Darling Hill Plans To OPEN Tonight (June 8) For Lunar Viewing, Saturn, And Possible Aurora

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Greetings fellow astrophiles!

NOTE 2 (8:25 p.m.): We Will Be Opening The Observatory. There is a bit of cloud cover around CNY that is expected to clear around 10:00 p.m. The observatory should be open and populated by 9:30 p.m.

NOTE: Check Back Here At 8:30 p.m.
Tonight for a Final Update

With the recent solar flare now approaching a grazing blow to the planet’s magnetosphere (see, for instance, the fantastic movies at Bad Astronomy – blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/06/07/the-sun-lets-loose-a-huge-explosion/), it is possible there will be aurora activity tonight after midnight, just in time for the Moon to set below our Western Horizon. In the meantime, there is plenty to observe, including Saturn and the Moon itself.

We tentatively plan on opening the observatory tonight but will likely not do so until 9 p.m. Furthermore, we will announce back on this page at approximately 8:30 p.m. with a final decision. It is predicted to be in the high 60’s in Vesper tonight, so dress accordingly despite the considerable heat at present.