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View Mercury, help NASA target a shot at the moon, find your place in the universe.

By Lori Stiles, University Communications
December 22, 2008

What better way to start off the new year than getting your first view of Mercury through the eyepiece of the University of Arizona Mount Lemmon SkyCenter's 24-inch telescope on the 9,157-foot summit of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson?

Especially when the General Assembly of the United Nations has declared 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first scientific use of a telescope by Galileo Galilei. IYA 2009, as it's called, has also been endorsed by UNESCO, the International Astronomical Union, and the U.S. Congress. The National Science Foundation, NASA and private donations support the U.S. part of the worldwide celebration.

UA's Mount Lemmon SkyCenter will host many special programs and events throughout the 2008 year-end holiday season and on into IYA 2009, including many that will be uniquely special to Mount Lemmon. The SkyCenter offers a professional-quality telescope that guests will use to view Mercury, help NASA target a shot at the moon, and find their place in the universe.

SkyNights guests can participate as part of a small observing group or reserve the telescope all night and be treated as a visiting astronomer. Reservations can be made by telephone, 520-626-8122, or by e-mail, skycenter@as.arizona.edu. Gift certificates are available for all SkyNight programs and workshops, also by phone and email.

Special SkyNights in early 2009 include:

• "Mercury Night, " Jan. 3 and 4. Mercury can be viewed from Earth only when it's orbiting farther from the sun. The next good chance to see Mercury will be the first weekend in January 2009, when the planet is at its greatest eastern elongation, this year at about 20 degrees from the sun. "Most people have probably never seen Mercury through a telescope, but it will be visible even at twilight," said Adam Block, program coordinator for SkyNights.

• "Moon Impact," Jan. 12, Feb. 10, and March 12. Block will host guest observers in taking images of the moon that will help NASA select a target for a 2.2-ton projectile that will be fired into the moon next spring in a search for water. The target is for a shadowed crater in a polar region, where the moon is most likely to have water. SkyCenter images will support NASA's "LCROSS" mission, or the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission. LCROSS is piggybacking on the upper stage of the Atlas V rocket scheduled to launch NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter toward the moon in April 2009. Block will also host observations during the night of impact. The impact will be so big that the debris plume will be easily visible with the SkyCenter telescope. Participants will carry home photos they take of the moon during "Moon Impact" nights.

• "Our Place in the Universe," Jan. 16 and April 18. Which stars and galaxies are close to Earth, and which are farther away? What stars are about to explode? Block will show SkyCenter guests many objects through the telescope in answering those questions, illustrating both our place in space as well as the dynamics and motion of the universe at large.
• "Diamonds in the Sky," Feb. 8. Scheduled to coincide with the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, the SkyCenter offers rock hounds and gem enthusiasts a SkyNight focused on the mineralogy of outer space.

• "Valentine's Day Special," Feb. 14. What more romantic night could there be during IYA 2009 than a first-ever Valentine's Day dinner at the SkyCenter, where you dine high above the city, among the stars? It never gets top billing, but Arizona Statehood Day is also on Feb. 14.
• "Great Observatories IYA Image Unveiling," Feb. 21. The SkyCenter and Biosphere 2 are partners in a NASA-sanctioned IYA event scheduled for this date. Biosphere 2 will unveil new images and exhibit new posters of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 as seen by NASA's different great observatories – the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory. As speaker for this event, Block, who is a renowned astrophotographer, will explain what goes into creating these images. Block operates the SkyCenter telescope, which was installed less than a year ago. Already he has used the SkyCenter telescope to produce three images selected as "Astronomy Image of the Day."

• "Discovery Days," Jan. 31, Feb. 15, March 21, April 18 and future dates in 2009. The SkyCenter will offer Discovery Days events again this year, by popular demand, said Valerie Grindle, Mount Lemmon SkyCenter executive officer. "To coincide with IYA 2009, we will be adding new segments, including solar observing, to this interactive daytime program that explores the many sciences inherent in the sky island environment of Mount Lemmon."
• Additional SkyNights include "Saturn Opposition," March 8, and "Discover an Asteroid," March 15. Contact the SkyCenter or visit the Web site for details.

More information about special "SkyNights" planned for early 2009 can be found on the Web at http://skycenter.as.arizona.edu.