It's your universe! So, come and have a look!
Public viewings generally held on the 1st Fridays and the 3rd Tuesdays of month, or for special astronomical events. FAU's Astronomical Observatory is housed under a four meter diameter dome on the main campus of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. We welcome students, faculty, staff and members of the general public to join our scheduled observations or our public viewing events.
04/14/2026
Today, April 14th, 2026, Palm Beach County proclaimed that April 2026 is Dark Sky Awareness Month. The Proclamation will be held here at FAU's Astronomical Observatory. Alyson Fishbein spearheaded this effort.
The County's video of the Proclamation Announcement can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/pbcgov/videos/1658177305312339/ Watch from 49:30 until 56:42 for our little bit.
02/26/2026
We won't get to see the whole thing here in S. Florida, but do try to go out and see it if you have a clear view of it in the western horizon. The 5:26 am time is key to observe evidence for the sphericity of Earth. Enjoy!
🌑🔴 Total Lunar Eclipse — March 3, 2026
A breathtaking Total Lunar Eclipse will grace the night sky on March 3, 2026, turning the Moon a deep copper-red during totality — the famous Blood Moon.
As Earth moves directly between the Sun and the Moon, our planet’s shadow will slowly cover the lunar surface. When the Moon is fully immersed in Earth’s umbra, it will glow in shades of red and orange due to sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere.
⏰ Totality lasts: About 58 minutes
🌘 Entire eclipse duration: Over 5 hours
👀 Safe to watch with the naked eye — no special equipment needed
🌓 Eclipse Timeline (EST):
• 4:35 AM – Deep Penumbral phase begins
• 5:26 AM – 50% Partial eclipse
• 6:04 AM – Totality begins
• 6:34 AM – Greatest Eclipse 🌕🔴
• 7:03 AM – Totality ends
• 7:41 AM – 50% Partial
• 8:33 AM – Deep Penumbral phase ends
This will be one of the most beautiful sky events of 2026 and the last total lunar eclipse visible worldwide until 2029.
Set your alarm, step outside, and witness the magic of the Blood Moon! 🌌✨
02/23/2026
To counter a false promise of a "smiling conjunction" appearing on Feb. 28th, 2026, this is what people should expect to see in the skies. This one should be clearer.
Haven't posted much lately as I realized I had to plan for something big and it's taking time and meetings and . . . to work it out. And it's somewhat iffy, too.
BUT a big iffiness became less so after a particular rehearsal test was quite well done today. So I'm seeking volunteer astronomers to help out with this plan and will announce it soon as I get all my t's dotted and i's crossed! Promise!
02/07/2026
There were loads of hair raising fun at the Observatory this first Friday of February's public viewing session!
We observed Saturn, Jupiter, Orion's nebulae, the Moon, and stellar spectra, through the clear and cold night sky. We taught about the winter evening constellations and how they help orient and place us on the globe. We discussed the origin of Earth's water, partially walked a "to scale model" of the solar system, invoked the magic of Lenzea Dawdlea Descendo, demonstrated the conversion of sound into electrical signals, explored magnetic fields, energized visitors to hair raising potentials so they could light gas tubes by hand, and even learned to manipulate lightning in a bottle!
There's so much to cover, that it's a good thing there are still more nights in the year!
Image credit: Brandon Welcher.
01/25/2026
Action shot! Delving deep into lunar phases and eclipses with the kids from the Jack and Jill club!
✨🌙🪐 SATURN, STARS & STORIES! Our elementary students had a dynamic evening taking in the celestial creation. Special thanks to the Florida Atlantic University Astronomical Observatory and Facilitator Eric Vandernoot for the opportunity to explore astronomy in such a hands-on way!
Looking forward to learning the details of NASA's SLS/Artemis II launch. Possibly set for Feb 6th, but no times yet, as they need to do fuel tests before then. So, if it happens that evening, then we may be able to watch it from Boca for our 1st Friday session. Will provide what details I can as they become available.
Thank you Michelle! Your video is very much appreciated!
To look up our pages, go to www. FAU. Edu and type Observatory on the search box there.
This would be arrogantly insane assault on humanity and the natural world. This is technology going too far, that does not consider the biological ramifications it callously inflicts on the Earth and cannot be allowed to happen.
When it's dark, our eye's light sensitive ganglion cells sense the lack of light (like a light meter) and tell the suprachiasmatic nuclei in our pineal glands to make natural melatonin that goes out through our bodies to activate up to 15% of our DNA at night to provide us health benefits like DNA repair and cellular cleanup. This happens only when it's dark. Not to mention the poor sleep that people will suffer, the ever greater amount of sleep deprived injuries or poor thinking that it will cause, and the great increase of grumpy and angry attitudes society at large will have because of their sleep problems.
But this isn't just about people. Half of all animals begin their daily activities at sundown. They do so because it's an evolutionary advantage to be active at night. That includes over 60% mammals. Plants use light for photosynthesis, yes but they also use light for their photoperiodism. Which depends on the length of dark nights to tell them what time of year it is, so they can grow their flowers, leaves, and roots, or shed them in time of autumn before winter weather storms pile up heavy snows or ices on branches to break them down. Somewhat like Bill Murray's character in his movie Groundhog 's Day, lights on plants all the time locks them in to repeating the same day's conditions all year long.
Finally, such orbiting bright nightmares will deprive people from their enjoyment of their natural birthright - the views of the wondrous, majestic, awe inspiring, beautiful night sky!
Just because some techn gizmos can be made, does not mean that it is always wise to use them, especially when no consideration is into account of how we will all suffer from it. Once these things are up, there's no way for plants, animals or people to avoid them. We will all be living under their oppressiveness, like being under an interrogation lamp we can't ever escape from. There is no argument in this. These cannot be allowed to launch.
Dark nights are natural. Let them remain so.
Jupiter is at Opposition today!
We'll be open at 7 pm until 1 am featuring the king of the planets all evening long. Clouds are unwelcome to come though!
Made a recent fix to the telescope's vibration dampeners. Doing so misaligned it's star tracking axes, which I worked at correcting last night. The weather was clear and cold as a cold air mass moved over Boca. This caused very difficult seeing conditions to do that task, though. Hopefully, it will all be worth it for tonight's public viewing session. We'll have a supermoon, the winter sky wonders, Jupiter and Saturn to see!