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NASA Orrery What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? We are hoping to be able to meet this weekend but, as of now, the prediction is for heavy cloud cover. This is also the full moon weekend so deep sky viewing won’t be great either. If you are considering joining us this weekend, be sure to check our website or Facebook after 3 PM on the day you want to visit. If we are going to close, we will announce it by then. This full moon is called the “Wolf Moon.” It is called that because Native American and early Colonial traditions noted that wolves were heard howling more often in mid winter. It isn’t a Super-Moon but it will be slightly bigger and brighter than the average Moon. We still have Jupiter and Saturn prominently displayed. Both are well above the horizon during our public viewings. Do you remember last year’s “Planetary Parade?” There was a bunch of media hype about it. You probably saw illustrations of bright planets in a line. You would have read...
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  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? This weekend should be an excellent one under the stars! We’ll be open Friday and Saturday from 7:30–9:30 PM, and the forecast is calling for clear skies with a beautiful waxing crescent Moon. That means that the Moon will not be up during our public viewing. While conditions look promising, please be sure to check our website ( communityobservatory.com ) after 3 PM on the day you plan to visit to confirm that we’ll be open. Jupiter and Saturn are still visible and are always spectacular sights. If you arrive early enough on Friday, you will have the opportunity to observe Jupiter’s Great Red Spot which is a massive storm larger than Earth, with winds reaching up to 400 mph! One of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky is Orion the Hunter. The image above features the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33), located near Orion’s Belt. This nebula is a cloud of gas and dust approximately 1,300 light-years ...
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  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? We had two excellent Public Viewings last weekend and this weekend could be even better. The only issue last weekend was humidity. We ended up shutting down early on Friday as the humidity approached 90%. The prediction is for dryer this weekend with only 40-50% humidity. Combine that with clear and moonless skies and this weekend could be epic. Jupiter and Saturn continue to be “fan favorites” and both will be well positioned for viewing. Jupiter is just past “opposition” which means that we are between it and the Sun. It is closest and brightest right now. Saturn is only about two-thirds as bright as it was during its opposition in September. Even so, it is still high in the sky and the rings and several moons are easily visible. You may have noticed that we have several types of telescopes that we use. At its simplest, the two types can be divided into refractors and reflectors. The refractors are long and ...
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  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? We are hoping to be open for the first time in 2026 on Friday and Saturday. The forecast is for a “mostly clear sky” on Friday and for “a few clouds” on Saturday. If that holds, we will be open from 7:30 until 9:30 on both nights. That could change so be sure to check here or on  communityobservatory.com  after 3 PM on the day you plan to visit to make sure that we will be open. So, what is in the sky? The Winter sky is in its full splendor. The stars of winter include many of the brightest stars. The Orion constellation has the giant red star, Betelgeuse, and the intrinsically bright blue giant, Rigel. Orion’s belt is three bright blue giant stars. Their distance makes them appear to be second magnitude but, if they were the same distance as Rigel and Betelgeuse, they would be very impressive. Orion is also home for the Orion and Horsehead Nebulae. The Orion Nebula is one of only a few deep sky objec...
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  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? The weather hasn’t been kind to us in December. We have been using this downtime to do maintenance and we have been busy. Here are some of the things we have done in the last few weeks. We have: ·        new iPads for our inside scopes. We updated the software and our old tablets weren’t up to the task. ·        new power banks to run two of our outside scopes. ·        a storage solution for our eyepieces. ·        repaired our weather station. Did you know that you can see the current conditions and a live image of the sky on our webpage ? ·        been working on our Imaging Observatory. We should have new images coming from there soon. 2025 was a great year at the Community Observatory. Here are some of the relevant statistics: ·   ...
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  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? We will be closed this weekend and next. Did you know that the Community Observatory is staffed by volunteers? Our hard-working docents have dedicated many thousands of hours in 2025 to showing the public the wonders of the cosmos. This break comes at a good time since it looks like the weather will not be cooperating either. Since I am writing this on Christmas Day, I’ll address the Christmas Star. This is the “star” that the magi followed from the East that led them to Bethlehem. There have been many theories about what this might have been. These range from a comet, a conjunction, or a supernova. Let’s look at these. Comets seem to move slowly, sometimes taking months to traverse the sky. They can be bright and their motion can seem to indicate a direction. Chinese and Korean astronomers recorded a bright comet that was in the sky for about seventy days in 5 BC. Another theory is that it was a conjunction of...
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  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? It will be cloudy and rainy and we won’t be open. We did have a great night last Saturday when the weather cooperated and the clear skies gave us some great views of the Geminid Meteor Shower. But no such weather is expected this week. We are also going to give our hard-working docents the next two weekends off. Our next public viewing will be on Friday January 9th if the weather cooperates. The hype this week will be about the “Interstellar Comet” also known as 3I/ ATLAS. As usual, social media is flooded with fake news about the comet. It is true that its closest point to earth falls on Friday, December 19th but it won’t be close, and it won't be spectacular. It is 168 million miles away and it has a magnitude of 16.6. Brighter objects have lower numbers. The dimmest objects most humans can see are 6.5 magnitude. That means that the dimmest objects that you can see are about 11,000 times as bright as that com...
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