Parks & Recreation
GEAUGA PARK DISTRICTFor more information, contact the park district at 440-286-9516 or visit www.geaugaparkdistrict.org.Winter at Observatory ParkFor casual visitors, Observatory Park is open daily from…
GEAUGA PARK DISTRICT
For more information, contact the park district at 440-286-9516 or visit www.geauga
parkdistrict.org.
Winter at Observatory Park
For casual visitors, Observatory Park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. at 10610 Clay St. in Montville Township.
For those wanting a more guided experience, however, astronomy naturalist Chris Mentrek is glad to guide visitors at this International Dark Sky Park.
Park buildings are open the second and fourth weekends of each month: Friday and Saturday for self-guided night sky viewing with park district telescopes from 6-11 p.m., as well as Sunday from 1-4 p.m., including The Sky Tonight Planetarium Show at 2 p.m.
Planetarium shows fall on Jan. 25, Feb. 15 and March 1, 15 and 29.
More structured programming is also available for visitors of all ages and interest groups.
Biweekly Friday programs include What Causes Ice Ages? on Jan. 23 from 7-8 p.m.; Tour the Nassau Astronomical Observing Station on Feb. 13 and 27 from 7-9 p.m.; and The “Dawn” Space Probe on March 13 and 27 from 7-8 p.m.
Special programs to study the season’s full moons are scheduled for Feb. 3 (Anc-ient Ohio Moons), from 7-8 p.m.; and March 5 (The Worm Moon), from 7-8:30 p.m.
Bring In Your Telescope takes place Feb. 28, from 5-6 p.m. Park staff and volunteers from the Chagrin Valley Astronomical Society will help visitors get the most enjoyable astronomy experience out of their equipment and offer a few maintenance tips.
And finally, while it’s not at Observatory Park, the new Research in Our Parks series will focus on discoveries made there in 2014 on March 1, from 3:30-4:15 p.m. at The West Woods Nature Center.
All Observatory Park programs this season are free to attend without registration.
Return to The Ice Age
A new special exhibit in 2015 brings real mammoth bones to The West Woods. Something’s Afoot: Nature Just Can’t Stay Put, a large exhibit about nature’s modes of transportation, will still be on display in 2015, but part of the exhibit has been replaced to dedicate a corner to Return to the Ice Age.
The new special feature focuses on the megafauna, the large mammals, most of which are extinct, that roamed neighborhoods in the few millennia approximately 9,000-12,000 years ago following the retreat of the last glaciations of the Ice Age.
What Causes Ice Ages?
Jan. 23, 7-8 p.m.
Observatory Park’s Robert McCullough
Science Center
Trace the story of ice ages’ astronomical connections and utilize hands-on models and animation to explore the reasons for Earth’s cyclically changing climate. If the skies are clear, this program will be followed by night-sky viewing using telescopes; if not, enter the planetarium for one of Astro-Naturalist Chris Mentrek’s shows.
Did Big Beasts = Big Feasts? Ice Age
Paleoindians and Their Prey
Jan. 18, 2-3 p.m.
The West Woods Nature Center
What caused the rather sudden extinction of huge beasts following the Ice Age? Cleveland Museum of Natural History Archaeologist Dr. Brian Redmond presents the latest evidence for hunting or scavengers Ice Age animals discovered in northern Ohio. Citing Ice Age animal remains discovered in Northeast Ohio’s Western Reserve, including the Firelands ground sloth and the Hartley mastodon.
Nature Explorers: Bodacious Beasts
Feb. 21, 2-4 p.m.
The West Woods Nature Center
Youth, ages 6 to 8 and 9 to 11, will learn about extinct Ice Age animals through games, puppets and a simulated bone dig to assemble a near life-size mammoth skeleton with a miniature version to keep. Registration required.
Ice Age Animals of the Western Reserve
Feb. 22, 3:30-4:45 p.m.
The West Woods Nature Center
Naturalist Dan Best provides an overview of the extinct megafauna and extirpated animals that briefly occupied Northeast Ohio.
Ice Age Authentic or Mammoth Malarkey?
March 1, 2-3:30 p.m.
The West Woods Nature Center
In a game show format, contestants are challenged to choose the true identification of Ice Age objects after hearing comedic explanations from a panel of “experts.”
Through April, Geauga Park District’s Return to the Ice Age coincides with and provides a Geauga County focus complimenting the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s hosting of Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age. Admission is free with museum admission; find details at www.cmnh.org.
