David Thompson and the Night Sky

About This Event

Join a discussion of David Thompson (1770–1857), a Canadian fur trader, explorer, surveyor and cartographer. Thompson is regarded as “the greatest land geographer who ever lived.” He earned this distinction by walking, riding and paddling 56,000 miles across North America, and mapping 1.9 million square miles. He travelled and accurately mapped most of western Canada and the northern US west of Lake Superior.

Thompson was known to some of the First Nations as Koo-Koo-Sint (the man who looks at stars), because he used celestial navigation to create his maps. As a result, this discussion will cover Thompson’s life, and include the navigational techniques used to accurately locate map features.

After the discussion (weather permitting), get a live planetarium show outside the Fur Post, and point out the constellations visible in mid-April. A telescope will be setup, and weather permitting, attendees will have the opportunity to view selected celestial objects such as, Mars, Jupiter, Beehive Cluster (Cancer), and Bode’s Galaxy (Ursa Major).

Led by Rich Schuler, an astronomer and former university lecturer in astronomy and physics with a strong desire to share his knowledge of astronomy and the night sky. Rich has been looking at stars and peering through telescopes for nearly fifty years.