This event is open to the public. This calendar posting is also the site where any cancellations due to weather will be announced. As it is a sky observing event, this event is dependent upon clear skies!
Directions: From Colorado Springs on Woodmen Road East, take the first right after Marksheffel onto Mowhawk road into the parking area. Telescopes will be set up on the Eastern fields with entrance for attendees from the South East Corner of the fields.
Some of the things we’ll be able to see:
CSASTRO plans to have several telescopes set up for observing throughout the evening and attendees are welcome to visit our telescopes for observing celestial sights or relaxing on the turf with their eyes on the skies watching for meteors streaking across the sky.
We will plan to arrive 30-45 minutes ahead of time to set up our telescopes for an 8:30 PM start.
At the start of the evening, we’ll see a 3-day old Waxing Crescent Moon setting behind the mountains after Sunset. We might also see sunlight reflecting off the Earth onto the dark side of the Moon which we call “Earthshine”. In the West, we’ll also look for Venus. We may also be able to see Mars which is now on the opposite side of the Sun but still visible as a small red dot!
To the East, Saturn is rising after Sunset. Later in the Evening, we’ll also see Jupiter rising as well.
As it gets dark enough, around 09:15 PM, we’ll gather everyone around to give a green laser pointer tour of the night sky and talk about meteor showers. Observing through telescopes can continue during the talk and we’ll keep the talk to around 15-20 minutes.
Once dark enough, we’ll be watching for satellites and meteors and will have our telescopes pointed at various celestial sights such as colorful stars, globular clusters, nebula and galaxies. While we start with the bright planets and then move on to dimmer objects as the night progresses, we do take requests (as long as it is still available to see!). So if someone missed our views of Saturn and we’ve moved on to other things, we’re more than willing to go back to them again.
Most of the astronomers will not only point to an object but will also be happy to explain what it is that we’re looking at, distance away from Earth and/or point out where it can be found in the night sky.
Attendees don’t need to bring anything but lawn chairs and blankets are perfect for lying back and watching for meteors and satellites. They can bring their own binoculars and telescopes along for their own enjoyment if they have them though they aren’t needed for observing meteors and satellites and we’ll provide plenty of telescopes for observing the other celestial sights.
I’d note that we won’t have anyone available to help attendees with setting up a telescope that they bring but if they set one up we’d be happy to show them how we find some of the best objects in the night sky.