Astronomer Monica Marshall connects the public with the cosmos at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, which completed a $150 million transformation in late 2024. One highlight is the upgraded Nathan and Fannye Shafran Planetarium, where Marshall and her colleagues illuminate the marvels of the night. Here’s what she told Midwest Living in an interview.
I didn’t grow up caring much about stargazing, but a ninth-grade physics teacher inspired me to study astronomy—and now I’m an astronomer at the planetarium. One of my favorite things about this field is that you don’t need to know every single thing about the universe. For me, it’s really just the power of awe … understanding that what you’re looking at—even if you don’t fully know what it is or how it works—is beautiful. And maybe the journey of learning about it is beautiful too.
During my planetarium shows, I always start with an overview of how the sky currently looks, then I ask: “Who’s looked up in the actual sky?” A lot of people haven’t, and I encourage them to go out and try. The technology age is helping us understand the sky, but it’s taking away these slow, serendipitous moments of stargazing, even if it’s in your own backyard.
Of course, looking up at a dark sky far from light pollution from time to time is important too. My first time under a truly dark sky was in Alaska; I was hosted on a farm and went to the bathroom (outside) in the middle of the night. I was startled—there were so many stars! It was a little overwhelming and surreal, and it gave me a new sense of wonder…