Public Events at the ONU Observatory

Spring 2025 Schedule -- ONU Observatory Maps to the ONU Observatory can be found here. Descriptions of each event will appear in the week leading up to the event. Friday, Feb 14, 8:00-10:00 pm. -- Public Event. "Valentine's Day Star Party" It's Valentine's day! So what better time to look at love-related objects in astronomy. The planet Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love. It just so happens to be in a special position called "maximum brilliancy" on February 14, 2025! This is when Venus appears the brightest. It isn't when Venus is the closest to Earth or the Sun, nor is it when Venus is at it's greatest angle away from the Sun. But it happens when Venus is around 40 degrees from the Sun. This makes it an easy target for our telescopes at the start of this public event. Continuing the Valentine's day theme, we can look for more challenging deep sky objects like the Heart Nebula and the Heart-shaped cluster (Messier 50). It turns out that dozens of heart shaped features have been discovered on other planets, like Mars and Pluto, although they are not visible from our ground-based telescopes. There are over ten heart shaped features on Mars alone! Check out this collage by NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team. This event was cancelled due to clouds. Friday, Mar 7, 7:00-9:00 pm. -- Public Event. "Mercury joins the party" The planets have been putting on a good show so far this winter. In early February, all of the planets except Mercury were above the horizon just after sunset. Now, in March, Saturn has become unobservable, but Mercury has joined the planet party, reaching Greatest Elongation East on Mar 8. So on March 7, we will hold a viewing, free to the public, in which we train our 'scopes on all of these planets. Mercury will only be 12 degrees above the horizon at 7 pm and set within an hour. So you'll have to arrive early to catch a glimpse of this elusive planet. On the bright side, the waxing gibbous Moon will be right between Jupiter and Mars in the sky. All 3 will be easy targets during this ONU Observatory event. Unfortunately, this event is cancelled due to clouds in the forecast. Friday, Mar 28, 8:30-10:30 pm. -- Public Event. "Mars loops through Gemini" ONU and the surrounding communities are invited to a free star party at the ONU Observatory on Friday, Mar 28, from 8:30-10:30 pm. The theme is "Mars loops through Gemini" referring to the path that Mars is taking relative to the constellation Gemini. All of the planets vary their angular speed and even reverse in their motion relative to the stars, creating a "loopy" path. Around 9 pm, Dr. Pinkney (professor of astronomy) will give a short presentation about these paths and how they played a very important role in the history of astronomy and science. On this night we will train our telescopes on Mars and Jupiter, which is nearby in Taurus. The Moon will not interfere, so we can also look for Uranus, double stars, and deep sky objects. This event went well! Friday, Apr 25, 9:00-11:00 pm. -- Public Event. "Galaxies of Spring" Ada and the surrounding communities are invited to the ONU Observatory on Friday, April 25 from 9-11 pm for "The Galaxies of Spring". Galaxies are a swirling collection of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter. They are generally difficult to see with telescopes because they are so far away and faint. During this time of the year, however, the closest concentrations of galaxies are positioned high in the sky by midnight. After warming up with the planets Jupiter and Mars, our telescopes will slew over to some interesting galaxies. We will target the giant elliptical, M87 (for which we obtained an image of the central black hole), M66 in Leo, and the "Black eye galaxy" in Coma Berenices. So come and witness the wonders of the deep sky as you learn about extragalactic astronomy! As of April 22, the forecast for Friday looks cloudy and rainy. The final decision on cancellation will be made by 2:30 pm on Friday. Unfortunately, this event is cancelled due to clouds and rain in the forecast. This is Messier 87, a giant elliptical galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. It has one of the largest supermassive black holes and the only extragalactic black hole to be imaged directly by the Event Horizon Telescope. It is one of the few radio galaxies with an optical jet, which is easily resolved in this Hubble Space Telescope image (courtesy Wikipedia). Printer-friendly version here.

Spring 2024 Schedule -- ONU Observatory Maps to the ONU Observatory can be found here. Descriptions of each event will appear in the week leading up to the event. Friday, Feb 9, 8:00-10:00 pm. -- Public Event. "The Winter Milky Way" Friday, Feb 16, 8:00-10:00 pm. -- Public Event. "Moon passing through the Pleiades " Friday, Mar 8, 7:30-9:30 pm. -- Public Event. "Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks" Friday, Mar 22, 8:00-10:00 pm. -- Public Event. "Mercury at dichotomy" Friday, Apr 5, 9:00-11:00 pm. -- Public Event. "Galaxies of Spring" Monday, Apr 8, 2:00-4:00 pm. -- Streamed Event. "Total Solar Eclipse!" Total Solar Eclipse!!! Live streaming this April 8. The link to the stream is now available below. Link to stream. The stream was a success! Now check out the Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery HERE Stats for ONU Observatory Duration of totality: 3 m 56 s* Time of totality: 3:10:05 to 3:14:01 pm EDT. Duration of partiality: 2 h 31 m 4 s Distance from centerline: 6.7 mi NW Local Magnitude: 1.0239 (max=1.0565 in Mexico)   *Max duration for OH is 3 m 59 s. Printer-friendly version here.

Information for visitors to the ONU Observatory:

• Before coming to the observatory, check for cancellations on this Public Events page.
• The observatory is wheelchair accessible. We also attach video cameras to some telescopes to allow viewing on our wall-hanging TVs.
• There are heated restrooms at the back of the observatory.
• Follow good ASTRO-ETIQUETTE: :
  1. Don't shine lights in other's eyes or use flash photography
  2. Try not to push the telescopes
  3. Try not to touch the lenses of the telescopes or eyepieces
  4. Ask questions of the manager or student helpers, who may be wearing glow lights
• You can arrive any time during the scheduled event; there is usually no advantage to being early. (Sometimes there are short presentations but they occur in the middle of the event.)
• The observing room gets cold in the winter, dress warmly!
• The observatory has a heated control room (cool in summer) in case you get cold (or hot).
• If the lines aren't too long, you can take cell phone pictures of brighter objects through the telescope eyepieces.
• You can donate to ONU here , or look for a donations jar at the observatory to specifically help the ONU Astronomy Club.

See Archive of previous Astronomy Events at ONU.