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:

Friday, May 10, 2024

8:30-10:30 pm

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

Information hotline: 314-213-8034

The Moon will be a thin, 3-day old waxing crescent and will be a terrific object to view in the west.  We will have a lot of fun looking for mountains and craters along the terminator.  That’s the line between light and dark on the surface.

A rarity, but there will be no planets visible for this session!  We will spend the evening with the Moon and the open clusters listed below instead!

M5 is rising in the East, so we’ll zoom in on this beautiful globular cluster. We can then compare it to the open cluster M44, the Beehive Cluster and to the globular cluster M13 in Hercules.  Open clusters M35 in Gemini, and M36, M37, and M38 in Auriga are also in the viewing plan.  The globular cluster M3 is above Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Bootes. The Summer Triangle of Vega, Altair and Deneb is starting to rise in the East and we will get a chance to view them by the end of the session.  We will look at a few double stars in the region, including  Alcor and Mizar in Ursa Major, Castor in Gemini, and Albireo in Cygnus.

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.