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 comet. The image today is from NASA and the ESA and it shows the 3I comet. It was taken with a much bigger telescope that we have at the Community Observatory.
We can classify the objects we see in the into two categories. "Spectacular" objects are visually stunning. Examples include the Orion Nebula, the Hercules Globular Cluster, or the Andromeda Galaxy. "Conceptual" objects aren’t visually stunning. They are often just dim smudges in the biggest telescopes. They are conceptually spectacular for what you realize you are seeing. That smudge can be billions of stars or, in this case, a chunk of ice and rock that originated in another solar system.
We have also had some solar activity lately; we can hope that another aurora will occur on one of our rare clear nights. We will post here if we see a prediction of an auroral display.
Sunday is the Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The Sun is at its lowest point in the sky, and the sunrise and sunset are at their furthest southern point.
It has been a great year at the observatory. We have seen about 12,000 of you at our events this year. Highlights have included a “planetary parade”, comets, the aurora on November 11th, and a great Geminid Meteor Shower. Be sure to plan on joining us next year for more spectacular views of the heavens.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend?   The excitement for the next month is all about COMETS. With a 6:23 PM sunset and an 18% Moon that does not rise until after 2:00 AM we should have dark enough skies to start seeing them by our 7:30 PM opening. Expect it to be clear and cold with nighttime temperatures in the 50’s.   We currently have two relatively bright comets that will likely be visible soon after we open. Both will be near the horizon so you need to come early if you expect to see them. Neither will be naked-eye visible but they should be visible in binoculars and in our telescopes. Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) is below the bright star Arcturus and it will set around 10:30 but will likely be too low to see from the observatory well before that. Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) will be below the tail of the Big Dipper and will set around 9 PM, Both comets are getting higher in the sky each night and prime viewing will be later next week.  We...
Read more
Image
  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? (September 26-27, 2025) This should be an excellent weekend under the stars! The crescent Moon will be about 20% illuminated on Friday and almost 30% on Saturday. It will set around 9 PM on Friday and just before 10 pm on Saturday. The weather is likely to be clear. This is our last weekend on our Summer schedule of 9:00-11:00 PM. We return to our 7:30-9:30 PM Winter schedule next weekend. The Autumn sky is rotating into view. The Summer triangle is moving to the west. The Milky Way is directly overhead as it is getting dark. It was magnificent during the New Moon last weekend and should still be visible after moonset this weekend. The Great Square of Pegasus is the asterism that will dominate the sky this time of year. The Andromeda Galaxy is to the Northeast of Pegasus. My view of it through a small telescope 50 years ago ignited my love for astronomy. The Pegasus Globular Cluster is known as M15 and it’s ...
Read more

Meteor Shower this Saturday (December 13th)

Image
  What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend? We saw the stars last night for the first time in two weeks. While it was foggy below, our higher elevation had clear skies. We are hoping that excellent views will continue for the next two weekends. Be sure to check our website ( communityobservatory.com ) to make sure we will be open before you head up the hill. There are some exciting things to see in the sky right now. Jupiter with its four prominent moons is finally visible. Saturn continues to be awesome. The Taurus constellation with the Pleiades star cluster is easily visible and Orion with its best-in-class nebulas will be visible later during this weekend’s public viewing sessions. The big excitement this weekend is the meteor shower that peaks on Saturday night and Sunday Morning, The Geminid Meteor Shower is often the best one of the year. It can produce more than two meteors per minute under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions include a very dark...
Read more