New this year: Sky Trekker Lite and Sky Trekker Adult Lite!

This year there will be no levels, no judges, and no waiting for awards and certificates—just fun under the stars with the constellation relay game and the IFSP’s own Celestial Bingo!

There will still be a drawing for a telescope for kids and a nice pair of binoculars for adults, as well as ice cream treats!

Sky Trekker will still be for kids under 18 years of age and Sky Trek Adult will still be for people aged 18 and over.

Sign up in the Nature Center by 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening (7/25/25), then attend the Sky Trekker/Sky Trek Adult Launch Session in the Nature Center at 8:00 p.m. Attendees will be given a planisphere (one per family) and a Sky Trekker/Sky Trek Adult handout.

After the Nature Center session, if the sky is clear, we will meet at the Galileo Gallery at 10:10 p.m. Constellations for the game will be pointed out, the game will proceed and afterward, we will put names in a jar for the drawing. Ice cream treats for participants will be given out at the Nature Center.

If the sky is not clear, the constellation game for Sky Trekker and Sky Trek Adult will take place in the Nature Center immediately after the Sky Trekker Launch session, then drawings will be held and ice cream treats will be handed out.

Those wishing to see objects in telescopes can visit Prairie Grass Observatory telescopes or other telescopes and, if they’d like to, play Celestial Bingo. Celestial Bingo sheets go into a box in the Nature Center and a drawing for the $25.00 prize for that game will take place on Sunday morning. (Participants need not be present to win Celestial Bingo, but to win the Sky Trekker and Sky Trek Adult drawings, participants do need to be present. For the telescope prize, a child’s parent or guardian can accept the prize for the child.)

The Sky Trekker program was featured in the March 2009 issue of the Astronomical League’s Reflector magazine. The article is here. A pdf file of a recent Sky Trekker booklet is here.