Event at the observatory on September 19, 2026

International Observe the Moon Night is a NASA-sponsored annual event that invites people around the world to observe, appreciate, and understand our Moon and its connection to space science, exploration, and human culture. This year, the Martz-Kohl Observatory joined more than 1.3 million observers across 127 countries and all seven continents in celebrating our nearest celestial neighbor.

President Tom Traub opened the evening with a welcome and introduced Walt Pickup, who outlined the program. Andy Felong followed with a lively look at the Moon’s phases, from waxing and waning to crescent, quarter, and gibbous, and presented a short video on 50 years of lunar exploration. Walt then took the audience on a tour of the Moon’s geography and settled, once and for all, that the Moon is not made of cheese. Tom built on both talks to explain why the side we never see is properly called the far side rather than the “dark side,” and why it looks and is made so differently from the near side. He finished by walking visitors through the current Moon map each guest received at the door.

Door prizes included Moon books for adults and children, plus a large 3D internally lit Moon globe. Cloudy skies kept the telescopes idle this year, but visitors enjoyed tours of the observatory to close out the evening.

NOTE: This event was not Zoom streamed. The video shown here is the “raw feed” from the evening. It is intended for observatory members, only. Please do not share the URL.

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