Public Observing Sessions

From March through October, the TCAA holds monthly observing sessions that are open to the public. These "star parties" are held at our observatory at the Sugar Grove Nature Center, a dark sky site southwest of Bloomington.

In 2013, we will hold the following observing sessions Additional prominent sky objects such as planets, nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies will be viewed when visible.

Date	Featured Topic	Time
March 9	Jupiter and the Galilean Moons	7:00pm - 9:00pm
	Large planet, large moons. The King of our Solar System keeps many secrets and holds many surprises in His lofty realm.
April 20	Our Marvelous Moon	8:00pm - 10:00pm
	The Moon is our closest neighbor and constant companion, and affects us in many surprising ways.
May 11	The Expanding Universe	8:30pm - 10:30pm
	We take a cosmological journey to discover “island universes” (galaxies), red shift, deep fields, curved space, dark matter and dark energy.
June 8	Astronomical Curiosities of Saturn	9:00pm - 11:00pm
	Can you imagine what surprises we'll find as we investigate the mysteries of the ringed planet?
July 6	The World’s Great Telescopes	9:00pm - 11:00pm
	We take a look at some of the famous telescope around the world and review their contributions to the science of astronomy.
August 10	Meteors, Space Rocks, and Comets	8:30pm - 10:30pm
	You never know who you'll run into around here. Join us as we meet some of our celestial neighbors.
September 7	Births and Deaths of Stars	8:00pm - 10:00pm
	The study of the life-cycles of stars helps us understand the unexpected formation and violent ends of these distant worlds.
October 5	Our Galaxy, the Milky Way	7:00pm - 9:00pm
	Our view from inside of our home galaxy provides many unexpected perspectives.

A Typical Public Observing Session includes:

Lecture about the featured object.
This 20-30 min. presentation, held in the SGNC picnic shelter, includes images of and details about the featured sky object as well as information on other interesting celestial objects that might be viewed that evening.
Sky tour using a laser pointer.
We step out under the stars to point out the major constellations and planets, and to designate the location of the featured celestial object for the evening.
Telescope observing session.
We use members' telescope at ground level to observe the featured object and other wonders of the heavens.

You can download our 2013 Public Observing Session brochure.

If you would like to arrange a special event for your group, please follow this link to Request a Special Event.