Video Of The Day!

Fall 2023 Public Events

Our next round of public events starts in September - here's the schedule (each event is weather-dependent, so always check back to see if the event is on!):

Public Nights on Wednesdays: - Sept. 27, 7:30 - 9:00 pm - Oct. 4, 11, and 18, 7:00 - 8:30 pm - Nov. 1, 7:00 - 8:30 pm - Nov. 8 and 15, 6:00 - 7:30 pm

Special Daytime Event: Oct. 14 Partial Solar Eclipse! 10:30 am - 2:45 pm

Halloween Events! - Oct. 25, 7:00 - 8:30 pm - Rain Date 1: Oct. 26, 7:00 - 8:30 pm (only occurs if Oct. 25 doesn't) - Rain Date 2: Oct. 30, 7:00 - 8:30 pm (only occurs if both Oct. 25 and 26 do not)

During our events, we set up telescopes and find objects in the sky for our visitors to see. We talk astronomy, too! Our events are free, open to the public, and appropriate for all ages.

We'll be open April 8th for the eclipse, too, with solar filters and projections of the Sun. Find us at Bridgewater State University's Science and Mathematics Center.

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy

Credits: Bray Falls

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.

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!

2023 October 17

PDS 70: Disk, Planets, and Moons Image Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); M. Benisty et al.

Explanation: It’s not the big ring that’s attracting the most attention. Although the big planet-forming ring around the star PDS 70 is clearly imaged and itself quite interesting. It’s also not the planet on the right, just inside the big disk, that’s being talked about the most. Although the planet PDS 70c is a newly formed and, interestingly, similar in size and mass to Jupiter. It’s the fuzzy patch around the planet PDS 70c that’s causing the commotion. That fuzzy patch is thought to be a dusty disk that is now forming into moons – and that had never been seen before. The featured image was taken in 2021 by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) of 66 radio telescopes in the high Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Based on ALMA data, astronomers infer that the moon-forming exoplanetary disk has a radius similar to our Earth’s orbit, and may one day form three or so Luna-sized moons – not very different from our Jupiter’s four.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231017.html

I'm sure the visitors will arrive soon

This striking image captures the interacting galaxy pair known as Arp-Madore 2339-661, so named because they belong to the Arp-Madore catalogue of peculiar galaxies. However, this particular peculiarity might be even odder than first meets the eye, as there are in fact three galaxies interacting here, not just two. 

The two clearly defined galaxies are NGC 7733 (smaller, lower right) and NGC 7734 (larger, upper left). The third galaxy is currently referred to as NGC 7733N, and can actually be spotted in this picture if you look carefully at the upper arm of NGC 7733, where there is a visually notable knot-like structure, glowing with a different colour to the arm and obscured by dark dust. 

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Wow, it really does look like a hummingbird!

2023 September 25

Arp 142: The Hummingbird Galaxy Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Basudeb Chakrabarti

Explanation: What’s happening to this spiral galaxy? Just a few hundred million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown at the bottom, was likely a normal spiral galaxy – spinning, creating stars – and minding its own business. But then it got too close to the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, just below, and took a turn. Sometimes dubbed the Hummingbird Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936 is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close gravitational interaction. Behind filaments of dark interstellar dust, bright blue stars form the nose of the hummingbird, while the center of the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together known as Arp 142, look to some like Porpoise or a penguin protecting an egg. The featured re-processed image showing Arp 142 in great detail was taken recently by the Hubble Space Telescope. Arp 142 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230925.html