The Pattonville Observatory and Planetarium Public Viewing Session

195 Fee Fee Road (behind Heights)
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, January 27, 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 lovely first quarter phase. We’ll get some terrific views of the craters and mountains along the terminator (line between light and dark) It’s the best view of the Moon.

Jupiter is well placed in the Southwest and will be a target for the evening. We’ll get a nice look at those famous Galilean Moons. Uranus and Neptune are also visible. Mars is high in the south and will make another good target. Saturn, Venus and Mercury are all below the horizon for tonight.

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 couple of months. They are marked by the stars Sirius, Procyon, Pollux, Caster and Capella as well as Betelgeuse, Rigel and Aldebaran.

Taurus and Auriga are well placed in the East and the Pleiades are visible along with some of the open clusters in Auriga such as M36, M37 and M38. 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 as well as M35 in Gemini.

M44, the Beehive Cluster, is a large open cluster in Cancer rising in the East. It should be spectacular in the darker skies that are not polluted with light from the Moon. M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest galactic 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.