Has the night sky always intrigued you, but you never knew how to see the stars up close or how to take photos of the moon? Join Audubon Mid-Atlantic, Latino Outdoors, and Unique Photo for a fun night of photography and stargazing.

6pm-7:30pm Long Exposure Photography Class with Justin Curtis of Unique Photo (Register here)
8pm-10pm Star and moon gazing with Latino Outdoors and Damien Ruffner of Audubon Mid-Atlantic

Start your evening with learning the basics of long exposure photography. Justin will give you advice and show you the best settings and accessories for your camera to see the nighttime in a whole new way. Feel free to bring your camera or experiment with the cameras Unique Photo provides for the class.

After you’ve learned to take amazing photos, join Audubon Programs Manager Damien Ruffner as he introduces you to the night sky! Amateur astronomy is a wonderful and fun hobby, but with literally BIILLIONS of stars in the Milky Way alone, it can be intimidating to start.
Damien will guide you as you begin your journey into the night sky. He will also be showing you the Persieds Meteor Shower (Peaking this very night on August 12th), an annual phenomenon that has interested astronomers for centuries.
Although the Perseids meteor shower peaks on August 12th every year, this particular year will be hard to see. That’s because there will also be a SUPER Full-moon that night! A super moon is when the rotation of the moon around the earth is at it’s closest. This can make the moon look larger in the sky, but also ads more to the ambient light, therefore outshine the faint lights of far-away stars, celestial objects, and of course shooting stars.

While we may not see many shooting stars, we’ll still see amazing views and celestial objects, and even take some up-close looks at our moon!

Guests are welcome and encouraged to bring any stargazing equipment such as telescopes, starmaps, or binoculars and snacks. Great for the whole family (If the little ones can stay up that late!)

We will also be joined by North Philadelphia community program, Latino Outdoors. Latino Outdoors is a community first and an organization second. They are a community that strives for an outdoors that is safe and welcoming for all people, regardless of race, creed, nationality, language, gender, sexual orientation, or ability. Latino Outdoors is a community that celebrates diverse forms of outdoor engagement and a community that believes meaningful outdoor experiences make us stronger, healthier, and happier. We inspire, connect, and engage Latino communities in the outdoors and embrace cultura y familia as part of the outdoor narrative, ensuring our history, heritage, and leadership are valued and represented.

Photo by Justin Curtis