CRESTLINE—The Crawford Park District will be holding two more events in December that will bring fun and education to local children and their families.

Also, the Crawford Park District office and the Lowe-Volk Park Nature Center holiday hours are as follows:

   Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

   Closed Saturday, December 26.

   Closed News Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

The Nature Center will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.:

   Monday, 12/21 through Wednesday, 12/23 and

   Monday, 12/28 through Wednesday, 12/30 and

   Saturday, January 2.

After January 3rd we will resume our normal winter hours of Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The Nature Center is closed on Sundays.  All of the parks of the Crawford Park District are open year-round, sunrise to sunset.

For more information, contact the Crawford Park District office at 419-683-9000.

Viewing the Night Sky on Saturday, December 26 at 6 p.m. at Lowe-Volk Park, 2401 State Route 598 Crestline

Join members of the Crawford Park Astronomy Club as they share their knowledge and telescope skills with all who are interested in the celestial sights.  Some of the targets for the winter are:

Jupiter & Saturn – are slowly going to the west but are always crowd pleasers through the telescopes.

Mars – has some fascinating ice caps to view and just had a close approach to Earth being only 38.6 million miles away.

m-31 – The Andromeda galaxy is approximately 2.5 million light-years away making it our closest major barred spiral galaxy which has about 1 trillion stars.

Great Orion Nebula – the birthplace of stars is a beautiful cloud of gas and dust 1300 light-years away. It is one of the brightest nebulas visible to the naked eye with its radius being 12 light-years.

m-44 – The Beehive cluster is an open cluster full of a mixture of yellow, red, and blue stars only 577 light-years away.

m-45 – The Pleiades, also known as the seven sisters, is an open cluster 444 light-years away. People often confuse it with the Little Dipper due to its shape.

Double Stars – orbiting around each other.

Call the Crawford Park District office at 419-683-9000 to register.

Book Club on Tuesday, December 29 at 6 p.m. at Lowe-Volk Park, 2401 State Route 598 Crestline

Do you love nature and love to read?  With the abundance of books available for nature lovers, sometimes it is hard to choose the next great book to read. Join the Crawford Park District’s Book Club and we will figure it out together!  Pre- Registration is recommended as the club will be limited to 15 members.  Come armed with your favorite book about nature or a nature-centered book you want to read and be ready to make your case to the club!  Meetings are held at the Lowe-Volk Park Nature Center on the last Tuesday of each month.

Lowe-Volk Park is located three miles north of US Route 30. For more information, contact the Crawford Park District office at 419-683-9000. Look for information on other programs offered by the Crawford Park District by visiting the website or Facebook page.