What can you expect to see at the Community Observatory this weekend?
The Moon won’t rise until the early morning hours on both Friday and Saturday, giving us dark skies and excellent viewing conditions. These darker skies are especially helpful for observing deep-sky objects, which is perfect timing since we are in the heart of “galaxy season.” Speaking of galaxy season, here’s a stunning image captured by Docent Logan Brewer using our East Scope. On the left is Messier 108 (known as the “Surfboard galaxy”). M108 is a barred spiral galaxy & received its nickname because it's seen nearly edge-on. It is located about 46 million light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. On the right side of this picture is Messier 97 (“Owl Nebula”). M97 is a glowing shell of gas expelled by a dying star known as a planetary nebula. This name can be misleading because it doesn’t have anything to do with planets! When astronomers looked at these nebulas through early telescopes, they observed the planet-like round shape of these nebula & that’s where the...