Astronomy

Public Observing Programs

Our observing programs are free for everyone!

Quick View:

• Solar viewing (SunWatch) is free and held each clear Saturday & Sunday on the dam from 3-3:30 p.m., March-October.
• Night viewing (StarWatch) is held each Saturday in the months of March, April, October, & November, starting at dusk at the observatories. If poor weather, an alternate live presentation will occur in the planetarium theater.

Please check the calendar for the next daytime or nighttime viewing session.

Note: For the evening observing sessions, be sure to dress warmly. Dress for temperatures that are 20° colder than you expect.

The Bays Mountain Observatories are located along Bays Mountain Park Road just up from the dam. Look for the small circular building with a domed top. Please park in the parking lot and walk along the gravel drive to reach the observatory grounds.

Observatory Details

Bays Mountain Park is home to two observatory structures housing a number of telescopes that include lensed refractors of 6″ & 8″, mirrored reflectors of 10″, 12.5″ & 17.5″, and more!

The Bays Mountain Astronomy Club and planetarium staff use all of these telescopes at various times through the year to show the public astronomical sights in nighttime skies.

Bays Mountain Park Clear Sky Chart

Click Here to go to the Clear Sky Chart’s website to learn how to correctly read the data. Clicking on the chart in their website brings up detailed information.

Quick View: you want dark blue for the first four rows.

Dark blue means no cloud cover, very transparent (no haze), excellent seeing (steady skies with no turbulence), and fully dark. For the next two rows, dark blue means no wind and very low humidity. The last row is temperature. Dark blue is super cold (-40°F – -31°F), white is at freezing (23°F – 32°F), and bright orange is moderate (68°F – 77°F).

Mercury Transit

Monday, November 11, 2019

Join the Bays Mountain Astronomy Club in viewing the transit of the planet Mercury across the face of the Sun!

Public viewing will be 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Park’s Observatories and is free. Please note that the Park’s admission fee still does apply.

You can see by the accompanying images that the transit actually starts at 7:35 a.m., but we need the Sun to clear the trees!

The event is weather dependent. If very cloudy or rain, the event is cancelled.

A transit is when a celestial object, like an inferior planet (Mercury and Venus), pass directly in front of the Sun. If you are on the correct side of the Earth to see this event, and have proper solar filters, then you’ll see a tiny dot slowly travel across the face of the Sun. If you still have your solar glasses from the solar eclipse of 2017, then use them to see if you can spy Mercury’s tiny disk against the Sun.

Remember, it is unsafe to view the Sun without proper eye protection!