Solar System Signs Have Arrived!
Our beautiful Solar System signs arrived just in time to celebrate the end of the Planetary Popularity Contest! We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who donated to make the Von Del Chamberlain Walk through the Solar System a reality. The signs are currently in the possession of the Kane County Water Conservancy District and will be installed by the maintenance crew at their convenience. We will provide updates on the proposed installation schedule as we receive them.
Event Round Up
SVO’s free public star party took place on Thursday, May 7 at Tilted Mesa Trailhead, drawing 30 skywatchers from the local community and beyond eager to behold the night sky from a dark location. Evocative space music performed live by Matt Stewart wafted over the observing site. SVO’s night sky interpreters facilitated the experience. The event was coupled with southern Utah’s 20th annual nonprofit Amazing Earthfest which organized a series of 27 experiential learning opportunities May 7-10, 2026, with support from the Kane County Office of Tourism and other generous contributors. Click here to learn more: Amazing Earthfest.
Who has not gasped in wonder looking up into the inky blackness of a sky scattered thick with stars? To enhance that experience, SVO is collaborating with the Bureau of Land Management, Kanab Field Office, to select a specific location on BLM land near Kanab to be publicly identified for the purpose of stargazing; a first of its kind on federal lands in Utah! We’ll provide additional information as this initiative develops further.
Amazing Footage of the Tiangong Space Station
-by Michael McKeon
On April 23, 2026, I had the first-time opportunity to capture one of the more exciting astronomy events I’ve photographed so far — the Tiangong Space Station transiting the Sun.
What made the experience even more fun was that Eric Sims, who lives only a few miles away from me, was also able to successfully record the transit from his location. Even though we were close geographically, our footage showed the station crossing very different areas of the Sun’s surface, demonstrating just how precise the transit path is and how even a small change in viewing location can completely alter the alignment.
The Tiangong station was traveling at nearly 17,000 miles per hour while orbiting approximately 240 miles above Earth, which meant the entire transit lasted less than half a second in real time. To help viewers appreciate the moment, the video includes playback at full 100% speed, a slowed 50% version, and an ultra slow-motion 10% sequence where the station’s shape becomes much easier to see. At normal speed, the transit appears as an incredibly fast dark silhouette racing across the Sun, but slowing the footage down reveals some detail and the precision involved in capturing such a fleeting event.
Although Tiangong is smaller than the International Space Station, it is still an impressive sight crossing the solar disk. The Chinese station measures roughly 180 feet in length, about half the size of the ISS, which spans approximately 357 feet. Seeing it pass directly in front of the Sun was a reminder of how active low Earth orbit has become and how rewarding it can be to combine careful planning, astronomy, and high-speed imaging to capture a moment that lasts only a fraction of a second.
Photo of the Month
This month’s featured photo was taken by Kanab photographer Marty Feely.
This image was taken on May 18, 2026 and features the crescent moon and Venus. Marty is known for his iconic images of wildlife, landscapes, the night sky and small-town life. You can see more of his work on his Facebook page: Facebook
If you have a great star or night sky photo that you would like to share with our audience, we would love to include it in our monthly newsletter. Please send your photos to info@stellarvistaobservatory along with your name and the names of key objects in the photo.
The Moons of Jupiter
by Ella Elman, SVO
Last month, with everyone’s attention focused on the Artemis II mission to the Moon, I started thinking about all the other moons that exist in our Solar System. It turns out that Earth is the only planet with one moon. The rocky inner planets are rather bereft of companions: Mercury has no moon at all, Earth has one and Mars has two small asteroid-sized moons. When we get to the gas giants, that’s when things get interesting. The outer planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are moon factories. Their strong gravity captured or formed dozens of satellites, creating miniature solar systems of their own. Just recently, an additional 11 moons were discovered orbiting around Saturn, bringing its total to a whopping 285. Four new moons were discovered for Jupiter, bringing the grand total to 101.
One thing we need to take into account is the size of these planets. Earth is a tiny speck compared to the other objects in the Solar System. By volume, Jupiter can hold 1300+ Earths and the Sun can hold 1.3 million Earths! I have a hard time imagining what it would be like living on a planet with more than 100 moons. Would you be able to see the stars with so many objects hanging around?
Let’s take a tour of Jupiter to find out. Nasa’s Juno mission to Jupiter studied the planet and its moons to better understand how our solar system was formed. Imagine a planet with no solid ground. You are floating in a thick, swirling atmosphere of ammonia and water‑ice clouds. The horizon would be a gradient of clouds, not a surface. Because Jupiter rotates every 10 hours, the moons appear to move quickly across the sky. Jupiter’s four main moons – Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto – are the main objects overhead.
Io is the most volcanically active world known in the Solar System. From Jupiter, Io would appear roughly as large as our Moon looks from Earth but would look entirely different. Io is bright yellow-orange with visible volcanic hot spots. The Juno mission filmed Io casting a huge circular shadow on Jupiter’s clouds.
Europa, famous for having a global ocean beneath a frozen crust, would appear smaller than Io, but still appears as a disc. You would be able to see it’s smooth, bright, icy surface. Europa is often seen crossing Jupiter’s face.
Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, about 1.5 times the diameter of Earth’s Moon. However, because it orbits farther out, it appears smaller than Io from Jupiter’s cloud tops. Ganymede is the only moon to have its own magnetic field. This is a gray-white world with contrasting bright and dark terrain and large impact features that are visible as patches. It casts the largest moon shadow on Jupiter’s clouds.
Callisto is Jupiter’s second largest moon and the third largest moon in our Solar System, nearly the size of Mercury. Data from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s revealed Callisto may have a salty ocean beneath its surface. From Jupiter, Callisto would appear as a dark, heavily cratered moon, smaller in the sky than the others. Its low reflectivity makes it dimmer than the other moons.
What about the other 97 moons? Inner moons like Amalthea would appear as small reddish dots above. The experience of moongazing on Jupiter would be of moons zipping by quickly and casting large shadows on the planet, very different than our lovely lunar companion. One day, we will explore the moons of Jupiter and search their oceans for life. For now, we are launching on a great adventure to reach our own Moon and learn what we can about it.
Free Public Star Parties and Events
Please join us for free star parties and events this summer!
- Friday, June 12, 2026 – Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park on the observation platform (events at the State Park carry a fee of $5/vehicle), 9:45 pm. Last chance to see Jupiter until 2027, and Venus and Mercury will be right next to it! Scorpius rising and the beautiful Summer Triangle.
- Wednesday, July 15, 2026 – Our next Curious Cosmos Science Talk is slated for 6:00 pm at the Kanab City Library in the multipurpose room. Come to learn about the preservation of dark skies with presenter Natalie Brannon of SVO.
- Friday, July 17, 2026 – Kanab Center Front Lawn. 9pm. Watch the beautiful waxing crescent Moon set as the Milky Way rises over Kanab.
Our events calendar can be seen at: Public Star Parties | Stellar Vista Observatory.