These City of Wichita facilities will be closed this weekend
4 September 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The Lake Afton Public Observatory saw an influx of people this past weekend looking to catch the last trace of the blue supermoon.
The Observatory, located 30 minutes outside of Wichita, has a better view of the sky than the city because there’s less light pollution.
“It’s nice and clear, no light at all,” said Gregory Burnham, a Wichitan who made his way out to the observatory for the first time in 25 years Saturday.
He says the view felt magical to him.
“Just seeing the universe, it’s kinda neat,” Burnham said.
The observatory saw more visitors than usual this weekend.
“I can tell you the moon brings out a lot of people,” said Fred Gassert, chairman of the board for the Lake Afton Public Observatory.
Visitors were able to get a look at the moon through a telescope.
“Once it comes up, it’s about all you can look at,” Gassert said. “It pretty much washes out everything else out of the sky.”
It’s called a blue moon because it is the second full moon of the month.
“The moon was full on the second of August, and it was also full on the 31st of August.”
The name supermoon indicates its size.
“When the moon is closest to the earth, is when they call it a supermoon,” Gassert said. “It’s just slightly larger than what we normally would see.”
Burnham plans on coming back the next time there’s a supermoon.
“It’s creation,” Burnham said. “Everybody ought to experience in some way or other.”
As the moon gets smaller in the coming days, it’ll get easier to see deep space objects like galaxies and nebulas through telescopes.
The Lake Afton Observatory has telescopes for visitors to look through on Fridays and Saturdays from 8:30 to 10:30 at night.