The Pattonville Observatory and Planetarium Public Viewing Session

195 Fee Fee Road (next to the gym, door is below the dome)
Below is the info for the next session.
Please join us and bring friends!

Next Session:

The Pattonville Observatory and Planetarium

Public Viewing Session

Friday, March 10, 2023

7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Website:  https://sites.google.com/psdr3.org/observatory/ 

Information hotline: 314-213-8034

The Moon will be in a waning gibbous phase and will be not be visible tonight except for a possible late Moonrise.  As a result, we might be able to get a good view of some of the dimmer objects in the sky. 

Jupiter and Venus will be low in the west, Uranus will be higher.  Mars will be high in the sky and will make a good target to try and see some detail

The “Celestial Six-Pack” of winter constellations consisting of Auriga, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Taurus, Orion and Gemini are in great position and will be with us for the next month. They are marked by the stars that form a giant circle and include Sirius, Procyon, Pollux, Caster, Capella, Aldebaran, and Rigel with Betelgeuse in the middle. Leo, with it’s bright star Regulus is well positioned in the East.

We will look at the large open cluster The Pleiades or M45 in the Orion Short tube 80mm widefield refractor. M36, M37 and M38, also called the Starfish Cluster in Auriga, M42 the Great Orion Nebula in Orion, M44 the Beehive Cluster in Cancer, and M35 in Gemini are also on the list.   M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest neighbor and the Double Cluster will also be targets.

Come spend the evening viewing the cosmos with your family, residents and non-residents are welcome!  Students, who are accompanied by their parents, are especially welcome!  Please take note that the dome is not heated or cooled, so pay attention to the weather and dress in a manner that is appropriate for the evening temperature conditions.  If it is raining or cloudy, a planetarium program will be presented instead.