{"id":630871,"date":"2026-09-20T22:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T22:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630871\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T22:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T22:48:10","slug":"el-dorado-county-observatory-celebrates-20-years-with-free-view-of-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630871\/","title":{"rendered":"El Dorado County observatory celebrates 20 years with free view of the moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

El Dorado County observatory celebrates 20 years with free view of the moon<\/p>\n

Placerville\u2019s Community Observatory marked its 20th anniversary Saturday as stargazers joined NASA\u2019s International Observe the Moon Night.<\/p>\n

\"Denzen<\/a>PLACERVILLE, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n

Stargazers in El Dorado County joined people around the world Saturday to celebrate International Observe the Moon Night as the Community Observatory marked a milestone of its own: 20 years of bringing the night sky closer to home.<\/p>\n

The free Placerville observatory celebrated its anniversary with telescope viewing and family activities as part of the annual NASA-supported event.<\/p>\n

International Observe the Moon Night encourages people worldwide to learn about lunar science and exploration and observe Earth\u2019s nearest celestial neighbor. NASA schedules the event around the Moon\u2019s first-quarter phase, when shadows along the boundary between lunar day and night can make craters and other rugged terrain stand out.<\/p>\n

The Community Observatory opened in 2006 after the Rotary Club of Cameron Park raised money and contributed volunteer labor to build it. The observatory continues to operate with an all-volunteer staff and offers free public viewing.<\/p>\n

Volunteer Randy Hodges told KCRA 3 the observatory sees about 12,000 visitors each year.<\/p>\n

Hodges said one of the rewards for volunteers comes when visitors see objects such as Saturn or the Moon through a telescope for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what energized us, is to see that,\u201d Hodges said.<\/p>\n

For visitor Ari Swanson, who has made several trips to the observatory, stargazing also offers an escape from everyday life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice way to get away from the commotion that is daily life and get out here and kind of be with nature and be with the sky,\u201d Swanson said.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s celebration included several telescopes and coincided with the observatory\u2019s 20th anniversary. Admission was free.<\/p>\n

See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Dorado County observatory celebrates 20 years with free view of the moon Placerville\u2019s Community Observatory marked its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[10064,19650,267812,5200,267814,61,60,6435,45433,6185,91,267813,22584,82,247,2140,7138],"class_list":["post-630871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astrology","tag-astronauts","tag-community-observatory","tag-content","tag-el-dorado-county","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-luna","tag-meteor","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-placerville","tag-rockets","tag-science","tag-space","tag-star-wars","tag-stargazing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}