Spring Schedule Posted

The spring schedule is up on the website, or it can be accessed directly as a Google calendar here http://goo.gl/UEZbj

A couple notes about the schedule. Classes at the College did not start until Jan 23, so we will be doing the new year show the last Sunday and Monday of January. That works out well with our February sky show, which will be a week later than usual to avoid the superbowl. Other than that, it's first Sunday at 4 PM and first Monday at noon until May.

If you are interested in a private show for a school or community group,  please contact us soon since our spring calendar tends to fill up and we typically do not schedule private shows after April due to the student workers' busy academic schedules.

We're tweeting!

You can follow the planetarium on twitter @GCPlanetarium.

November Observing Photos

 We got the CCD cameras out at our second session. Here are photos of M13 (globular cluster) and M27 (planetary nebula):

And finally, another shot of the Int'l Space Station. It's the short trail; longer trail is an airplane.

Astro 101 Observing 10/17

Here are some photos taken on and around the observing deck at our session Monday night. The first two show the International Space Station, which passed over just before our first session. First shot is of the ISS appearing and moving up in the southwest, the next is shows it at max altitude and brightness (mag -3.3). Both are 15 sec exposures. The last shows Jupiter rising over the GC Observatory. It's a 30 sec exposure on an ordinary tripod with no tracking, so if you zoom in you can see that Jupiter and the stars moved during 30 seconds of the earth's rotation! Note the Pleiades just to the right of the observatory dome.

Waxing crescent moon

Here are some photos of the young (about 59 hours) waxing crescent moon I took outside the Gettysburg College Observatory 9/29/11 between 7:00 and 7:30 PM EDT, while waiting for students to arrive for an Astro 101 lab.

Sky this Month Shows Resume

Gettysburg College Observatory image

Our monthly skyshow series returns for the 2011-12 academic year this Sunday, Sept. 11, at 4 PM and Monday at noon. Full calendar is available on the planetarium web site. Topics will be the September skies as well as astronomy news, including the unusual supernova pictured here.

Moon Meets Planet

At left is a photo I took of the waning crescent moon and Venus at 6:16 AM on March 1. Upcoming moon-planet meetings include one with Jupiter tonight, visible if the clouds clear in time. In that case, it would be a waxing crescent moon in the west after sunset. Another moon-Venus morning conjunction will occur on March 31, a little lower in the east than the one pictured here.

Hear about these events and more at the Sky this Month shows today at 4:00 and tomorrow at noon.