The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum will host Night Sky Love on Valentine’s Day, offering two planetarium shows at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The program, led by Brittney Mickaliger, the planetarium’s astronomy director, explores the romantic side of the universe, from stars and planets to mythological tales of love.
“This is essentially a Night Sky Live! that’s adapted for Valentine’s Day, which is why we’re calling it Night Sky Love,” said Mickaliger.
Mickaliger told the South Shore Press that the holiday theme began last Halloween. When planning for Valentine’s Day, she wondered how to fill a 45-minute program with the romantic side of astronomy. (Mickaliger not only presents the program but also creates the entire presentation from scratch.) She later had to trim some of her material due to the abundance of "love stories" in astronomy.
“There’s so much out there,” she said. Even a celestial body may have a romantic side, like Pluto, which has a heart-shaped feature on its surface.
Attendees will also learn how constellations have inspired mythological tales of romantic couples, as well as stories of family love.
“Then we’ll visit some planets I talk about at the beginning of the show,” Mickaliger said, including Venus. “We’ll see if it’s really as lovely as people think,” she added. A highlight of the program will be the Heart Nebula, a deep-space object shaped like a heart.
As Mickaliger looks into the night sky, she often reflects on the vastness of the universe, which reinforces her belief that Earth matters, despite its small size in comparison.
“We’re still here anyway, so stuff here matters,” she said.
A turning point in Mickaliger’s career came from watching Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which inspired her to pursue her bachelor’s degree in astronomy at Stony Brook University.
She began working at Vanderbilt shortly after graduating in 2023, and the night sky continues to leave her awestruck.
“On Earth, you’re so occupied with your daily affairs—school, work, relationships—but then you look out into the universe and realize there’s so much more out there beyond us,” she said.
Tickets for Night Sky Love should be purchased in advance, as the evening show is close to being sold out. Prices for the afternoon show are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and students with ID, and free for children 12 and under.
The evening show is $12 for adults, $10 for students and seniors 62 and older, and $8 for kids.
For more information, visit https://www.vanderbiltmuseum.org.