A visitor looks at the moon through the Celstron telescope with a 14-inch mirror at the Richard D. Schwartz Observatory at UMSL. (Photo by August Jennewein.)

Calling all stargazers. The University of Missouri–St. Louis will offer free public viewings of planets, galaxies and other celestial objects.

From April through November, the Richard D. Schwartz Observatory at UMSL will offer a monthly open house in the evenings. Viewings are held one Saturday a month at the UMSL observatory. All observation sessions include a viewing of the first quarter moon, along with additional nebulae and galaxies. The viewings are free and open to the public.

The open houses are presented by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UMSL and sponsored in part by the NASA–Missouri Space Grant Consortium.

Visit umsl.edu/~physics/astro or call 314-516-5706. Click here for directions and information about the observatory. The Richard D. Schwartz Observatory is located at Florissant Road and Rosedale Drive on UMSL’s North Campus.

2014 Observatory Open House Schedule

April 5, 8 p.m. – Jupiter, Mars, Orion Nebula, Pleiades, M3 Globular Cluster

May 10, 8:30 p.m. – Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Hercules Cluster, Beehive Cluster – Astronomy Day!

June 7, 9 p.m. – Saturn, Mars, Hercules Cluster, Ring Nebula, Beehive Cluster

July 5, 9 p.m. – Saturn, Mars, Hercules Cluster, Albireo, Ring Nebula

Aug. 2, 8:30 p.m. – Saturn, Mars, Hercules Cluster, Ring Nebula, Albireo

Aug. 30, 8:30 p.m. – Saturn, Mars, Hercules Cluster, Ring Nebula, Albireo, Andromeda Galaxy

Oct. 4, 7:30 p.m. – Uranus, Hercules Cluster, Ring Nebula, Albireo, Andromeda Galaxy – Astronomy Day!

Nov. 1, 7 p.m. – Uranus, Ring Nebula, Albireo, Andromeda Galaxy