The moon, Jupiter and mars will be the stars of the show later this month at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Behlen observatory near Mead.
If the sky is clear, visitors will be able to view a variety of objects with the observatory's 30-inch telescope and with smaller telescopes set up outside on Feb. 24.
The constellation Orion will be high in the sky during the public night. Viewed through binoculars, the middle star in the "sword'' of Orion turns out to be a small, fuzzy patch of light. The observatory's 30-inch telescope reveals a glowing cloud of interstellar gas called the Orion nebula. All of the stars visible in the telescope formed from the cloud.
The event is free, and more information can be found on the observatory website at http://astro.unl.edu/observatory/.
