KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Taylor Observatory will host its next “Window to the Universe” lecture and planetarium show on Saturday, Feb. 24.

The event will take place from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m., Friends of Taylor Observatory President Bill Haddon will give a lecture on detecting near earth objects – which include comets, asteroids or meteors – with ATLAS: the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System.

The mission of ATLAS is to protect or at least warn earthlings of potentially damaging impacts such as the Chelyabinsk meteor impact in Russia in 2013, which injured 1,500 residents.

Had ATLAS been operational, even this relatively small 20-meter diameter asteroid could have been detected a day in advance of its impact in Russia.

As a default of its asteroid observations, ATLAS has already made first sightings of several comets.

ATLAS is a NASA-funded resource and ATLAS data are available to the public at https://fallingstar.com

At 8:30 p.m. there will be the full dome planetarium show “Firefall,” followed by tutorial on constellations Orion, the Hunter and Lepus, the Rabbit by Eduardo Alatorre.

From 9 to 10:30 p.m., if there weather is clear, the group will enjoy telescopic views of the constellations Orion and Lepus, possibly viewing Hind’s Crimson Star and other stellar delights on the new Taylor Observatory Star Deck.

Admission is $5 per person for adults and is free to Lake County students in grades kindergarten through 12th grades.

Additional donations in support of Lake County STEM education are encouraged.

Taylor Observatory is located at 5725 Oak Hills Lane in Kelseyville, telephone 707-262-4121.

Visit Friends of Taylor Observatory on Facebook.