Bays Mountain Park and Planetarium has scheduled a special, one-night-only program next month featuring Paul Curnow – an astronomy lecturer at the Adelaide Planetarium in South Australia.

Curnow will be live at the planetarium hosting “Night Skies of Aboriginal Australia” – a program showcasing Aboriginal Dreaming stories, their dark pattern shapes, the names given to the stars and the differences between the way the sky is viewed compared to the classical 88 constellations used by contemporary astronomers.

The 60-minute program will take place at 7 p.m. on November 10. Registration is required. Tickets are $15 each or $10 for children 12 or younger. This is a special presentation by the Bays Mountain Park Association.

To register, visit https://bit.ly/46YHKwY. You can also register by clicking on the CivicRec link in the Connect Kingsport app or go to www.kingsporttn.gov and click on “CivicRec,” then search for “Aboriginal Australia” in the search bar.

About “Night Skies of Aboriginal Australia”

Aboriginal Australians have been looking at the night sky for tens of thousands of years. This connection with the night sky represents some of the earliest ponderings about the cosmos and was an effort to explain natural phenomena. Moreover, the stars were used for navigation, education, as a seasonal guide to the availability of foods, in addition to reinforcing cultural identity and spirituality.

About Paul Curnow

After three decades of research, Paul Curnow is South Australia’s Longest serving planetarium lecturer and is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on Australian Aboriginal night sky knowledge.

In addition, Curnow runs several popular courses for the public that focus on the constellations, planetary astronomy, meteoritics, historical astronomy and ethnoastronomy, which primarily deals with how the night sky is seen by non-western cultures.

On this trip to the United States, Curnow is making his way across the country and providing presentations like this at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ.

As in years past, the Kingsport Area Transit Service is offering half-price Dial-A-Ride ticket books for $12.00 (which includes 24 tickets per book) for the entire month of November.

The KATS Dial-A-Ride van service is for individuals who reside within the city limits, have a medical condition, are 65 or older, or are going to work. This service is an affordable, reliable, safe and efficient way for Kingsport residents to travel to numerous destinations within the city.

“We want to thank our current Dial-A-Ride customers through this promotion, as well as attract new riders who can benefit greatly from the service,” said Transit Director Chris Campbell. “This is definitely a situation where spending a little money up front will save a lot of money over time.”

Tickets may be purchased at the KATS downtown terminal, located at 900 East Main Street, via cash, check, credit or debit. Tickets may also be purchased directly from the drivers.

Cash and checks are the only form of payment accepted on vehicles. Drivers do not carry cash and cannot make change. Dial-A-Ride tickets do not expire and cannot be used on buses.

For more information about KATS’ services, call 423-224-2613 or visit www.kingsporttransit.org.

Kingsport Archivist Brianne Wright has written a new book on the City of Kingsport, one that explores many of the city’s diverse industries established during the first half of the 20^th century.

Kingsport: City of Industry features hundreds of historic photographs from the Kingsport Archives with detailed information on such notable industries as Tennessee Eastman, Holston Ordnance Works, the Kingsport Press, Borden Mills, Holliston Mills and Blue Ridge Glass.

The book also highlights a sampling of the smaller industries from Kingsport’s early days, including Southern Maid, Pet Dairy, the Dixie Maid Bakery, Federal Dyestuff, General Shale, Union Supply Company and Slip-Not Belting.

The book ($24.99) goes on sale October 23 and can be found at Hudson’s General Store on Broad Street, on Amazon.com, the Arcadia Publishing website (www.arcadiapublishing.com) and other online bookstores. All proceeds go to the Friends of the Kingsport Archives.

“I find Kingsport history fascinating, especially with industry and how the city came together,” Wright said of her reasoning behind writing the book. “Above all else, I hope the book provides a history lesson to folks and those who read it have a better appreciation of how Kingsport came to be.”

Wright graduated from the University of Tennessee and received her master’s degree in Archival Studies from East Tennessee State University. She is the author of On this Day in Kingsport History and Images of America Downtown Kingsport. She lives in Church Hill, Tennessee, with her husband, Mitch, and daughter, Lily.

Wright has received various awards during her tenure in Kingsport, including the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Award of Excellence in 2014 and 2017, the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Community History Award in 2017, the Society of Tennessee Archivists John H. Thweatt Archival Advancement Award in 2018 and the Society of American Archivists Foundation Travel Award in 2020 and 2022.