark. And if you are interested in staying up really late, we should be able to see Saturn rise around 1030.”
The star party event starts at 7:30pm Saturday at the nature center - located at the east shore of the Jordanelle Reservoir. The event is free and open to the public. Spanish translation is available. There's a $10 dollar entrance fee before 7pm.
