When the weather is clear, we can take in the grandeur of space and many beautiful sights: the moon, planets, stars, galaxies, nebulas, and the vastness of infinite space. Observing is determined by what is in the sky to see season to season and by weather conditions.
The Moon
The moon is the Earth’s celestial partner and is available for evening viewing two weeks out of every month. It is covered with dramatic craters, easily visible along with mountain ranges and other details.
Jupiter, with its four bright Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede), makes an extraordinary sight. Viewers can distinguish the upper atmosphere dark bans and light zones which circle the planet.
Saturn, perhaps the most wondrous sights in our solar system, displays a ring 125,000 miles in diameter circling a pearl-like planet 80,000 miles across. Some of its larger moons, such as Titan, are also visible.
A plethora of double-stars (sometimes of different colors), planetary nebula— created when stars explode and leave large debris behind, swirling spiral galaxies, and other extraordinary sights can be seen by you, the light traveling sometimes millions of light years before touching your eye.
“A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” –Albert Einstein