Star clusters, Jupiter's moons can be viewed at new Mt. A. observatory tomorrow

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Charles Perry
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With the naked eye, the planet Jupiter will be clearly visible low in the southern sky tomorrow night.

But visitors to the new Mount Allison Gemini Observatory in Sackville will be treated to a much clearer view of Jupiter, including its four brightest moons and the multi-coloured bands of clouds around the planet.

With tomorrow being Fall Astronomy Day, the observatory will be open to the public in the evening from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m., with telescopes being set up for viewing and astrophotograpy. Earlier tomorrow, from 2 to 4 p.m., information sessions at the observatory, along with tours, will be provided by the recently formed Mount Allison University Astronomy Society.

Dr. Robert Hawkes, physics and astronomy professor at Mount Allison, said yesterday that this is part of Fall Astronomy Week (Sept. 29 to Oct. 5), which is being marked by astronomy groups and societies around the world. He reminded that 2009 has been designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations.

Hawkes said anyone taking advantage of the evening session will not only get a good view of Jupiter's four brightest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) and some of the planet's cloud bands, but also observe the planets Neptune and Uranus.

As well, said the Mt. A. professor, they will get to see "deep sky objects," such as other galaxies and rich clusters of stars outside the Milky Way (Earth's galaxy). For instance, with the telescopes, he said you would be able to see nebulae, which are clouds of gas and dust.

One nebula, which almost certainly will be shown visitors to the observatory on Saturday night, is the Dumbell Nebula, said Hawkes. It is a star that died and thrust away its outer layers, which is "what our sun will be doing in about five billion years time," he said.

"It will be like seeing the future about five billion years from now," he said. "The Dumbell Nebula will be fairly high in the sky, but clearly visible with the telescopes, most the night."

Another interesting space object which will be shown in the observatory is the Hercules Star Cluster, said Hawkes. "It is a collection of 50,000 to 100,000 stars in a tight, spherical area, called a globular cluster, located about 29,000 light years away from Earth."

He said the telescope will also be turned to at least one other galaxy such as Andromeda, which is about 2.5 million light years away.

The observatory opened on campus this summer and was built and assembled entirely by volunteers made up of Mount Allison students, staff and faculty members.

The facility features two Sirius domes with electric rotation and shutter, two Losmandy Titan mounts and two Celestron 11 SCT telescope optical tubes.

All its operations are solar powered.

n Charles Perry's Weather appears daily in the Times & Transcript.