On Saturday, August 16^th, my family and I went up to the Mt. Wilson Observatory. It was really cool. Every night when I brush my teeth before bed, I see the shining communication towers, where the observatory is. There were many different telescopes up in the observatory. We got to go in the biggest one. The biggest telescope is 60” in diameter. That’s pretty big! I saw Edwin Hubble’s* original locker, along with some other astronomers.

We saw some pretty amazing things. We looked at a couple objects from the Messier Catalog. (AKA The “M” Collection.) Charles Messier, a famous astronomer from France, originally discovered these objects. The “M” Collection is a collection of nebulas, galaxies, and other “non-star” objects. Messier’s job was to find newfound comets and present his results to the king. Messier cataloged 110 objects in the sky that were not stars nor were they comets.

First, we looked at Saturn and Mars. Then we focused on the Messier objects. We looked at the Crab Nebula (“M1”), the Dumbbell Nebula (“M27”), and a star cluster that looked like “Grandma’s Brooch”(M92). We also saw a diamond-looking star nebula (M13), and a couple of double stars. Double stars are two stars that look like they are really close together, which they are. One double star that we saw we nicknamed the UCLA Double Star because one star looked yellow and the other blue. We saw a double-double star, too. A double-double star is two stars that are close together, and another two stars that are close together, and the two pairs of stars orbit each other. The Cat’s Eye Nebula (which was my favorite) is “NGC” 6543, which stands for New General Catalog. We saw a couple of NGC’s, as well.

Through the telescope, you can take a perfect picture of whatever you see. When I was there, I took a picture of Saturn, and it came out perfectly. I had an amazing time there. I hope you get to go up there and enjoy it like I did. It is an amazing opportunity and the instructors there are very nice and helpful. It is definitely a life bucket list to check off. For more information you can go to the website http://www.mtwilson.edu

*Hubble was a famous astronomer who originally did his work at the Mt. Wilson Observatory.