McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center Has New Programs, Fall Hours

CONCORD, NH — The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord has new fall hours starting this week as well a planetarium show lineup and other programs that are new to the facility. The center will be open to the general public from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday through Sunday, with hours on the first Friday of each month from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The center, constructed to honor two iconic New Hampshire citizens, Alan Shepard, of Derry, who served as one of the first seven Mercury astronauts in the 1960s, and Christa McAuliffe, the beloved Concord High School social studies teacher who died in the Challenger disaster in 1986, works to make learning about the universe and science fun for all generations of Granite Staters.

On Friday, the New Hampshire Astronomical Society will be at the center (presuming the skies are clear), offering guided views of the night sky after Sarah Beattie, an education coordinator at the facility, discusses early science fiction – "the wild stories created by ancient cultures about constellations in the night sky." Her program will also explore how sci-fi led to new inventions and pathways to exploration.

Later this month, when fall officially begins, the center will participate in Museum Day – free coupons can be downloaded here – and Wings and Wheels, the annual transportation fair at the city airport.

Other programs for the month includes flight, humanity’s first steps on the moon, and exploration from the oceans to distant planets and stars: Take Flight at 11 a.m., CapCom Go! at noon, Extreme Planets at 1 p.m., Tonight’s Sky at 2 p.m., and Space School at 3 p.m. every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

For more information, visit starhop.com.

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