Public Invited to 5th Annual International Observe the Moon Night

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Aug 28, 2014, 04:21 ET

GREENBELT, Md., Aug. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will host a public event on Sept. 6 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. EDT to celebrate five years of observing the moon. This free event is for families with middle-school-aged children and older.

This is the fifth anniversary of International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN), a public campaign to celebrate and observe Earth's nearest neighbor. InOMN was established shortly after the launch of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is celebrating its fifth year in orbit around the moon.

Highlights of this year's InOMN event at the Goddard Visitor Center will include a talk on the top science results from LRO's first 5 years, an exhibit of images in LRO's recently released "Moon as Art" collection, and a lunar story time for children. In another talk, a member of Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio will discuss the LRO Earthrise video, which recreates the moment when the Apollo 8 crew captured the first color photograph of Earth taken by a person in lunar orbit.

This year's InOMN event will also feature:

Hands-on activities
Talks with scientists and engineers
Telescope viewing and more!

Visitors will also have an opportunity to interact with several new exhibits about the moon that were recently installed at the Visitor Center, including standing in the boot print of an Apollo astronaut, viewing a lunar rock returned by Apollo astronauts, and touching a model of the lunar surface made using LRO data. Other new exhibits focus on the clues that Earth rocks and man-made simulants provide for scientists studying how the moon's surface formed and has changed over time.

The InOMN team includes science and education enthusiasts from the United States and around the world. The team stays abreast of current lunar scientific discoveries and brings them to the public's attention.

No reservations are needed to attend this event, and families are welcome. The visitor center is located on IceSat Road in Greenbelt, Maryland. Parking is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information about InOMN:

http://observethemoonnight.org

For directions to NASA Goddard's Visitor Center, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/directions/index.html

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SOURCE NASA