Astronomy Center in Enid

02/26/2019

The Mackie Planetarium on the NOC campus will present our next show on Wednesday, March 6. The show will begin at 7 PM. We will present the night sky over Enid and show prominent constellations and planets in our early evening sky. Mars and Uranus are near each other in the west around 8 PM. The constellation Orion is visible near these planets.
We will also take our visitors on a journey through time from the beginning of the universe through the present and 3000 years into the future.
There is no charge but we do accept donations of non-perishable food items for Our Daily Bread and Loves and Fishes.

01/18/2019

The Mackie planetarium will be open Wednesday evening Feb 6 at 7PM. The show is open for the public and there is no admission charge. We do accept non-perishable food items for Our Daily Bread. Following the planetarium show the observatory will be open if the sky is clear.

11/14/2018

The Mackie Planetarium on the Northern Oklahoma College Enid campus will present the Star of Bethlehem planetarium show on Wednesday evenings December 5 and 12. There will be two shows on each night. The first show will be at 6:30, the second show will be at 8:00. The show is titled: "The Heavens Declare the Glory of God: Psalm 19:1." Our visitors will see what the sky over Babylon looked like to the Wise Men 2,000 years ago. We will show how planetary orbits and some complex mathematics combined with the alignments of the stars alerted the Persians in Babylon to events that had been prophesized by Daniel 500 years before. The planetarium will show how events in the night sky guided the Wise Men to Bethlehem. We will show how the sky and the Star appeared over Bethlehem as seen from Jerusalem on that first Christmas morning.
There is no admission charge but we accept donations of non-perishable food items for Our Daily Bread. Food donations are optional. Information is available by calling Fritz Osell at the Astronomy Center on the NOC campus in Enid. Telephone numbers are office: 580.548.2314 or Astronomy Center: 580.548.2399.

09/25/2018

The Mackie Planetarium on the NOC Enid campus will present our next show for the general public on Wednesday evening October 3 at 7:00. This month we will feature a planetarium show that teaches about meteors, meteorites, asteroids, and comets. It includes results from recent NASA missions and about the dangers they can pose to life on Earth and their potential use for mining.

We will show the night sky over Enid and point out some of the constellations and objects of interest that can be viewed from the back yard. Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars are visible in our early evening sky. We will show our visitors how to find and identify these planets.

We will present some of the best pictures from the Hubble space telescope accompanied by Beethoven’s 7th symphony and a short version of the Pink Floyd concert from the Berlin Planetarium.

If the sky is clear we will open the observatory for viewing Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter through our telescope.

There is no charge but we do accept food items for the Loaves and Fishes.

08/24/2018

The Mackie Planetarium in Enid will present our first show of the current academic year on Wednesday evening September 5. The show will begin at 7 PM. We will feature the constellations and planets in the night sky over Oklahoma in the fall and winter. We will also take rides in amusement parks on some of the planets.
We will demonstrate how Oklahoma could become energy independent utilizing resources from space.
The feature show of the evening will be a trip to Saturn and a landing on Saturn's moon Titan.
There is no admission charge but we do accept non-perishable food items for Our Daily Bread.

Planetarium shows will be offered at 7 PM the first Wednesday of the month during the academic year.

04/02/2018

Wednesday evening April 4 will be the last planetarium show of this academic year. The show will begin at 7 PM. We will have a cartoon show for children about the Greek stories of the constellations. This will be followed by a trip to the moon.

The planetarium shows will resume in September.

03/01/2018

The Mackie Planetarium on the Enid campus presents a walk along the Via Dolorosa in the old city in Jerusalem every Friday during Lent. Our walk begins at 12:05 and lasts about 20 minutes. Join us with the Franciscan friars on their Friday walk and prayer along Jesus' last journey from the site of His trial to the site of His crucifixion at Golgotha and later on His resurrection. This practice in Old Jerusalem goes back 7 centuries. We present this walk every Friday during Lent except on March 23 (spring break).

02/20/2018

The Mackie Planetarium will present our next show on Wednesday evening March 7 at 7 PM. This month’s show will feature Amazing Astronomers of Antiquity. The show illustrates how people have been able to use the sky as a calendar throughout history.
We will also present the night sky over Enid during March.
The show will include a portion of the Pink Floyd planetarium show that was presented at the Berlin Planetarium and we will show some of the Hubble space telescope images.

11/28/2017

11/14/2017

The Christmas show at the Mackie Planetarium on the NOC Enid campus will be December 5 and 12. There will be two shows each night at 6:30 and 8:00 PM. We will recreate the sky over Bethlehem as it appeared 2000 years ago and show how the Wise Men followed the star from Babylon to Jerusalem. The title of the show is "The Heavens Declare the Glory of God.
You can do this yourself. Download the planetarium software Stellarium. It’s free. Set the date to -1 (there is no zero BC or AD). Set the time to 4 AM on December 25. Look south and you will see Jupiter in the heart of Virgo directly over Bethlehem as seen from Jerusalem.

11/09/2017

Tomorrow November 10 is the 242nd birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Happy Birthday Marines. Semper Fi.
Cpl Fritz Osell USMC 7th Marines.

10/24/2017

The Mackie Planetarium at Northern Oklahoma College in Enid will present a show for the public on Wednesday evening November 1 at 7 PM. The show will feature space industry opportunities for Enid.
We will also preview our Christmas program. We will show what the night sky over Bethlehem looked like 2,000years ago.
We will show the night sky in Enid during the winter and point out some objects of interest in our evening sky.
There is no charge for the show but we do accept donations of non-perishable food items for Our Daily Bread.