The Midwest’s Largest Star Party

This year: Friday, October 3, 2025 (link)

Every year since 1998, when weather permits, MAS has partnered with Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center to throw a huge star party on its rooftop terrace (known formally as the William T. Evjue Rooftop Gardens).

Though its backdrop is the beautiful skyline of Madison and gorgeous views of Lake Monona, all the attention at this event is on the sky, as seen through telescopes, binoculars, the naked-eye, and the words and descriptions of MAS members.

The convention center extinguishes all their rooftop lights, and for a time—as much as it’s possible in downtown Madison—the sky becomes the sole attraction.

Because downtown Madison is not an ideal location for star gazing, from the beginning it was decided to make this an event about the moon. The date for the event is always selected to be as close to possible to a first-quarter moon as permitted by the Convention Center’s schedule. If there are bright planets in the sky, all the better since guests will get to see a variety of objects in members’ telescopes. Some members attempt to showcase the fall sky’s brighter deep sky objects too, so you can always find someone showing off views of the Andromeda Galaxy, the Hercules globular cluster, the Perseus double cluster, and so forth.

MAS members eagerly look forward to this event, but have had to learn and adapt over the years. In the early years, it was not uncommon to have several hundred members of the public show up for views through the scopes. At the 2011 event, an astounding 2000+ people showed up and we quickly realized we needed to be more organized and prepared to deal with the possibility of a huge crowd. We got better at organizing the telescopes and other instruments on the rooftop to facilitate crowd movement. We choreographed coverage of major sky sights. We utilized additional member volunteers to act as greeters, ushers, and Q&A specialists. And Space Place, along with Convention Center staff and volunteers staffed a children’s activity area.

As amateur astronomy changes and evolves, so does Moon Over Monona Terrace. Though we’ve always had a few instruments attached to television monitors for maximum viewing pleasure, the recent explosion of electronically assisted astronomy has made a definite impression on this event. It’s not surprising these days to see large TV monitors equalling or exceeding the number of eyepiece views through the telescopes. With these changes, members of the public are learning that wonderful views of celestial objects (and photography!) are within their reach too. And MAS members are there every step of the way to show how it’s done.

(Posted by John Rummel, September, 2025)

Read more about the origins of this event.