Star trails at the Blue Mountain Observatory Photo by David Podrasky History |
The open house for this Friday, June 27 is on! Bring warm clothes and a flashlight. September 5 (9pm) and 26 (8:20pm) October 3 (8:10pm) Spend a beautiful evening exploring the "Big Sky" at the University of Montana´s Blue Mountain Observatory. Located at an elevation of 6300 feet on a mountain top just west of Missoula, Blue Mountain´s telescope provides breathtaking, dark sky views of planets, nebulae, star clusters, and distant galaxies. Constellation talks familiarize you with what´s up in the current sky, the sky lore of different cultures, and how to find interesting objects with your naked eye or ordinary binoculars. If you are interested in a fee-based semi-private/private viewing session, please contact me. This would be our
first year offering such events, and we'd like to start doing so in order to
raise funds for observatory improvements and to satisfy those of you that would
like more telescope time! Email or call me if you have interest.
-Jaylene jaylene.naylor&umontana.edu (replace the & with an @) or 243-5179 Public observing nights are FREE and open to everyone. Observing begins about one hour after sunset. Open houses will be cancelled if the sky is cloudy or thunderstorms threaten. Please call 243-5179 for weather and cancellation updates before you go! Early summer and fall evenings can be quite chilly at the observatory, so please bring a warm coat. You will also need a small flashlight for the walk back to your car. If you have any doubt about how to get to the observatory, download a copy of our map showing the road up Blue Mountain. Be very careful not to miss the sharp left turn off the main road onto a secondary road a short ways after the 10 mile mark. There is no sign at this junction, but it is out in the open and easy to find. Shortly after you make this left turn, you will go through an open metal gate. If you start going downhill, you've missed the turn! |
