| | | RELEASE DATE: October 10, 2023
CONTACT:
Anne Mancour, Marketing Manager
Sloan Museum of Discovery
Office: 810-237-3443
Email: AMancour@SloanLongway.org
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| LONGWAY PLANETARIUM AND SLOAN MUSEUM HOSTING FREE SOLAR ECLIPSE VIEWING ACTIVITIES OCTOBER 14
Partial Solar Eclipse Visible in Flint region 11:43 a.m.-2:23 p.m. October 14, 2023 FLINT, MI –Weather permitting, Longway Planetarium in Flint, MI, will hold a free solar eclipse viewing event on Saturday, October 14, 2023, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Telescopes will be made available in the lawn space between Longway Planetarium and the Flint Institute of Arts for guests to watch the partial solar eclipse. Guests will also be able to view the eclipse inside the lobby of Longway Planetarium by video. About 34% of the sun will be eclipsed by the moon at the peak of the event at 1:03 p.m..
“On October 14, the Moon will begin its transit of the sun starting at 11:45 a.m. and ending at 2:23 p.m., with the maximum eclipse occurring at 1:03 p.m. If there are no clouds, local residents will be able to see a crescent-shaped shadow from the partially-eclipsed sun at the peak,” stated Planetarium Manager, Patrick Ross, M.S. “People in the Flint region should be able to see this partial eclipse from any location with a clear view of the Southern sky,” added Ross, who also emphasized that special glasses should be worn to safely view the eclipse. "Viewing the eclipse can only be done safely with special glasses or optical filters – regardless of the eclipse percentage," Ross advised. Eclipse viewing glasses are currently available, while supplies last, for $2 a pair at gift shops located inside Longway Planetarium, and at Sloan Museum of Discovery across the street. Both venues are on East Kearsley Street inside Flint's Cultural Center campus.
For eclipse fans who want to create their own eclipse viewers, Sloan Museum of Discovery will also be offering free make-and-take workshops in the Discovery Lab maker’s space on October 14 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission to Sloan Museum of Discovery is free to residents of Genesee County due to the Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment Millage passed by voters in 2018. After the eclipse, Longway’s Skies Over Michigan live astronomy show at 3 p.m. will intertwine eclipse facts for stargazers with other astronomy events visible in Michigan’s night sky.
If it is overcast or raining, the outside telescope viewing event will be canceled. Interested attendees should check Longway Planetarium’s website, www.Longway.org, before coming. The 3 p.m. Skies Over Michigan planetarium show, and eclipse viewer workshop in the Sloan Museum of Discovery’s maker space, will take place regardless of weather conditions.
Both the solar eclipse eye glasses and the make-and-take eclipse viewer can be used again April 8, 2024, when a near-total eclipse will take place in Flint with 97% of the sun getting obscured by the Moon. At the peak of the April 2024 eclipse, residents will witness darkness at 3:03 p.m. Longway Planetarium and Sloan Museum of Discovery will be announcing plans to celebrate this rare event at a later date. For more information, go to Longway.org, email to Longway@SloanLongway.org, or call the Longway Planetarium at (810) 237-3400.
# # # About Sloan Museum of Discovery & Longway PlanetariumSloan Museum of Discovery and Longway Planetarium are overseen by the non-profit Flint Institute of Science and History with a shared mission to engage communities on a learning journey in history and science. Located within the Flint Cultural Center campus in Flint, Michigan, Sloan Museum of Discovery opened July 16, 2022, with four primary hands-on learning galleries and one exhibition hall for special traveling exhibits. The original Sloan Museum opened in 1966 as the Sloan Panorama of Transportation, named after long-time General Motors president, chairman and CEO Alfred P. Sloan. Longway Planetarium originally opened in 1958. After an extensive renovation in 2015, and upgrades in 2021, including a Digistar 7 projection system, the planetarium now has 129 reclining seats to comfortably enjoy ongoing full-dome shows, musical light shows, and live astronomy presentations; it remains Michigan’s largest and most technologically advanced planetarium facility. Both venues are supported in part by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC). Educational programs are funded in part by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment Millage. Learn more at SloanLongway.org.
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| WE ENGAGE COMMUNITIES ON A LEARNING JOURNEY IN HISTORY AND SCIENCE |
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| | Longway Planetarium 1310 E. Kearsley St., Flint, MI 48503 Sloan Museum of Discovery 1221 E. Kearsley St., Flint, MI 48503
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