The next talk as part of George Mason Observatory’s ‘Evenings Under the Stars’ series (where you’ll also get to look at awesome galaxies, stars, planets and more through our 0.8 meter telescope!) will be ‘Observing Jupiter with a Telescope’ by Darryl Wilson.  As always the event is free and everyone is invited (details about the event: Tuesday 19 March 2013: 1st talk at 7PM, same talk at 7:45PM, observing starts at 7:30PM until 9PM)!  Just keep an eye out for weather – the event may be postponed or cancelled due to bad conditions – updates will be available here – Observatory Twitter

The planet Jupiter is bright and easy to find in the night sky. It is also large enough to show recognizable detail with almost any size telescope. This talk will describe Jupiter and its satellites, with an emphasis on the features of the Jovian system that are visible to the eye when viewed through a telescope. Specific details will be described so that the audience will be prepared to identify semi-permanent global atmospheric features, transient storms, satellites, and satellite transits, when viewed through the 0.8 meter Cassegrain reflector in the GMU observatory. A video of Jupiter, taken through a telescope of comparable size, will be shown in order to familiarize the audience with the expected view through the eyepiece

Darryl Wilson is a semi-retired earth remote sensing scientist and a former student athlete at George Mason University. Since becoming an amateur astronomer at age 12, he has spent many thousands of hours observing, photographing, and videotaping the wonders visible in the sky including stars, nebulae, galaxies, the sun, and the moon and planets in our solar system. An expert in computer algorithm development, he has developed computer code for real-time video rate image acquisition, image processing, and orbital mechanics simulations for astronomical applications. Mr. Wilson currently offers his time in support of the new GMU observatory.

Directions to GMU and Research Hall here: http://eagle.gmu.edu/map/fairfax.php  Zoom in to find Research Hall next to engineering building and York River Rd