Keep Looking Up

The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.  Never well seen from Earth even with the Hubble Space Telescope, Pluto became controversial in this century as many objects like it were found in the outer reaches of our Solar System.  In 2006 NASA launched the New Horizons Spacecraft to image Pluto up close.  Traveling 9 years and 4 billion miles, we now have images of Pluto and its moons from the New Horizons mission.

People of all ages are invited to Northeast Nebraska Astronomy Club (NENAC) Friday, September 11 at 8pm at the Lyons Library and Saturday, September 12 at 8pm at the Decatur Sears Center to picture the planet Pluto.  There Pastor Gary Fugman will discuss with you how Pluto fits into the Solar System, how the New Horizons Spacecraft got to Pluto and the spectacular images from the NASA July flyby.

Then free constellation maps of the September sky will be distributed and discussed aided by computer imaging.  Weather permitting, Friday we will go 3 miles south of Lyons to the Cory and Tracie Martin residence and Saturday to Fugman Observatory on the south side of Decatur to see Pluto itself through astronomical telescopes.  Imagine seeing Pluto, an object smaller than our Moon, at the distance of 4 billion miles!  We will also use the telescopes to view deep sky objects in our Milky Way Galaxy.  You are encouraged to bring your binoculars and/or telescope to view the universe as well.

For more information on this and future NENAC presentations, please google “nenacstars” or call Pastor Gary Fugman at 349-1953 and Keep Looking Up!