Star-gazing at Butler University

One of this city's best-kept secrets is the Holcomb Observatory at Butler University. The observatory offers interesting and educational planetarium shows on Friday and Saturday evenings, and afterward you're allowed to climb the tower to gaze through the observatory's giant telescope (weather permitting).

Bonus: The planetarium shows cost only $3 for adults. That's a pretty cheap date.

At the moment, the planetarium show starts at 8:15 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; doors open at 8 p.m. The current topic is "Secrets of Saturn."

When we last visited the observatory, the topic was the Roman understanding of astronomy (tied into the art museum's Roman sculpture exhibit). It was a fun activity for us as a couple, but the families who were there also seemed to enjoy it.

Astronomy Lecture at Butler

The last time I went to a lecture at Butler University, it was to see Michael Pollan, the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food." We were pretty early, but we still got sent to the hastily (and very nicely) assembled overflow room ... which also overflowed.

Can an astronomy lecture attract the same crowd? We'll see. Robert Kirshner visits this coming Monday for a lecture titled, "The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy and the Accelerating Cosmos" (also the title of his book). Kirshner teaches at Harvard, where his research focuses on dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the universe.

The event is at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Atherton Union Reilly Room (and maybe some other rooms, too).