Solar Viewings – August 2022 | Astronomy @ UPEI Physics

UPDATE: August 25 viewing CANCELLED due to cloudy weather

UPDATE: August 18 viewing CANCELLED due to cloudy weather

UPDATE: August 11 viewing CANCELLED due to cloudy weather

We are back for public viewings! It was winter of 2020 that we last had an event at our observatory and August of 2019 when we last had a viewing with our solar telescope. We plan to return to events at the observatory in the fall, but during these long summer days we’ll make use of our solar telescope set up on the ground.

View of H-alpha solar telescope — Our H-alpha solar telescope

For these viewings, we’ll have our hydrogen-alpha solar telescope set up, which will let you view the atmosphere of the sun safely. We’ll also have our new “Sunspotter” telescope set up, which will let you see any sunspots on the sun’s surface via a projected image.

Our new “Sunspotter” telescope projects an image of the sun on to a white screen, showing any sunspots present on the sun’s surface.

We’re tentatively scheduling solar viewings for every Thursday in August, 12-1pm on the UPEI campus. These events are weather dependent, so this post will be updated if we have to cancel due to cloudy weather.

August 4 – Successful viewing with over 30 people attending.
August 11 – CANCELLED due to cloudy weather
August 18 – CANCELLED due to cloudy weather
August 25 – CANCELLED due to cloudy weather

The telescope will be set-up outside of the FSDE building. That’s building 30 on the campus map. The nearest parking lot is the MacLauchlan Arena parking lot.

View of the FSDE building. — The solar telescope will be set up outside the main entrance to the FSDE building (the doors opposite the entrance to MacLauchlan Arena).