UNIVERSE IN THE PARK

Universe in the Park is an outreach program that takes telescopes out to parks all across the state of Wisconsin to connect Wisconsinites with the night sky. Graduate students from UW–Madison who facilitate the program do a presentation and then, if the sky is clear, set up telescopes for people in the park to view the night sky. In addition to connecting people with nature and back to their roots, Kay Kriewald, senior outreach specialist at UW Space Place, who also runs Universe in the Park, gets excited about sharing her passion with people of all ages and backgrounds. “You can see the brighter objects, but you go to a nice dark space, like northern Wisconsin, and look at the night sky. It is amazing,” Kriewald says. “I mean, I walk out there and I can’t even find constellations, because it’s like, there’s too many stars out there. I don’t know them anymore.”