Last week I spent a few days at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport , TN. It's a 3,550 acre nature preserve , including a state-of-the-art planetarium. I am a member of the Bays Mountain Association so I go over there several times a year. Last week I saw their latest in-house production entitled "TOTALITY," a feature about eclipses. I also had the opportunity to do some sun viewing through the telescope. We observed both the chromosphere, the reddish outer atmosphere, as well as the photosphere. I highly recommend Bays Mountain if you are ever in the area.

 

I've also been to the Hummel Planetarium on the EKU campus many times and on a trip to the Land Between the Lakes area I was at the Golden Pond Planetarium and Observatory.

Hummel was at one time, and may still be, one of the largest and most sophisticated planetariums in the country. I highly recommend Hummel as well.

 

Next spring I will be going to WKU and hope to check out the Hardin Planetarium on their campus.

 

As many of you know, math is what I do daily but astronomy has been my passion since I was a child. Nothing fascinates me more than the mysteries of the vast cosmos. I can't get enough.

 

Has anyone else visited any planetariums or observatories??? If so, which ones? Do you observe celestial objects/events through a telescope? I love viewing Saturn as well as Jupiter and the Galilean moons. Sun viewing is really cool too, especially when there is some activity going on( sunspots, solar storms). At Bays Mountain, one of the members of the Astronomy Club took some really nice photos of some Messier galaxies.

 

What objects have you observed?

I've been to EKU's Hummel Planetarium, not long after it opened. I may have to visit it again in the near future.

If there are those who are astronomy nerds like me , I have started an Astronomy thread in the Technology forum. Feel free to read my cosmic ramblings and contribute to the discussions. Thanks.

Yes and yes.

My middle school had a planetarium, so I've been to one quite a few times, but I haven't been to one in a long time. My son works at EKU's planetarium.

Thomas More College here in NKY has a very good observatory with several state-of-the-art telescopes. During the school year, they have free monthly lectures about a variety of topics and if the weather is decent, there is an opportunity to use the telescopes.

 

Thomas More College - The BB&T Observatory