Illustration By Deanna Staffo

Maryland Science Center

601 Light St., (410) 685-2370, mdsci.org

Open House: Friday evenings from 7-10 p.m.; call (410) 545-2999 after 5 p.m. to find out if the observatory is open that night.

Logistics: Parking is available on both Light Street and Key Highway for $2/hour, 24/7 (boo). Once parked, go in the Constellation Energy entrance on Key Highway. Volunteers will take you up the elevator to the roof. The 8-inch Clark telescope is a 119-inch-long red tube built in 1927 and originally housed on the roof of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The acoustics in the domed room are strange. Everyone sounds softly miked, and outside conversations echo in the domes curves. Everybody thinks theres mics everywhere, but its just science, observatory manager Rick Stein says, moving among the growing crowd on a recent Friday. On the night I visited, I caught Saturn (though I arrived too early for it to be dark enough to see its moons) and Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in our night sky, plus a naked-eye flyby of the International Space Station.

Bonus points: The observatory is also open on Saturdays for sungazing (free with museum admission) from 1-4 p.m. Check out sun spots, flares, and other solar features through a set of filters. Call (410) 545-2999 after noon.

Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus

3701 San Martin Drive, (410) 516-7106, md.spacegrant.org

Open House: Friday evenings after sunset and the first Tuesday of every month; call (410) 516-6525 after 5 p.m.

Logistics: Park on University Parkway or turn left onto San Martin Drive and pull into the lot of the ROTC building on the left. The building is on the left across the street from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Go up the main stairs and follow signs up the elevator and to the dome. Observatory operator Chris Martin will be there to let people in. This is a big ol scopeits main mirror is 20 inches across. Saturn looked spectacular; I also caught Arcturus and a star cluster.

Read the rest here:

Guide to Seeing Stars in Charm City