2023 October 23

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

Wed. Nov. 8 - Observatory closed due to cloud cover. We'll try again next week.

NASA Science

What is Dark Energy? Inside our accelerating, expanding Universe - NASA Science

Some 13.8 billion years ago, the universe began with a rapid expansion we call the big bang. After this initial expansion, which lasted a fr

Article of the Day!

"What is Dark Energy? Inside our accelerating, expanding Universe" by Chelsea Gohd

Pumpkin space latte, anyone? ☕

Hubble captured this festive array of stars, Terzan 12, found in the Milky Way about 15,000 light-years from Earth. The stars in this cluster are bound together by gravity in a sphere-like shape and are shrouded in gas and dust. As the starlight travels through that gas and dust to Earth, blue light scatters, leaving the redder wavelengths to come through.

Download the full-resolution image here.

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Calling all geology and space lovers!

NASA's Perseverance rover has been collecting rock samples on Mars for 4 years now, and already there are some exciting finds! Check out the article here:

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

Messier-20 is called the “Trifid Nebula” because of the three bright lobes in the lower purple-coloured area. This purple region is emitting light, while the upper blue area is just reflecting it.

It is a local star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy (4,000 light years away). (at Bordeaux, France) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1bxBljC5H9/?igshid=1g0i6zddk37k

The Dragon's Egg Nebula, NGC 6164 // Daniel Stern

Each fall and spring season, we host a set of public observatory nights on Wednesday evenings. This spring, we're set to start on March 19, weather allowing. Schedule coming soon!