6-19 Mar. 2026
– Catch the Elusive Zodiacal Light
Next Public Star Gaze
Image credit: club member Jerry Sherman – taken at Grassland Mtn. Observatory
Continue to check this home page as weather could change the venue or postpone and possibly cancel a star gaze. Check again after 4:00 p.m. on the afternoon of the observing session for the latest info and update.
20 Mar. 2026 — Friday night — The location for this star gaze will be Lookout Observatory on the UNC Asheville campus, with a weather backup date of Saturday, 21 March. While the event is free and open to everyone, pre-registration is required to attend. To learn more about how to register, please visit the UNCA Lookout Observatory website here. Sunset occurs at 7:42 p.m., with shuttle service beginning about 8:30 p.m.
20 March 2026 Northern Hemisphere Vernal Equinox
20 Mar. 2026
– Conjunction of the Moon with Venus at Dusk
25-26 Mar. 2026
– The Moon Sails By Jupiter in Gemini
Illustration courtesy of
SKY & TELESCOPE
2 April 2026 – Club Meeting Presentation
— Thursday night, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
This free speaker presentation will be offered in-person at the
UNC-Asheville Reuter Center and virtually online. Registration is not required; use this Zoom link to watch the presentation remotely.
Although parking is free for this event at the UNC-Asheville Reuter Center, you must register your vehicle with a “Visitor 5pm – 6am” permit type at this link. Once registration is complete, visitors will not need to print or display a permit; the system utilizes camera-based License Plate Recognition technology. All vehicles must park front-end in, so that the license plate is visible.
Tracking Artemis II’s Orion Spacecraft
– presented by
Timothy DeLisle,
Director of Software Engineering at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
The upcoming Artemis II mission will send astronauts around the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era. NASA has selected the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) as one of a small number of organizations worldwide that will passively track the Orion spacecraft during its roughly 10-day journey. Using our radio telescopes and communications equipment, PARI will receive some of Orion’s transmissions and measure Doppler shift in the signal to help track the spacecraft’s trajectory. This data will help NASA assess the tracking capabilities of aerospace organizations worldwide. Read more…
