Enjoy a free public stargazing event at the Montgomery Hill Observatory from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. View the skies with our two observatories and several telescopes set out for the public. Kids learn how to use telescopes and identify objects in the sky!

 

For this evening, we have six planets to view, starting in the west; Venus is visible in the evening sky as the "evening star" appearing in the western sky after sunset. It's the brightest planet in our solar system and is often the brightest object in the night sky, aside from the Moon. Venus and Saturn will be in close conjunction 2° apart. Saturn never disappoints the viewers; next is one of the ice giants, Neptune which will look like a pale blue dot against a dark sky. Next will be Uranus, another ice giant named after the Greek god of the sky; it too will look like a pale blue dot, Jupiter, the king of all the planets, will be shining so bright, with its 4 moons; Mars will be visible in the evening sky in January 2025, and it will be a great time to observe it at 9:00 pm.

 

The Andromeda galaxy will be high in the sky. At 2.5 million light-years from Earth, it's our nearest neighboring galaxy. Andromeda is one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye, with dark skies.

 

Between the constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus, we can see the Perseus Double Cluster. Each cluster is made of a few hundred stars, and these stars are young, hot, supergiant suns that are 7,500 light years from the Earth. They're thousands of times more luminous than our Sun.

 

The constellation Taurus the Bull, look at his Red eye - Alpha Tauri, a red giant star aka Aldebaran; look a little higher above Aldebaran, and you'll see the 7 Maidens "The Pleiades" M45 riding on the back of the Bull. So many myths and stories have been written about this star cluster from Asia, Europe, North/South America, Indonesia, Aboriginal Australia, and Africa. Most people see 6, not seven stars, but with eyes that are dark-adapted for 30 minutes, you can see up to 9 stars. The Pleiades are 75 to 150 million years old, relatively young stars, and 444 light years away from Earth.

 

Orion the Hunter is in a cosmic battle with Taurus the Bull, who is protecting the Pleiades from the Hunter. The three bright stars that make up the "Belt of Orion" hold the "Sword of Orion" where the Orion Nebula M42 is located. In M42, the Orion Nebula is one of the winter season's most beautiful deep sky objects; within M42, the Trapezium (Theta-1 Orionis) was discovered by Galileo. There are ten main stars within the Trapezium; this is one of the youngest known star clusters and is 1350 light years away from Earth. Many of the stars in the Trapezium are binary star systems; within this stellar nursery, there are about 1,000 young, hot stars, most hidden in the dust or light of the nebula.

 

See if you can find the Summer Triangle. It will be near the western horizon at twilight. It's made up of three stars: Altair in Aquila the Eagle, Deneb in Cygnus the Swan, and Vega in Lyra the Harp. In the Constellation Cygnus, look for the best and most colorful double star, “Albireo,” a gold and blue double star.

 

Keep looking up; you're bound to find something new.