Star gazing

My folks came to visit last night, and after dinner I had an idea -- why not go to the Chabot Space & Science Center and look at the stars? Every Friday and Saturday night the public is invited to look through at planets and stars through the observatory's three telescopes. Despite a lot of fog in the area, the view from the Oakland Hills was clear. One telescope, which is 124 years old, had a view of the moon I won't soon forget -- you could practically count moon rocks! The second telescope (also very old) was looking at a collapsed star, which was more like a blurry blue ball. The third and newest telescope was out of service for the evening, unfortunately.

We didn't even check out the other offerings at the Science Center, including a planetarium, Omnimax theater, and various exhibits (those aren't free). I'll have to go back for those -- and for more star gazing. It's pretty neat to have this facility only a mile or two away from my house!