Observatory opens for ‘Not the End of the World’

Harper College astronomy instructors have a hunch the world won’t really end on Dec. 21. When it doesn’t, they’ll celebrate with a free midday observatory party allowing the public to look collectively to the heavens. The “Not the End of the World” solar observing event will be held from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22 at the Karl G. Henize Observatory on Harper’s main campus, 1200 W. Algonquin Road in Palatine. One day after the Winter Solstice, when the sun is lowest in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere, the event should give a close-up view of sunspots and solar prominences, large loop-like features extending from the sun’s surface, through the observatory’s large main telescope. Park in Lot 8. The event will be canceled if the weather is too cloudy to easily view the sun.