Fall 2019 schedule available!

Observatory nights for Fall 2019 are below:

Friday 6-Sep-2019 : 8 - 9 p.m.
Friday 20-Sep-2019 : 8 - 9 p.m.

Friday 4-Oct-2019 : 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Friday 18-Oct-2019 : 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Friday 1-Nov-2019 : 7 - 8 p.m.

Events are free, but because of occupancy limitations on the roof, we require guests to make reservations via Eventbrite.

Reservations can be made here:
https://mcobservatory-fall2019.eventbrite.com.

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Events will be cancelled for bad weather. I will make the call as soon as I am able, usually about 2 hours prior to the event start time. An announcement will be sent to the email address you registered with Eventbrite and I will post the status on this website.

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About the Guest Nights:

During Observatory Guest Nights we use Montgomery College telescopes to view and learn about visible solar system objects, star clusters, and nebulae. We also spend some time looking at the sky with just our eyes in order to locate constellations and planets that can be seen this time of the year.

You'll leave with a star chart and the ability to find celestial objects on your own.
Astronomy faculty will be on hand to answer questions about the universe.

Some things to note:

• Dress for the weather. The observatory is located outside on the roof of the Science Center.
• We meet in Science Center room 406 (SC406). We go up to the roof as a group. If you're late, there will be a staff member or student in SC406 to escort you upstairs.
• Children are welcome (and encouraged!) to attend, although campus policy prohibits children younger than five years of age on the roof.
• Parking is free.

I want to continue to improve the observatory nights. If you have suggestions or comments, please let me know.

Observing Log for Friday 16 August 2019

Well, we're two for two! The clouds moved off and we had a clear, but humid evening. The observing log is below. The sky doesn't change that much over two weeks, so it's about identical to the last one. :)

• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Albireo: Albireo is a double star system in Cygnus. The two stars (one blue, one gold) can't be resolved with the naked eye, but through our telescopes we are able to see the pair. The system is about 430 light-years distant.
• M13 (the Hercules cluster): M13 can be found in the constellation of Hercules and is about 22,000 light-years from Earth. There are about 150-160 globular clusters located in the halo of our galaxy. These clusters contain some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way.
• M57 (the Ring Nebula): M57 can be found in the constellation of Lyra and is located about 2,300 light-years from Earth. Planetary nebulae are the remnants of lower mass stars after they've used up their nuclear fuel. The Ring Nebula appeared as a delicate smoke-ring in the eyepiece.

Thanks to Iadviga for assistance with the event, and for getting us to try some cell phone astrophotography.

And as always, thanks to everyone for attending!

Observatory night for Friday 16-Aug-2019 is on (with cloudy caveats)

For folks who have reservations for tonight, the event is a go, with the warning that we might have clouds, and even if it clears up, the seeing will likely be below average. Please note, that if there are clouds, we won't be able to see anything through the telescopes.

We'll get started at

8:30 pm

in Science Center (SC) room 406.

As always, sincere thanks for your interest in the observatory!

Observing log for Friday 2 August 2019

Yay! We were able to open! The weather last night turned out to be far better than what was forecast. Here's what we were able to see:

Through the 14-inch scope

• Albireo: Albireo is a double star system in Cygnus. The two stars (one blue, one gold) can't be resolved with the naked eye, but through our telescopes we are able to see the pair. The system is about 430 light-years distant.
• M13 (the Hercules cluster): We also looked at the globular cluster, M13. M13 can be found in the constellation of Hercules and is about 22,000 light-years from Earth. There are about 150-160 globular clusters located in the halo of our galaxy. These clusters contain some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way.
• M57 (the Ring Nebula): M57 can be found in the constellation of Lyra and is located about 2,300 light-years from Earth. Planetary nebulae are the remnants of lower mass stars after they've used up their nuclear fuel. The Ring Nebula appeared as a delicate smoke-ring in the eyepiece.
• NGC 6826 (the "blinking planetary"): NGC 6826 is a another planetary nebula, but this one is located in the constellation of Cygnus. It's called the blinking planetary because when you have it centered in the eyepiece, it appears to blink "on" when you look away from it and "off" when you look directly at it. The effect happens because our peripheral vision is more sensitive than our forward vision.

Through the 8-inch scope

• Jupiter : We were able to make out cloud bands on the planet and the four Galilean satellites- Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
• Saturn : The lovely ringed planet also made an appearance.

Sincere thanks to Iadviga and Ryan for their assistance with the event.

And of course, an astronomically-sized thank you to everyone for attending! I loved all the enthusiasm and the great questions.