Telescopes, solar viewing and a NASA guest speaker are heading to Baylor Regional Park on Saturday, September 19, as Carver County Parks hosts its Fall Astronomy Day for the public. Astronomy presentations begin at 2 p.m., with daytime solar viewing kicking things off before the sun goes down.
According to Carver County Parks, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassadors will give presentations during the event, part of the daytime programming that leads into an evening built around the observatory's telescope array. Eagle Lake Observatory itself is made up of three structures — Onan Observatory, the Sylvia A. Casby Observatory, and the HotSpot Classroom — according to Carver County. Onan Observatory and the Sylvia A. Casby Observatory hosted their first star party in 2000, while the HotSpot Classroom opened in 2013.
A Midday Break Before Evening Skies
The observatory grounds will close for a break between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m., per Carver County Parks, before reopening for evening activities that include telescope viewing, weather permitting. A door prize drawing rounds out the day's schedule. Weather may affect the evening telescope viewing.
The programming mirrors past Astronomy Day events at the site, which have paired daytime solar observation with model rocket building demonstrations and laser-guided constellation tours in the evening, according to Macaroni KID Carver. Previous talks at the observatory have covered NASA's Webb Space Telescope and the Artemis program.
Free Entry and Camping Options
Visitors hoping to turn the evening into an overnight trip can check with Carver County Parks about whether overnight camping is available at Baylor Regional Park.
Baylor Regional Park offers more than the observatory, according to Carver County. Out on the observatory field sits a near life-size mock-up of the Apollo 11 lunar module, built by volunteers in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landing and mapped to the exact walking paths taken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, as reported by MPR News.
The Volunteers Behind the Telescopes
Eagle Lake Observatory is owned and operated by the Minnesota Astronomical Society, an all-volunteer nonprofit founded in 1972 as the Twin Cities Astronomy Club that has since grown to more than 650 members, according to Wikipedia.
Eagle Lake is the society's oldest observatory and a public site, but it's one of five observing locations the group maintains statewide, including the Cherry Grove dark-sky site near Kenyon. Fall Astronomy Day is part of a broader calendar of public events at Baylor Regional Park; Camping with the Stars was held at Eagle Lake Observatory as a three-day event from Aug. 2-4 in 2019.
