The Pattonville Observatory and Planetarium Public Viewing Session

195 Fee Fee Road (behind Heights)

The November 11 date has been canceled due to a conflict at school.
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, December 2, 2022

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 waxing gibbous phase. It will make a spectacular view in our widefield refractor! It will be visible during the entire session.

The planets that will be visible in our night sky will include Saturn, Jupiter, Mars plus the blue gas-giants Uranus and Neptune. Pluto is visible, but is just too dim to be seen with our telescope under light polluted skies.

Taurus and Auriga are well placed in the East and the Pleiades will be a great site through the refractor mounted to the telescope. The open clusters in Auriga such as M36, M37 and M38 will make good targets. Open clusters are good to view in the city because they are brighter than some other objects such as galaxies. Orion will be just above the horizon right at the end of our session. If it’s not too hazy, we might get a look at the great Orion Nebula or M42. Just below the Pleiades are the Hyades, another very large open group of stars. Gemini is also rising at the end of our session, so we might try a view of M35.

The asterism called the Coathanger will be one of our targets for this evening. It is found between Vega and Altair. While we are in the area, we will look at the Double Double star system in Lyra, Albireo in Cygnus and M57 or the Ring Nebula in Lyra. M27, the Dumbell Nebula, M13, the globular cluster in Hercules, and M11, the Wild Duck Cluster will also be targets for the evening. 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.