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The Southern Cross Astronomical Society (SCAS) of South Florida, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022, has had its regular evening gatherings in Bill Sadowski Park in Palmetto Bay disrupted by the changing weather conditions.
Weather permitting, the SCAS Observatory is open 7:30 to 10 p.m. Saturdays at SW 176th Street and 79th Avenue. The location is a half mile west of Old Cutler Road. Admission is free.
Barb Yager, outreach director for the SCAS, said it has been difficult.
“The weather cycle has changed the past two years, preventing my SCAS public programming to keep its normal schedule,” Yager said. “Lately we have had three decent night skies at Sadowski Park that attracted 25-35 visitors to gaze, and learn, about the gorgeous southern winter constellations, Saturn and Jupiter using our hi-tech equipment.
Mars will rise higher in the east and drift closest in January. It’s impossible to fill requests with such a fickle weather pattern. I had to cancel 50-plus Saturday nights with the park office since late May.”
Sadowski Park has an 18-inch diameter SCAS Dobsonian telescope, which is the largest in Miami-Dade to provide celestial observations of the seasonal southern night skies to the public, as well as other equipment. The usual annual visitor attendance has exceeded several thousand even with normal weather cancellations.
The Miami-Dade Parks Department has enlarged the SCAS Observation Deck twice to accommodate massive telescopes and tripods. Concrete telescope mounts, wooden benches and a light buffer fence were installed by Southern Cross and Eagle Scouts.
The SCAS also meets at the D’Auria Observatory, located at 23325 SW 217th Avenue in Homestead. They encourage astro photography, research, observing/recording deep sky objects from their darker sky environment.
No white lights, lasers, litter, alcohol or pets are allowed at either location. For information visit their website at www.scas.org/.
Yager also suggested that those with an interest in astronomy visit Zoo Miami on sunny Saturday mornings from 10:30 a.m. until noon. In the main building visitors can view the huge explosions on the sun using the SCAS’s hi-tech solarscope. The sun is still in a very active cycle now.
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