Wed. Aug. 21 - We'll Be Open To The Public Tonight From 8:30 - 9:30 Pm!

Mosaic of the Eagle Nebula, June 6, 2015. Image Credit: Adam Gustafson | Jamie Kern | BSU Observatory.

Imaged in luminance and photometric R, V and B filters. Approximately 2 hours total exposure time.

The Eagle nebula is a stellar nursery where new stars are born. 

2023 October 18

Dust and the Western Veil Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Jiang Wu

Explanation: It’s so big it is easy to miss. The entire Veil Nebula spans six times the diameter of the full moon, but is so dim you need binoculars to see it. The nebula was created about 15,000 years ago when a star in the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) exploded. The spectacular explosion would have appeared brighter than even Venus for a week - but there is no known record of it. Pictured is the western edge of the still-expanding gas cloud. Notable gas filaments include the Witch’s Broom Nebula on the upper left near the bright foreground star 52 Cygni, and Fleming’s Triangular Wisp (formerly known as Pickering’s Triangle) running diagonally up the image middle. What is rarely imaged – but seen in the featured long exposure across many color bands – is the reflecting brown dust that runs vertically up the image left, dust likely created in the cool atmospheres of massive stars.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231018.html

Picture of the Day!

Also referred to as Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest major neighbor to the Milky Way. It is roughly twice the size of our galaxy and lies approximately 2.5 million light-years away.

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/

I'm sure the visitors will arrive soon

Uranus and some of its moons on October 20, 2023 // Louis Fico

I think the moons in this image could be Titania, Umbriel, Ariel, and Oberon, tho which points of light they are is hard to say

Happy Monday!

Today's picture of the day was taken by Matthew Dominick from the ISS! The image shows a giant jet lightning, which is a new discovery (only 23 years!) and associated with thunderstorms. While regular lightning travels between the ground and the clouds, giant jet lightning bursts upwards.

I see an angry fox about to breathe fire.

Hind's Variable Nebula, NGC 1555 // Rocco Sung

Wed. Oct. 30: We'll be closed tonight due to clouds. We'll try again next week!

We're Open Tonight!

The observatory will be open tonight, Sept. 27, 7:30 - 9:00 pm! We expect mostly clear skies, and to see Saturn, the Moon, the Ring Nebula, globular cluster M13, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Double Cluster, and the binary star systems Albireo and Mizar.

Here's a a nice picture of the Double Cluster in the constellation Perseus (we didn't take this picture, but it's similar to what you'd see through our telescopes - you won't see a lot of those dim background stars, though). [Image Credit and Copyright: Greg Polanski | Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day].