Star light, star bright, The first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight. -- Nursery rhyme

The stars are out, they're bright, and you'll see them tonight through the Valparaiso University Observatory's computer-controlled telescope.

The astronomical open house is led by Todd Hillwig, assistant professor of physics, with help from his astronomy students.

Visitors will be able to view celestial objects such as Saturn, Mars, the constellation Orion, the twin stars of Gemini (Pollux and Castor), along with various globular clusters.

"A globular cluster is a cluster of stars," Hillwig said.

"Some of these clusters can literally have hundreds of thousands of stars in them."

One star that will stand out for visitors is Betelgeuse, the red supergiant in the Orion.

"It's one of the largest stars out there," Hillwig said.

"If you put it where the sun is, the surface would go out beyond the orbit of Jupiter."

The campus observatory is located between the Gellersen Center and U.S 30. To prevent some of the space objects from disappearing in the "muck of the light" emitting from the surrounding area, the observatory staff has control of the lights in the VU parking lot that abuts the telescope (as long as they notify the campus police ahead of time).

"If we didn't control those, it would be almost impossible to see much from here with all those lights," Hillwig said.

The trees surrounding the observatory are strategically placed to help block lights from Sturdy Road, Speedway and some of the other places in the area.

If you've ever wondered whether light causes pollution, it does to astronomers. Even a bright moon can saturate must-see celestial objects.

"In some ways we'd like to blow the moon out of the sky," Hillwig said.

Following the open house, the public is invited to watch a remote broadcast in the Neils Science Center. Visitors can see the 36-inch research telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona in action.

Valparaiso University is part of a 10-school consortium for the telescope operated by the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy, nicknamed SARA.

VU junior physics major Erin Lueck, an astronomy student assisting with the open house, visited SARA for a research project last summer.

"I think it's neat; there are 23 telescopes on that mountain," Lueck said.

Her favorite object seen from the VU observatory is Saturn.

"I like how we see the rings and the moons," she said.

Paul Christman, a visiting astronomy-class student from Purdue North Central, enjoyed Saturn and everything else he's been trying to locate on his personal telescope at home. The globular cluster was something he thought he'd have no hope of seeing.

"That was intense," Christman said.

So how did someone like Christman become interested in outer space?

"I always look up," he said.