Events may leave you starry-eyed.

Byline: JEFF WRIGHT The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 4/19/02): The Eugene Astronomical Society will host a Solar Viewing and Star Party on Saturday at North Eugene High School. A Thursday article in the City/Region section listed the wrong day.

Jean Grendler's world expanded in a big way one starry night 10 years ago when a friend invited her to a "star party" near the water tower on Eugene's College Hill. Grendler peered into a telescope and gazed at an object that seemed almost close enough to touch.

It was Saturn, its rings showing. Grendler calls it a life-changing moment.

"I don't think anything can give a person an awareness that there's something bigger than themselves like seeing another planet in space," she says. "You can't internalize the idea of the vastness of the universe until you see some of these objects and realize how far they are, how beautiful they are and what they are.

"It's truly awe-inspiring."

Clearly hooked, Grendler before long was collecting meteorites, volunteering at the Pine Mountain Observatory east of Bend and giving public presentations to schoolchildren on the wonders of astronomy.

She also joined the Eugene Astronomical Society, one of two local groups planning special events Friday to commemorate a spectacular and relatively rare celestial phenomenon: the alignment of five planets and the Earth's moon, all visible in the western sky at dusk.

The society will host a free Solar Viewing and Star Party at North Eugene High School.

Among the featured displays will be a tiny piece of rock that Grendler recently acquired: a sliver of basalt from Mars, arriving on Earth when a meteorite crashed into Africa's Sahara Desert.

The teeny specimen, less than an inch long and weighing about a half-gram, cost Grendler nearly $300. "You don't get very much Mars for a lot of money, but it's worth it when you realize you're holding a part of another world in your hand," she says.

In addition to the astronomical society, the Lane Planetarium also plans to throw a party Friday celebrating the alignment of planets.

Both events are in conjunction with National Astronomy Day, an annual event held at sites around the world since 1973, when a Californian astronomer thought up the idea of bringing telescopes to cities rather than waiting for city dwellers to drive long distances to rural observatories.

Local officials have gotten into the act, with Mayor Jim Torrey issuing a proclamation declaring Eugene to be the "Center of the Universe" on Saturday, the official National Astronomy Day.

Cloudy weather could foul up hopes of viewing the aligned planets this weekend, when the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies.

"There could be some breaks in the cloud cover, but starry, starry nights, no sir," says Gerry Heffel, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Portland.

Telescopes will be on hand at both the astronomical society and planetarium events, but organizers say there'll be plenty to see and learn even if the weather doesn't cooperate.

Also, this weekend isn't the only chance for viewing: The aligned planets will be visible for roughly the next month.

Looking west, Mercury will be closest to the horizon, with Venus, Mars and Saturn nearly equally spaced above it, although they won't be equally bright.

Jupiter will be considerably higher in the sky. Mercury will dip below the horizon first, so the perfect line-up will be visible only from just after sunset around 7 p.m. until about 8:20 p.m. Jupiter, the last of the planets, will set around 12:30 a.m.

Peak viewing may come May 5 and 6, when Mars, Venus and Saturn will form a triangle in the sky.

But Saturday is a special day because Mercury will join the planetary cast of characters for the first time, and the planets will line up in an almost straight line, says Jim Todd, planetarium director at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

Of the five planets visible to the unaided eye, Mercury is by far the most difficult to observe, Todd says.

Mercury will leave the pantheon around May 20 - the exact departure date depends on an observer's latitude - while the other four planets will be visible for several more nights.

The five-planet grouping is possible only when Jupiter overtakes Saturn in its orbit of the sun, an event that occurs only once about every 20 years.

Actually, at least one more planet should be visible, Todd says. "We're also looking at the one under our feet, so technically there's six," he says. "But above our heads there's only five."

One, of course, is Mars - a piece of which Grendler can literally hold in her hands. Grendler owns about 300 meteorites, but her newest acquisition is the first from a major planet.

Most meteorites are chunks of asteroids, relatively small rock masses sometimes referred to as minor planets.

Grendler's rock comes from Dar al Gani 476, a bread loaf-shaped meteorite discovered in 1998.

A fragment was given to scientists to study, while the rest remained with a private finder.

Grendler says she found her slice of Mars advertised on a Web site by a meteorite dealer.

She only recently bought the rock, intent on having it available for viewing and touching at Friday's event.

PLANET-ALIGNED EVENTS

National Astronomy Day activities celebrate the convergence.

Eugene Astronomical Society: Solar Viewing and Star Party, Friday, North Eugene High School, 200 Silver Lane, 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. for daytime programs, special speakers, meteorite display; 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. for Star Party. Cost: free (donations accepted). Door prizes. 683-9382 or 344-9956.

Lane Planetarium: Planetary Convergence celebration, 7 p.m. , Lane Planetarium, 2300 Leo Harris Parkway. Cost: $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students, $3 for children under 12. Simulation of aligned planets on planetarium dome, tour of spring sky, demonstration of newly installed SkyVision projection system, telescope views of aligned planets (weather permitting). 461-8227 or 687-STAR.

CAPTION(S):

Amateur astronomer Jean Grendler managed to acquire a tiny piece of Mars - a tiny chip of Martian meteorite, to be exact - that will be on display Friday.