Sternstunden mit Saturn und Mond

Sternstunden with Saturn and Moon

On Sept. 14th, 2024 kosmos-os together with Museum Industriekultur invited to the Sternstunden on the Vosslinke on the Piesberg in Osnabrück. The weather was merciful to us and allowed us to look into a cloudless starry sky. About 25 interested visitors had come to admire the stars, the moon and the planet Saturn with us through our telescopes. Coinciding with our Sternstunden date, the International Observe The Moon Night proclaimed by NASA was also celebrated this evening in which more than 6000 astronomical institutions worldwide took part this year; 722 of them were live observation sites with telescopes and only eight of them in Germany – a nice feeling to observe the moon together with so many people in such different places!

For example, the moon and its surface structures were intensively observed and the creation of the moon phases were vividly explained on a model. For our visitors we had set up an apochromatic refractor, a spotting scope, astro binoculars on mount, a 12" Dobsonian telescope and a smart telescope that presented the captured images directly on a tablet – there was a chance for everyone to see the wonders of the night sky with their own eyes.

It was sometimes quite difficult to tear oneself away from the sight, for example from Saturn with its moon Titan or from the Earth's moon with its craters and to let the next one look into the eyepiece – many could hardly get enough of it! And also during the explanations of the starry sky with its constellations and special objects above us, tense fascination was palpable in the group; everyone followed the beam of the lamp directed at the objects with interest and listened to the explanations. Once again, it was shown that admiring the starry sky together is also a very unifying element – we enjoyed it very much together with our visitors.

A few impressions of this nice event:

*After a short introduction the telescopes were used.*

*In between, the necessary facts were conveyed before moving on to the next object in the eyepiece.*

*The beam of the flashlight sky pointer could be easily recognized by everyone.*

If you want to see pictures of the other events spread around the world, you can visit https://www.flickr.com/groups/observethemoon2024/pool/with/53995792372 where you can see the enthusiastic observers.