This summer, Chewonki traveled all over the state of Maine visiting libraries that were participating in a shared reading theme “A universe of Stories”, and bringing our new portable planetarium (known as the StarLab) with us to reveal the nighttime sky to curious observers.
We taught about planets, the moon, the stars and their patterns, and the many stories told about the night sky over different generations and cultures. At the end visitors were encouraged to make up their own constellations and stories and send them in to us.
There were many submissions that ranged from clever and creative, to adorable, and a few that were out of this world! We had a difficult time deciding a winner, and in the end we awarded three entries with prizes:
First Prize
First prize was awarded to Kensley, age 8, from the Bowdoinham Public Library. Her new constellations feature a seashell and a flower.
Kensley writes:
These are the finest items, only the most perfect royalty used [as] basic items in a castle. The fan represents the beauty of the Queen and the flower represents their kindness for all.
Second Prize (tie)
Second prize is a tie between Adelaide and Eve, ages 8 and 5, from CLC YMCA in Skidompha.
They write:
(top) The Star fairy lives next to a superlative chest in the shy. She is always searching for the key and needs help from Elska because her magic willn ot open the chest. The Star Fairy flies through a gate on june 19th every year to finr Elska and get the key. A new star flies out of the chest and then they key is lost for another year.
(bottom) Far off, in a faraway land in another world, there lived elves. Beautiful, tall, gacefull and wise. They looked up in the sky and saw a chest, but it was not any elve, his name was Elveyear. He saw images with the chest. It was so beautiful that he made the finest work [ever] made. Then he burried the chest and proclaimed it the “chest of images”. He scattered the things he had made for another to find one day. The end.
Congratulations to these budding young astronomers. Keep looking up!
