We'll Be Closed Tonight, Wednesday Oct. 11. We Expect Up To 70% Cloud Coverage Depending On Which Forecast

Wed. 11/13: We expect gorgeous, clear skies tonight! We'll be open, 6 -7 for public night and from 7 - 9 for attendees of Open Lab Night.

Please be aware the elevator which goes to the 5th floor (observatory) is out of order. We will only be accessible by stairs tonight, though you can still take the other elevator to the 4th floor.

Wed. 11/20 - We're not sure about tonight's weather yet. We'll try to decide by 3:30 pm if we'll open tonight.

2024 January 16

The Orion You Can Almost See Image Credit & Copyright: Michele Guzzini

Explanation: Do you recognize this constellation? Although it is one of the most recognizable star groupings on the sky, this is a more full Orion than you can see – an Orion only revealed with long exposure digital camera imaging and post- processing. Here the cool red giant Betelgeuse takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star on the upper left. Orion’s hot blue stars are numerous, with supergiant Rigel balancing Betelgeuse on the lower right, and Bellatrix at the upper right. Lined up in Orion’s belt are three stars all about 1,500 light-years away, born from the constellation’s well-studied interstellar clouds. Just below Orion’s belt is a bright but fuzzy patch that might also look familiar – the stellar nursery known as Orion’s Nebula. Finally, just barely visible to the unaided eye but quite striking here is Barnard’s Loop – a huge gaseous emission nebula surrounding Orion’s Belt and Nebula discovered over 100 years ago by the pioneering Orion photographer E. E. Barnard.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240116.html

The brown dwarf W1935 is a bit of a mystery. Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope picked up glowing methane—a sign that the object’s upper atmosphere is being heated. But the brown dwarf has no host star, so where could the heat be coming from?

In our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn show methane emission due to the presence of auroras—what we call the Northern Lights on Earth. W1935 might also have auroras, which could be powered by energetic particles from a nearby, active moon, like Jupiter’s Io: https://webbtelescope.pub/4aKMkBF

Make your Halloween pumpkin shine bright like a star observed by the James Webb Space Telescope! 🎃

The 8-point diffraction spikes are a signature look in Webb’s images of bright objects in the universe. Download the stencil or any of the other Webb patterns: https://webbtelescope.pub/46HNvPV

2025 April 5

The Gargoyles’ Eclipse Image Credit & Copyright: Bertrand Kulik

Explanation: In dramatic silhouette against a cloudy daytime sky over Paris, France, gargoyles cast their monstrous gaze outward from the west facade of Notre Dame Cathedral. Taken on March 29, this telephoto snapshot also captures the dramatic silhouette of a New Moon against the bright solar disk in a partial solar eclipse. Happening high in Parisian skies, the partial eclipse was close to its maximum phase of about 23 percent. Occurring near the end of the first eclipse season of 2025, this partial solar eclipse followed the total eclipse of the Full Moon on March 13/14. The upcoming second eclipse season of 2025 will see a total lunar eclipse on September 7/8 and partial solar eclipse on September 21. The partial solar eclipse will be seen only from locations in planet Earth’s southern hemisphere.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250405.html

Video of the Day!

NASA’s next mission to the Moon will carry LEXI (the Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager), an instrument which will provide the first-ever global view of the magnetic field that shields Earth from solar radiation!

Astronomy Word of the Day

The Magellanic Clouds are two small, irregular dwarf galaxies outside of the Milky Way. These two galaxies are visible in the skies of the southern hemisphere, close to the South Celestial Pole, so they don't appear to set!

Image: https://aaa.org/.../01/southern-skies-the-magellanic-clouds/

Our first public event this Fall occurs Sept. 27, 7:30 - 9:00 pm, weather allowing! (Check the day of the event to see if we're on).

A lot will be happening in the eastern sky! The nearly-full Moon, Saturn, the Double Cluster, and the Andromeda Galaxy will be rising in the east. High in the southwestern sky we'll have the Ring Nebula and globular cluster M13. We'll also have the Big Dipper and the double star Mizar, the central star in its handle.

The bright Moon will wash out dimmer, fuzzier objects, but the Moon itself will be lovely!