Due to the COVID-19 virus, Wesleyan University has officially CANCELED ALL CLASSES AND GROUP ACTIVITIES FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEMESTER, which includes Public Observing.

Currently the March thru August sessions are canceled, but please check back with us for updates.

Scheduled time for Public Observing: 9pm – 11pm

Solar System Objects:

The moon and planets will not be visible tonight, they are below the horizon.

Deep-sky Objects:

Several globular star clusters could be observed, such as M13 and M92 (in Hercules), M3 (Canes Venatici), and M5 (Serpens Caput). M92 is shown in the image below, taken with a video camera attached to a 12-inch telescope.

M57 (the Ring Nebula) is a planetary nebula in the constellation Lyra that could also be seen, 40 degrees high in the East at 10pm. It’s shown below, taken with the same telescope and camera.

M92, at 26,000 light-years away is much more distant then M57 (approx. 2,000 l.y.). M57 was formed from a single solar-type star that has ejected it’s outer layers at the end of it’s life, and M92 is made up of about 330,000 stars.

Star Charts and other Information:

A very useful monthly star chart can be downloaded here from SkyMaps.com, giving information on objects visible with the unaided eye, binoculars, or telescope.

For current astronomical events see Sky and Telescope Magazine’s “This Week’s Sky at a Glance”.