All are invited to drop by the Gould Observatory, on Glenelg Country School's campus, between 6:30 and 9:00pm for a tour of the sky (winter constellations Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Orion, Auriga) and a peek through the telescope.
The spectacle begins at precisely 6:31pm at Altitude 58 degrees and Azimuth 24 degrees with the appearance of a mysterious point of light that will intensify to become brighter than any star and then fade after about 30 seconds. These appearances are known as “Iridium Flares” and their origin will be demystified on Friday.
Even though the Western horizon will still be ablaze with red from the setting Sun, we will see brilliant Venus pursuing its star into the sunset with Jupiter lagging a bit behind. When we point our telescope at these planets, we will witness the surprises that Galileo first saw over 400 years ago- that Venus has phases just like the Moon and that Jupiter has Moons going around it.
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Then, as the sky darkens, we will have front row seats to a view of some of our youngest and brightest stellar neighbors- the newly formed stars in our Local Arm of our galaxy. With our telescope we will be able to witness stars so young that they are still swaddled in gaseous clouds.
