public observing at Princeton University

The department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University holds monthly informal open houses for the purpose of observing the night sky. Weather permitting, we can usually look at planets, nebulae, open clusters, globular clusters, and galaxies through a 12" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. We (being the graduate students in the department) are also quite happy to answer any astronomy-related questions you might have.


M42 (credit: Bill Schoening/NOAO/AURA/NSF)
calendar of upcoming public observing

Tuesday
May 13, 2008
9:00 PM - 11:00 PM		 Scheduled

It is an open house, so come anytime during the above interval and stay as long as you like until closing. We will update the above calendar at about 3:00 PM the day of scheduled public observing to indicate whether it is on or canceled due to weather.

details

WHERE: Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton University. From the street entrance, come in, find the stairs to your right and go upstairs to the telescope room. (Note: this is NOT the same as the Fitz-Randolph Observatory.)

WHEN: Open houses are usually on the second Tuesday of each month (in the event of cloudy skies, bumped back a week), at 8:00 PM (9:00 PM when daylight savings time is effective).

For more information, contact K.G. Lee , or Jim Gunn .

Note: We decide whether the weather will be good enough to hold our observing session by 3:00 PM on the day in question. Please check this site after that time to make sure that we're going ahead! Sometimes we make mistakes, and we cancel when the weather is clear, or are forced to cancel at the last moment because of unexpectedly bad weather. Apologies in advance for all such mistakes. If you're really interested, check the same astronomy weather website we do to make such determinations: cleardarksky.

interesting links

Here is the Peyton Hall public observing reference page, including the observing list, some pictures we've taken, and some interesting external links.

For information on other open houses in the Princeton area, go to the Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton.

For local weather, sun- and moon-rise/set times for Princeton, a customizable sky map, a weekly list of interesting astronomical objects visible from Peyton Hall, etc., check out Eye on the Sky's Peyton Hall Observatory page.

A good place to visit for pretty pictures: astronomy picture of the day.