Skip to content

How Gazing Into the Night Sky is like Having a Time Machine

The farther away the star, the farther back in time you see!  

Starry night over the desert view watchtower

Hear the true story of how starlight opened a World’s Fair and illustrated how the sky is like a time machine. Every star you see tonight, you see as it looked in the past when the light left it. One of tonight’s stars might be your “birthday star”!    

Dr amy sayle

Dr. Amy Sayle

Astronomer in Residence, 2026

Amy Sayle, PhD, is a science communicator, writer, and award-winning storyteller. As a longtime educator at Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she communicates astronomy to the public under the planetarium sky, at skywatching events, and on night paddles. During her residency, she plans to revise her young-adult novel Swallow the Sun, which is set at Grand Canyon National Park, and offer public programs focused on dark skies and on cultural astronomy.