Community Observatory

  What Can You See At The Community Observatory This Weekend Placerville, California 9:00–11:00 PM — Friday, June 27 and Saturday, June 28, 2026 If skies cooperate, the last weekend of June should offer a very nice mix of bright summer showpieces and a Moon that grows noticeably fuller from one night to the next. Both nights should be comfortable for public observing, with mostly clear to sunny conditions during the day leading into clear evening skies. The Moon will become a bigger factor as the weekend goes on. On Friday, June 27 , it will already be quite bright and may begin to wash out some of the fainter Milky Way detail later in the session. By Saturday, June 28 , it will be very near full and will dominate more of the evening sky, making that night especially good for lunar observing rather than hunting faint nebulae and galaxies. That said, the Moon itself should be a beautiful telescopic target, with dramatic contrast along the terminator. Current forecasts su...

    What can you expect to see this weekend at the Community Observatory? The thin crescent moon doesn’t rise until early morning, the weather is great with 0% clouds, and the humidity is low. It should be a good weekend to visit the Community Observatory. The Sun is setting around 8:30 PM so it is dark enough by our 9 PM opening to start seeing things with our telescopes. The highlight of the early glomming is a very impressive conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. Those two objects are the brightest objects behind the Moon in the night sky. A conjunction means that they appear to be quite close to each other. They aren’t actually close but they appear to be since they appear along the same line of site from our point-of-view. The closest approach was on Tuesday of this week when they were only 1.5° apart. Another treat for those of you arriving around 9 PM I that you can see Mercury. Very few people have seen Mercury. It is elusive because its close orbit around the ...

    What can you expect to see this weekend at the Community Observatory? This could be a great opportunity to see the night sky at the Community Observatory. Clear skies with less than 20% cloud cover and a last-quarter moon that doesn’t rise until after midnight portend great viewing. We also have clear skies predicted for our Solar Viewing on Saturday morning. Jupiter and Venus are putting on a show in the western sky, It is called a “conjunction” when two heavenly bodies are close to each other in the sky. June 9th features the two planets appearing at their closest, within about 1.5 degrees. Even though they appear to be close, they just fall within the same line of sight. Venus is about 100 million miles away while Jupiter is six times further. Early arrivers may also be able to see the elusive Mercury. The image today is an “orrery” (pronounced aw·rr·ee) which is a image version of a mechanical model of the Solar System. The planets to the left of the Sun are vi...

  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this Weekend? The weather this week has been unsettled but Friday and Saturday nights are predicted to be mostly clear. We do have a full moon on Sunday and it will be quite full both Friday and Saturday. This weekend is a “Blue Moon.” That doesn’t mean that it will be colored blue, it means that it is the second full moon in the same month. That happens because there are only 29.5 days between each full moon and most months are slightly longer. Each month’s full moon has a name. The “Full Flower Moon” fell on May 1 st , and the second full moon that occurs on May 31 st doesn’t have a name , so this moon gets the generic name of “Blue Moon.” Our “once in a blue moon” phrase reflects the fact that this doesn’t occur often. By the way, it is possible for one month to have a “Black Moon” where there is no full moon. Can you guess which month can have a black moon? This is also a “Micro Moon.” That means that the Moon i...

    What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? The forecast is for clear skies with good seeing. The 33 to 44% moon will not be too bright and will not interfere significantly with our seeing. On top of that, it may not even be very cold or windy. Why don’t you consider joining us this weekend? We are in the transition between the Spring “Galaxy Season” and the Summer “Milky Way Season.”   There are still some great galaxies to view from our inside scopes. Vega and Antares, two of the bright Summer stars will be peeking over the Eastern Horizon by the end of our viewing session. Our excitement last weekend was seeing a new supernova in the distant galaxy NGC 5907. That is an edge-on galaxy that is also known as the “Knife’s Edge” or the “Splinter Galaxy.” It lies about 46.5 million light years away. The supernova was discovered on April 22 nd by the   ATLAS automated telescope. ATLAS stands for the “Asteroid Terrestrial-impact ...

For the evenings of May 15th and 16th, 2026, between 9 PM and 11 PM in Northern California, the sky should be especially rewarding because the Moon will be at or near new phase, giving us dark skies for deep-sky observing. Evening Highlights Venus -- Brilliant in the West Venus will dominate the western sky shortly after sunset, shining as the brilliant "Evening Star."  It will still be visible during the early part of our observing window, especially around 9 PM, low in the west. Jupiter -- Bright and Easy to Find Jupiter remains one of the brightest objects in the evening sky and should be well placed for telescopic viewing. Through binoculars or a telescope you may see the Galilean moons and cloud bands. Spring Galaxies at Their Best Because the Moon is essentially absent, this is prime "galaxy season." Dark skies favor deep-sky observing: The Leo Triplet in Leo The Virgo Cluster M 64 Black Eye Galaxy in Coma Berenices M 3 high overhead Milky Way The brighter cor...