Planets at the Observatory

Friday night at Cline Observatory can be a very fun evening. That's when we host a free public observing session, and the guests can view some really nice celestial objects.

This first Friday of April Angela and I opened the Observatory a little early to pick up Mercury and Venus in the western sky. Later in the session we spotted both Mars near our zenith and Saturn in the east. Four planets in one session is something to write home about.

We also got to see the Orion Nebula, binary stars (Sirius and Castor) and some clusters; a couple globular clusters and the Beehive Cluster. The guests were so into the observing we stayed open about an hour later than usual.

About 55 guests came to Friday's observing session. Tom and Steve set up a telescope out on the nearby pad to relieve congestion under the dome.