Greetings fellow astrophile!
I am thankful today that there’s predicted to be enough dark sky to warrant observing for what is the last official Public Viewing session for 2011. Darling Hill will open by 6 p.m. for as much final observing as we can, although we do plan on trying to open on December 10th for the lunar eclipse. Jupiter remains the most brilliant object in the night sky, Uranus is visible in decent-sized scopes, and Mars makes its return to our Public Viewing sessions (if you’re at the observatory around 1:00 a.m., which may or may not happen given the prediction for increasing cloud cover).
The International Space Station will provide us two fly-bys tonight, although the first may be too early to see clearly. In the event, check your North-Northeast sky at 5:10 p.m. and your Northwest sky at 6:44 p.m.
And, finally, have nasa.gov and NASA-TV at the ready tomorrow morning for the take-off of the Curiosity Rover at 10:02 a.m.!