All events are WEATHER-DEPENDENT! Please check our Twitter page after 5pm on the day of a scheduled event to find out whether we will hold the event or if we had to cancel due to bad weather.

 

Special Fall Events:

October 15th (Rain Date Oct 22nd) from 6-10 pm:
* Star Gazing at Smith Gardens Farm in Cochrane, WI. Smith Gardens has delicious wood-fired pizza every Thursday night and the Astronomy Club will be brining telescopes to the farm for some serious dark-sky observing (and tasty pizza)!!

October 17th WSU Family Weekend Events:
* 10am - Noon: Sun Observing at the Winona Farmers Market
* 6:30 - 9:30 pm: Public Night at the Observatory

How do I decide if we will be open on a given night?

I look at three different weather sites before I decide whether we will open the Observatory or not. The most important site is actually an astronomical viewing website called Clear Dark Sky which combines a lot of good data and observations into a forcast for your viewing area. I use the forcast for Trempealeau as it is the closest to WSU.

Clear Dark Sky -- Trempealeau

I also check Weather Underground for Winona's forcast. I like this site because it predicts cloud cover as well.

Weather Underground -- Winona

Finally, I check Weather.com for the satellite image of our area. That way I can reassure myself that the clouds are indeed going away (or here to stay).

Weather.com -- Winona