Bsuobservatory - Bridgewater State University Observatory

Wed. 11/20 - We'll be closed tonight due to clouds.

Wed. 4/16: Check back for our weather decision after 4 pm! The forecasts disagree.

The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33, below center) and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024, below left of center) // AstroFortWayne

“What in the world is that?” That’s a natural reaction when you first see this Hubble Space Telescope image of LL Pegasi. The extremely dim spiral pattern is real, and its regularity suggests a periodic origin for the nebula’s shape.

The spiral is thought to arise because LL Pegasi is a binary system, with a star that is losing material and a companion star orbiting it. The companion’s gravitational influence helps sculpt the nebula. The spacing between layers in the spiral reflects the 800-year orbital period of the binary.

Credit: ESA/NASA & R. Sahai.

ALT TEXT: At center left, a faint spiral structure with wide bands has a dark, dusty center. To its right, a bright white star displays four prominent diffraction spikes. A handful of smaller, more distant background galaxies are also scatted throughout the image.

So far, the forecast this Wednesday doesn't look good, but we'll wait til that day to make the announcement. Stay tuned for August public night announcements, too!

2023 October 15

An Eclipse Tree Image Credit & Copyright: Shawn Wyre

Explanation: Yes, but can your tree do this? If you look closely at the ground in the featured image, you will see many images of yesterday’s solar eclipse – created by a tree. Gaps between tree leaves act like pinhole lenses and each create a small image of the partially eclipsed Sun visible in the other direction. The image was taken in Burleson, Texas, USA. Yesterday, people across the Americas were treated to a partial eclipse of the Sun, when the Moon moves in front of part of the Sun. People in a narrow band of Earth were treated to an annular eclipse, also called a ring-of-fire eclipse, when the Moon becomes completely engulfed by the Sun and sunlight streams around all of the Moon’s edges. In answer to the lede question, your tree not only can do this, but will do it every time that a visible solar eclipse passes overhead. Next April 8, a deeper, total solar eclipse will move across North America.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231015.html

Wed. 4/16: We'll be open from 8:30 - 9:45 tonight!

Wed. Nov. 15 - Tonight's forecasts are inconsistent- we'll wait a few hours to decide if we'll open.

The Spaghetti Nebula, Sh2-240 // Wolfgang Bernhardt

Picture of the Day!

NGC 6188 Nebula is also known as the Firebird Nebula. It is an emission nebula located near the edge of a vast, dark molecular cloud in the southern constellation Ara, approximately 4,000 light-years from Earth.