With the time change this weekend our planetarium shows and observing are an hour later. At 7 pm we’ll show “Two Small Pieces of Glass” and, since Michael’s away on spring break, we’ll show “Oasis in Space” at 8 pm. It looks like it will be clear, so the telescopes will be open after the first show, around 8:15. We’ll look at Mars, Orion Nebula, perhaps Saturn.

The Yale Astronomy Department has joined with the Hillhouse Opera Company for a benefit concert for Chile tonight.  The Hillhouse Opera Company will perform opera arias and ensembles under a projected starry sky in the planetarium tonight, Friday March 12, at 7:30pm. Suggested donation $20 per person, $10 students/seniors. 100% of the proceeds go to Chilean earthquake relief. Plenty of free parking.

The Astronomy Department has many collaborations and friends in Chile, including a joint research program with the University of Chile, a Yale Summer School in Santiago, and the management and use of the SMARTS observatory that owns four telescopes on Cerro Tololo.  Thankfully, none of the telescopes were damaged and none of our friends were injured, but the whole country has been affected by the devastation so we are pleased to be able to offer this opportunity to help all in Chile recover from the recent earthquakes.

Finally, a clear Tuesday night…  even though it’s Spring Break, we’ll have our regular free planetarium shows tonight at 6pm and 7pm, and starting at about 7pm we’ll have public viewing through the telescopes outside, looking at Mars, M44, Orion, etc..

I had hoped it would be clear tonight, but since it’s clouded up, we won’t be able to have public observing tonight.  We will have a presentation of ”Two Small Pieces of Glass” in the planetarium at 6pm, and then a special public talk by Carrie Cardamone about the Galaxy Zoo project at 7pm.

Tonight we’ll be showing “Two Small Pieces of Glass” at 6 pm. At 7 pm Carolin Cardamone will be giving a talk about “Galaxy Zoo” and citizen science. It looks like another cloudy night, so we won’t have the telescopes out.

We’ve had a lousy run of weather for public nights… Tuesdays have been clouded out for quite a while (this is not atypical in the early spring).  No public observing tonight, but regular public planetarium shows will be presented at 6pm and 7pm.  There is also an ASNH meeting in the lecture hall at 7pm.

Given the heavy snow (and that Heidi is sick and some of our volunteers can’t make it tonight), we’re canceling our usual Tuesday night public night shows tonight.

However, we are still planning to present special afternoon shows during school break again both Wednesday and Friday this week at 3pm and 4pm.   You can call our skype line for more information.

It looks like there’s going to be heavy snow tonight, so we will not have public observing, but we will have our regular free planetarium shows open to the public at 6pm and 7pm tonight.  The heat has been fixed in the building and it should be cozy.

Also, our education coordinator Heidi has arranged to have a series of special, afternoon planetarium shows while the schools are on break next week, so if you’ve been wanting to bring your kids to the planetarium, but Tuesday night shows are too late, come out Monday, Wednesday, or Friday next week at 3pm and 4pm for free public shows.  See our public calendar page for more information.

It does not look like the sky will be clear for public observing tonight, but we will have a free planetarium show (”Two Small Pieces of Glass”) at 6pm, and then we will have a special public lecture by Tobias Golling on searching for mysterious dark matter using the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland (the new particle accelerator that some say might create mini-black holes that could destroy the earth).  This is the first of four “First Tuesdays” public lectures at the observatory this semester.

According to the forecast, skies should be partly clear night, allowing us to do some observing with telescopes starting at 7pm…  we should be able to see the moon, the Orion Nebula, and possibly Mars a little later in the evening.

We will also present our usual free public planetarium shows at 6pm (”Two Small Pieces of Glass”) and 7pm (”Tour of the Universe”).  I always forget to announce this, but we will again be raffling off a few more Gaileoscopes to students who come to the planetarium shows.