Welcome to the Observatory's Front Page. Included here are some of the latest news and articles that may be of interest to our visitors.
FAU's Astronomical Observatory is housed under a four meter diameter dome on the Boca Raton campus of Florida Atlantic University. We welcome students, faculty, staff and members of the general public to join our scheduled observations or our public viewing events. Our telescope is mounted on a small platform, at the top of stairs, looking out of the roof of our building, over Boca Raton, to space and beyond!
Target Observations for Oct. 15th's Public Viewing session
Oct. 15th's Public Viewing session will be split into two locations, the Observatory itself and an “outer expedition” to view the Comet A3 Tsuchichan-Atlas in the western sky. Details will be given that night.
Other things to see will be the Waxing Gibbous Moon, the Ring Nebula and the nearby bright star Vega and its stellar spectra.
A near edge on ringed Saturn, which will also occult its ocean moon Enceladus at 8:38 pm. The moon will emerge from the orb AND its shadow at 11:30 pm.
We’ll spy on the sky-blue planet Neptune, but with our Moon so close by then, we won’t be able to see Neptune’s doomed moon of Triton.
Corona Borealis ("CrB") or the "crown north", is a faint constellation of a circlet of stars that lies midway between the star Arcturus in the constellation of Boötes and the "keystone" of Hercules. In this part of the sky, a giant stellar explosion called a nova, is expected to happen. Our Observatory staff is keeping an eye on it and you can too. Read more.
