You may think of comets as gossamer, cloudy objects that grace our skies from time-to-time.  All that gas and dust has to come from somewhere. That somewhere is a dusty ball of ice, the comet nucleus. Only when that dirty snowball gets close to the Sun will it begin to grow a visible tail.  The European Space Agency is attempting a space exploration first, to land a probe on a comet while still far enough from the Sun that the snowball is largely quiescent. The landing is scheduled for 11AM EST on November 12. There will be a live feed from ESA, here: #CometLanding webcast.

The MacAdam Student Observatory staff are pleased to welcome the public to our facility. We present a program of public outreach on the second Thursday of every month.  A 40-minute presentation on astronomy will be held  in  the Chemistry-Physics Building, before moving across the street to the observatory, weather permitting. Note that the temperature at the telescope is the same as it is outside. The Observatory is located on Parking Structure #2 on the University of Kentucky campus on this map.)

Parking Note: Guests for the monthly SkyTalk that bring vehicles should plan on leaving them in Parking Structure #2, next to the observatory. Visitors that park elsewhere are subject to citation. Some streets near the observatory will be closed due to construction intermittently over the next few years. The recommended path to Parking Structure #2 is outlined in red, here: 2014-Sept Directions with street closures.pdf.