At the start of every school year, students apply to join the Planetarium Club. This year, 85 students applied and 68 have been accepted for training.

After many requests for more educational opportunities for families, the Merrillville Adult Education is offering an Astronomy class for adults with children that will be held at the planetarium.

I writing today from Bay City, Michigan, where I'm attending the annual conference of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA). The conference began on Wednesday evening and runs through Saturday afternoon.

We just completed converting another planetarium program to DigitalSky. "The Endless Horizon" is about human exploration -- exploration of the oceans, continents, and outer space.

Each year, the Merrillville Community Planetarium offers four different public programs -- one for each season. Our fall program is in October, winter show in January, spring program in April, and summer show in July.

In 1609, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei turned a telescope towards the heavens and recorded the first detailed observations of the sky with the new device. In honor of the 400th anniversary of the first astronomical observations with a telescope, the United Nations has declared 2009 to be the International Year of Astronomy (IYA).

On Friday, September 18, we mailed information for the planetarium's 2009-2010 program year to everyone on our mailing list.

When the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into space on October 4, 1957, the United States government responded by establishing a single agency to coordinate the nation's civilian space program. On July 29, 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). On October 1, 1958, NASA began operations.

Weather permitting, observers in Northwest Indiana will be able to observe a total lunar eclipse on the night of Wednesday, February 20. This is the third of three total lunar eclipses over a twelve month period. There was a total lunar eclipse on March 3, 2007 and August 28, 2007.

Weather permitting, observers in Northwest Indiana will be able to observe a total lunar eclipse as the moon rises in the east on the evening of Saturday, March 3. Our next total eclipse of the moon will be as the moon sets on the morning of August 28, 2007.