Summer is the time for long days and hopefully clear, starry nights — ideal for the annual Astronomy Festival at the Mont-Mégantic Observatory.

For eight nights starting Thursday, the observatory's big telescope will be open to the public at night. It's the only time of the year this happens.

During the festival, people will be able to see all kinds of celestial phenomena, from shooting stars to planets such as Jupiter and Saturn.

Normally, Université de Montréal students, technicians, professors and supervisors are hard at work for their own research inside the facility, along with other organizations including the Canadian Space Agency and NASA.

"By having this festival, it brings people on site, shows them our telescope and they talk to experts through conferences," said Sylvie Beaulieu, a support astronomer at the observatory. She spoke with CBC's All in a Weekend about how to make the most out of the festival.

"It's always fun for us to show our science."

The festival is the only time the public can look through the large telescope with the eyepiece as it’s usually connected to instruments for research. (Astrolab/Facebook)

Beaulieu said the event is family friendly and amateur astronomers are welcome to bring their own telescopes to stargaze from the mountain, about 240 kilometres east of Montreal.

The Astrolab has a 61-centimetre telescope for the public called the "observatoire populaire du Mont-Mégantic," and a big telescope — with an aperture of 1.6 metres — that is usually used by researchers from Université de Montréal and Université Laval for research.

This is the only time the public can look through the large telescope with the eyepiece. It's usually connected to instruments for research.

"Right now, you will see Jupiter very bright and you will see Saturn, which is a little less bright," said Beaulieu.

Connection with David Saint-Jacques

For the 40th anniversary of the observatory, which opened in 1978, commemorative pins were created and given to select people.

It was around the time that the announcement was made that Quebec's David Saint-Jacques would be going to space.

Beaulieu, a colleague and friend of the astronaut, asked him to bring some of the pins to space.

We are very grateful to David <a href="https://twitter.com/Astro_DavidS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Astro_DavidS</a>, Canadian astronaut (and ex-member of the <a href="https://twitter.com/UMontreal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UMontreal</a> astrophysics group <a href="https://twitter.com/CRAQ_Officiel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CRAQ_Officiel</a>) and <a href="https://twitter.com/asc_csa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@asc_csa</a> for allowing us to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the OMM (April 2018) by carrying our pin aboard the ISS. <a href="https://t.co/3kwNrBPOdy">pic.twitter.com/3kwNrBPOdy</a> —@OMM_Officiel

Saint-Jacques agreed and just before he returned to Earth, the Canadian Space Agency posted a photo of the pin floating in space.

The observatory has special plans for the pins but no decisions have been made yet about how they're going to be displayed.

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