Students and community members can tour and receive a brief history of the observatory as they make their way to the dome. Every 15 minutes, groups can look through the 24-inch telescope to see the waxing gibbous moon in the night sky. 

While waiting for their tour rotations, groups will be able to use several smaller telescopes outside of the observatory. 

Jack Schulte, a Ph.D candidate in physics and astronomy who is running the event, said he hopes to also see Saturn and the Hercules globular cluster.

“Saturn should be visible towards the end of the night, so that's always a fun one,” Schulte said. “People love to be able to see the layers of clouds on Saturn and the rings.” 

While the night will be centered around viewing the moon, the observatory will also be offering activities for kids. Attendees can dip cotton balls in glow-in-the-dark paint to drop on paper, emanating craters on the moon. There will also be lunar crater puzzles and activities with Earth and moon models. 

Although the observatory won’t be hosting events during the winter, Schulte hopes people take advantage of the at-home tools the observatory provides, like binoculars and telescopes, to observe the night sky whenever they want. 

“I hope that they take away the fact that they can very easily, for relatively low costs, do a lot of the things that we can do at MSU observatory,” Schulte said. “... But also, I always hope that some kids can walk away with an interest in knowledge for astronomy and that they can develop their interests in space sciences. It's a lot of fun to see the smiles on people's faces when they look up and see the craters on the moon.”

Astrophysics senior Ella Werre is hosting the event alongside Schulte. Werre is looking forward bringing more people out to the observatory, which is on the south end of campus.

"I'm just excited for more people to know about the observatory," Werre said. "It's kind of far away off campus, so some people don't know that it exists, but it's really cool.”

But even more so, Werre is looking forward to inspiring and educating kids about astronomy. 

“I’m excited to get a lot of new people to come, hopefully a lot of families,” Werre said. “We have activities that are for kids, and it's really fun to help them see the night sky in a new way that they usually haven't seen before."