Welcome to the CMS Observatory!
The CMS Observatory sits on the campus of Cody Middle School in Cody, Wyoming.  The observatory contains a 14" Celestron telescope on a Paramount computerized base and several smaller telescopes, including solar telescopes, which are used to help expand student knowledge and fascination of the universe.  
The facility is primarily available for use within the school district but is also available for use by other groups and organizations.  The CMS Astronomy Club meets once a month and hosts open  houses for friends and family.
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​Other useful websites:
​Constellation List (all 88 constellations with information on each)
Constellation List (brief overview of each constellation)
Helioviewer (cool solar exploration website)
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​OBSERVATORY NEWS:​
  • 4/9/26 - Have you seen it?  The comet PANSTARRS (C/2025 R3) is becoming visible in the morning sky.  HERE is a map from Spaceweather.com that shows its location on April 12th.  Our final CMS Astronomy Club meeting for this school year will be next Thursday, April 16th, from 8-9pm.    
  • 2/24/26 - During the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 3rd, don't miss the Total Lunar Eclipse!  The partial eclipse begins at 02:50, and the full eclipse begins at 04:04 and ends at 05:02.  The total eclipse peaks at 04:33.  The partial eclipse ends at 06:17 as the morning light begins to wash out the last of the eclipse.  All times are AM and are for Mountain time.  For an easy-to-read table with local times, click HERE.  For more information, check out the TimeAndDate website.
  • 2/13/26 -  Last night, the skies were beautiful for stargazing, and about 20 people met at the CMS Observatory to enjoy it.  This picture of Jupiter (6 images stacked) was taken at that time.
  • 1/6/26 -  Please note - we have changed our January Astronomy Club meeting from 1/8/26 to the following Thursday, 1/15/26.
  • 1/4/26 - Happy New Year!!  The sky ushered in the new year with a big, bright, beautiful Wolf Super Moon on Saturday.
  • 12/7/25 - Get ready, we may get another view of the aurora on Dec 8-9.  A huge solar storm on the sun unleashed a CME in our direction.
  • 10/21/25 - Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) makes its closest approach to Earth tonight, only 0.6 AU away. The comet is about as bright as a 4th magnitude star, making it just about a naked-eye object.  Look to the northern horizon after sunset.  Click HERE for a star map made using Stellarium.
  • 10/16/25 - The northern horizon is the place to look right now, with possible aurora over the next day or two and comet C/2025 A6 just below the handle of the Big Dipper.  If the night skies clear up, look to the north!
  • 10/6/25 -  Tonight is a "super moon" - a full moon that occurs on or near when the moon reaches perigee (its closest point in its monthly orbit around Earth).  Also, this month comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmons) is visible near the Big Dipper.  October also features the Orionid Meteor Shower, which peaks on October 21-22.
  • 9/8/25 - This month's full moon produced an eclipse, but it wasn't visible from the US.  The next total lunar eclipse visible from the US will be on March 2-3, 2026 so mark your calendars!  The CMS Astronomy club will meet this week, Sept. 11, 2025, at 7:30 pm.  See the "Astronomy Club" tab for more details.
  • 8/18/25 -  The school year is starting this week!  Check out the astronomy club tab to see the meeting times for this school year.
  • 6/8/25 - This evening, the Park County Library Summer Reading Program will visit the observatory for an evening learning about summer constellations and the moon.  
  • 4/10/15 - This evening will be our last regularly scheduled CMS Astronomy Club meeting for this school year.
  • 3/5/25 -  There is a lot going on in the sky right now!  The planets have been visible in the night sky, the sun is crackling with surface features (visible if you have a hydrogen-alpha solar filter) and next week on the night/morning of March 13-14 there is a total lunar eclipse!  Click HERE for a good website with the best times to view this "blood moon".  The total phase lasts about an hour beginning at 12:26 am and lasting until 1:31 am.  The partial phase begins at 11:09 pm and lasts until 2:48 am. 
  • 1/13/25 - If it is clear in your area this evening, be sure to watch Mars hide behind the moon and then reappear an hour later.  In Cody, Mars will disappear around 6:58 pm and reappear around 7:58.  On January 9th, Spaceweather.com had a good article about it.  Click  HERE  to see it.
  • 12/2/24 - December is Geminid Meteor time!  This month the peak will be the night of December 13-14th.  This is one of the best annual meteor showers, however this month it peaks on the night of a nearly full moon.  Thankfully, many of the meteors are bright so it should still be a good show!  HERE is a good website that provides some details.


​This video was produced by Cactus Pro Studios for the Park County Travel Council.  The series, "Outside Yellowstone",  features outdoor activities available in Park County.  Episode 4 (shown here) features caving in Cedar Mountain and Stargazing up the North Fork of the Shoshone and from the CMS Observatory!  The stargazing portion of the video begins at the 4 minute mark.


​October 14, 2023 Annular Eclipse
This image was taken at the CMS Observatory open house during the 2023 annular eclipse.  Over 60 people gathered to enjoy the experience together.

The "Green Comet"
This series of images of comet c2022E3 highlights how quickly it is racing away from Earth and into deep space.  The sequence only spans about 15 minutes.  Each two-minute exposure was taken through our C-14 SCT using a Canon EOS Rebel T7 camera.  The images were taken Feb. 9, 2023 when the comet was only magnitude 6.22.
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