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

Its Summer! It is a great time to look at the night sky. This seasons features a rich Milky Way and some amazing nebulae. Combine that with moonless nights, and warm weather and you have a great weekend to visit the Community Observatory. We also have a Solar Saturday scheduled.

We call Summer “Milky Way Season” because the Sagittarius Arm of our galaxy is overhead and the center of our galaxy is directly to the South. Some of our favorite nebulae grace our skies. Prepare to be dazzled as we show you live images of the Lagoon, Trifid, Omega, Eagle, Veil, Crescent, and North American Nebula. Our image today is of the Omega Nebula which is also known as the Swan Nebula or Messier 17. It was taken Monday night by docent Randy right here in Placerville. It is a star forming region about 5000 to 6000 light years away.

We are still in our summer planetary drought with only Venus gracing the evening sky. Since Venus is closer to the Sun than we are so it goes through phases just like the Moon does. Venus is still displaying a profile like a first-quarter moon as it catches up with Earth on its faster counter-clockwise race around the Sun. It will be continuously slimming as it approaches the point directly between us and the Sun. Saturn has been slowly rising earlier each night as Earth passes it. It is currently rising shortly after 11 PM. We should be able to see it before we close by mid-August.

We have a safe solar viewing session at the entrance to the Sherwood Demonstration Garden this Saturday from 10 am until noon. Join us to see a very active Sun through our specialized Solar scopes that can display details on the sun such as sunspots, solar flares, filaments, and prominences. Join us and we will teach you about those.

Add these two events to your calendar. Our next fund raising event will be on July 21st. If you eat at Panda Express that day, we will get 28% of the take. Details here. We are also hosting a Wednesday Perseid Meteor Shower viewing on August 12th. Put it on your calendar, this could be a great year for this meteor shower.

The weather should be good this weekend but don’t forget to check Communityobservatory.com after 3 PM on the day of your visit to make sure we are open.

 

 



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