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Get the most out of August with this roundup of five fun — and free — ���ϳԹ��� happenings. Don’t forget that your Pitt ID .

Tour the Allegheny Observatory

Thursdays and Fridays, Aug. 4-25, 8-10 p.m.

Were you wowed by the first images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope? Take your own journey to the stars with a visit to Pitt’s Allegheny Observatory. It’s here that scientists confirmed that Saturn’s rings aren’t solid but composed of numerous small particles.

Tours of the observatory end with a look through the 13" Fitz-Clark refractor — the third-largest refracting telescope in the world. The heavens await!

Where: , 159 Riverview Ave., ���ϳԹ���, PA, 15214

Tickets:

Get to know local plants

Thursday, Aug. 4, 6-7:30 p.m.��������������

There’s more to plant identification than learning to avoid poison ivy. Spend an evening with community herbalist getting to know the plants of Allegheny Commons Park on ���ϳԹ���’s North Side. Fox will cover the ins and outs of identifying local edible and medicinal plants and safe, ethical foraging practices.

Where: , 810 Arch St., ���ϳԹ���, PA, 15212

Tickets:

Learn to salsa dance

Sundays, Aug. 7-28, 5-6 p.m.

Get your feet moving to the beat with a free salsa class in downtown ���ϳԹ���. Every Sunday in August, instructors from lead an hour-long dance class in Market Square. You don’t need to bring a partner — just enthusiasm to learn.

Where: , the intersection of Forbes Avenue and Market Square

Tickets:

Go birding

Saturday, Aug. 8, 8-10 a.m.

Learn about our friends in the sky at a birdwatching event in Mellon Park, located in ���ϳԹ���’s East End. Naturalist educator will lead an excursion appropriate for beginning and experienced birders alike. Binoculars are available to borrow.

Where: , 1047 Shady Ave., ���ϳԹ���, PA, 15232

Tickets:

Enjoy the music of jazz harpist Alice Coltrane

Tuesday, Aug. 9, 7-8:30 p.m.

The City of Asylum is hosting a presentation and live performance of selections from jazz harpist Alice Coltrane’s oeuvre.

The program is part two of a three-part series dedicated to uplifting the contributions of unheralded female jazz harpists and composers, led by (A&S ’11) in Pitt’s Department of Music.

Coltrane’s albums are described on as “suggesting a musical form that moves away from jazz and into a unique sonic realm that draws on classical Indian instrumentation, atonal modern orchestration and homemade religious synth music.”

Where: , 40 W. North Ave., ���ϳԹ���, PA, 15212

Tickets:

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— Nichole Faina