It took a good ten years of attending shows at Abrams Planetarium before I finally found my way to the MSU Observatory. I’m not sure how I missed the observatory for so long. My only excuse is that it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere in East Lansing near the MSU Pavilion and Forest Akers golf course, so I forget that it’s there. I still go only very occasionally, but every time I do it’s a huge treat.

The first time I went, my friend and I waited in a very long line to look through the huge 24 inch telescope. It was a warm summer evening and everyone seemed to be in a good mood in spite of the wait. When it was my turn, I looked into the telescope and *bam*, there was Jupiter, right in front of me! I was actually looking at Jupiter. How often do you get to see something like that? I’ve also had the opportunity to see the moon and Mars in incredible detail. Depending on the length of the line, you might get about 10 seconds at the telescope, but those seconds are amazing. And nobody complains if you get right back in line to see it again.

Unfortunately, you will need to go up quite a few steep and sometimes narrow stairs to check out this view, so some folks will be limited to the telescopes set up on the ground floor. If you’re a wheelchair user, you’ll probably want to stick to the planetarium — they also set up telescopes outside (weather permitting) and you can check out a show.

Last night, the observatory held an open house as part of the MSU Science Festival. It was too cloudy to use the telescope, but we still got to see it up close and learn about its history from the staff, and they generously opened the dome to let us see outside in spite of the cloudy weather. There were also activities on the ground floor. I think they were intended for kids, but my sweetheart and I played along and had a great time. We learned about amateur telescopes (did you know you could build your own with a giant cardboard tube?), identifying elements by using spectroscopy (I’m still learning how to say that properly), and ways aliens might try to communicate with us by using sound patterns (remember the movie Contact?).

There are many public observing nights in the future, including a couple more this weekend. And there are lots of additional fun activities planned during the MSU Science Festival.