PILOT MOUNTAIN — A unique event at Pilot Mountain State Park gave area residents a chance to spend Saturday night with the stars.

No, Brad Pitt nor Hannah Montana were nowhere to be found in the summit parking area. But in their place was a lot full of telescopes and eager astronomy fans all gazing skyward for a chance to view various planets, moons, constellations and galaxies from their upper-level vantage point.

“There’s always new things out there — you never know what you are going to find,” said Elliott Esparza of Winston-Salem, who was there with his dad Steve and their 8-inch telescope.

Both are members of the Forsyth Astronomical Society, which coordinated Saturday night’s public observation through the cooperation of park rangers in order to provide participants a closer view of the heavens.

The rangers allowed the park to stay open four hours past its normal closing time of 6 p.m., and the weather also cooperated with clear skies and great viewing conditions along with fairly comfortable temperatures.

“Hey man, this is fantastic!” said an excited Charles Tilley, a member of another group represented on the mountain, the Piedmont Amateur Astronomers based in Statesville.

“This is a good time of year,” Tilley added of the viewing opportunities offered by the November skies. “It gets dark early and you have a whole lot more observing time.”

Tilley had his telescope pointed toward “M57,” also known as the “ring nebula.” It is a medium-sized ring of gas representing the remnants of an exploding star. M57 is considered one of the most spectacular sights in the Northern sky due to its layered colors resulting from various chemical processes at work within the object.

The Statesville astronomer said he is fascinated by the fact that the light from such celestial bodies originated thousands, or even millions, of years ago and is just now reaching Earth.

Tilley said the most interesting astronomical phenomenon he has ever witnessed was the Leonids meteor shower of 2001. It provided the greatest show of shooting stars in 35 years, with meteors constantly streaking across the sky.

Over at the telescope manned by Steve and Elliott Esparza, people were lined up for a glimpse of Jupiter, the largest planet in Earth’s solar system. The elder Esparza not only views such bodies through a telescope, but takes pictures of them with the help of computer technology that aids in locating their positions.

His monitor revealed one recent, up-close photograph of Jupiter after it was struck by a meteor, revealing a small indentation where the object plowed into the planet’s surface.

Other popular viewing attractions Saturday night included the planet Neptune, and the Andromeda Galaxy. That galaxy is one of the farthest objects visible to the naked eye.

In one corner of the summit parking lot was a group of Cub Scouts from Clemmons, who incorporated the star-gazing event into a Saturday outing at Pilot Mountain which had included a hike.

The kids were learning about astronomy in their quest to earn belt loops, which are awarded through participation in academic subjects. They were looking through a small telescope with the help of Jeff Long, one of the parents accompanying the group.

“I’m getting more interested in it the older I get,” Long said of astronomy, while surrounded by excited scouts, including one — Grayson Fowler, 6 — who had made a diagram of the solar system using peanuts.

Steve Esparza indicated that he is encouraged by the fact so many kids were there Saturday night, who were learning that there is much more to the universe than the planet Earth.

“It’s very important to have kids interested in astronomy,” he said.

Saturday night’s event was one of several such viewings scheduled by the Forsyth Astronomical Society.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.