What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend?

 

This won’t be the greatest weekend to visit the observatory. Friday looks very cloudy with high humidity. Humidity fogs up the mirrors and lenses on our scopes. Saturday looks a bit better. Another issue is that the just-passed full Super Beaver Moon will still be very bright affecting our seeing.

 

The Moon appears exceptionally bright when it is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit, making it approximately 14% larger and up to 30% brighter than usual. It rises at sunset and sets at sunrise, and its proximity to the horizon creates an optical illusion that enhances its size and brightness. This position also increases the Moon’s gravitational pull on Earth, resulting in higher tides known as “king tides,” which can cause significant issues in coastal areas, especially during storms.

 

The two comets should still be visible but they will not be very bright. Rumors of them becoming naked-eye visible seem to not be becoming a reality. Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) will be the best but will only be visible for a short time after sunset. Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) is much further away and its tail is not impressive even in our bigger scopes.

 

You have heard a lot of information about Comet 3I/ATLAS. The “I” designation was assigned because the speed of the object tells us that it originated outside of our solar system. The “3” indicates that it is only the third such object we have observed. It is speeding through and will eventually pass out of our system. Don’t believe the hype about it being on a collision course with Earth or being an alien spaceship. It is currently about two hundred million miles from us and is at about 15th magnitude making it all but invisible to all but the biggest telescopes.

 

Saturn and the Moon will be great objects this weekend. The Andromeda Galaxy and the Pleiades star cluster will be bright enough to still be impressive. Our big scopes will be able to give some good views of deep sky objects as well. Today’s Image is the Pleiades star cluster taken from my home last week.

 

Join us either Friday or Saturday between 7:30 and 9:30. Weather MAY BE AN ISSUE this weekend so you should still check communityobservatory.com after 3 PM on the day you want to attend to be sure we will be open. Come prepared to pay the college for parking.

 

 

 

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