BANGOR, Maine — The full moon on Tuesday night was at the center of an event that combined science with fun.
This was a special full moon because not only was it the annual Hunter’s moon, it also was the last supermoon for this year.
During the Challenger Learning Center of Maine’s Full Moon Glow Walk at Bangor Waterfront, local kids and adults had the opportunity to participate in a variety of moon and light related activities including moon selfies, moonwalk, glow stomp rockets, glow ball, glow ring tosses, flashlight art making glow-in-the-dark Minion-style glasses out of glow sticks and pipe cleaners.
Attendees also got to see the moon rise over the Penobscot River through several telescopes brought to the waterfront by members of the Penobscot Valley Stargazers.
Among those who turned out for the event were Heather Haskell of Hampden, her husband and their two children, both of whom have attended the Challenger Learning Center’s astronaut camp.
“We looked at the moon last night, and it was big and full and the kids thought that was great. And when we found out they were having a glow walk, we thought that sounded like fun, too,” Haskell said as her 7-year-old daughter, Sarah, made a “moon surface” with sand and glow powder in a pie plate.
“We love science. It’s fun,” she said. “You know, it had better be. You know, they’ve got to make it interesting and they’re out there trying to do that, and we appreciate that.”
Elizabeth Jandreau, a University of Maine bioengineering major from Madawaska, was among the college students who volunteered to help. At her booth, she demonstrated how light refraction works by having people look at a lighted, colored gyroscope spinning through special glasses.
“I really like the properties of light — it was my favorite thing while studying physics — so getting to tell people the science side of this is really fun for me. I love it,” said Jandreau, a member of UMaine’s chapter of Society of Women Engineers.
For Parker Tenney, a Mary Snow School student from Bangor, the event was just plain fun.
“I wanted to watch the moon,” he said when asked why he wanted to go the the Glow Walk. “It’s colorful. I like that it’s yellow and big.”
His mother added: “He’s really into the supermoons.”