Originally from the Missouri Ozarks, she moved to Guam in 1980 when her husband came to work at NASA’s satellite tracking station. The University of Guam asked her husband if he could repair the planetarium projector, and she began accompanying him. She learned how to operate the instrument and gave shows for students while working as the biology lab tech at the Science Building.
The university eventually replaced the planetarium’s system in the early 1990s and she learned how to run the new one as well. They hired her as the planetarium coordinator when the new system was purchased in the early 1990s, a job she held until the planetarium closed in 2012. By then she had written more than 100 astronomy shows for the general public.
On the Fridge May 14, 2021
By Anne Wen Starry Starry Night has moved to Saturdays
Readers of Pam Eastlick s longtime weekly astronomy column, Starry Starry Night, can now find it in the Lifestyle section of the Saturday newspaper. We re relaunching her column Saturday with a profile on the writer who has become known as The Star Lady, her column on what you can expect to see in Guam s skies this week, and her story on what makes Guam one of the best places in the world for stargazing. You won t want to miss it!
Lifestyle will be publishing summer camp information
If you live in Alaska or Norway or Greenland, you see the northern half of the sky and the Earth hides the southern half from you. You can never see Crux the Southern Cross or Canopus, the second brightest star. If you live in Australia or New Zealand or southern Chile, you can never see Polaris the North Star or the Big Dipper. But if you live at the equator, the entire sky is visible to you throughout the year as the Earth spins beneath it.
Here on Guam, we’re 13 degrees north of the equator and that means that we can never see the stars and constellations inside the 13-degree circle around the south celestial pole. The south celestial pole doesn’t point to a specific star as the north celestial pole points to Polaris. There are perhaps 10 visible stars in that circle and parts of three constellations.