Beautiful!

So far, we think the sky will cooperate enough for us to see tomorrow's eclipse! We'll be handing out eclipse glasses around DMF tomorrow, and some other locations on campus from 10:30 am - 2:45 pm. Check back one more time in the morning about the weather.

Wed. Aug. 14 - The weather looks good tonight so far, but check back later for our final weather decision. If it stays nice enough, we'll be open from 8:30 - 9:30 pm!

I'm sure the visitors will arrive soon

Wed. 11/6: We'll be closed tonight - we expect lots of clouds rolling in after sunset. We'll try again next week!

“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!

Rosette Nebula by space.by.jase

Dragons fighting in space?

Just kidding. These "dragons" are made up of gas and dust in the emission nebula NGC 6188, which is 4000 lightyears away in the Ara constellation!

Image by: Carlos Taylor

Happy Halloween, everyone!

2024 October 27

LDN 43: The Cosmic Bat Nebula Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby; Text: Michelle Thaller (NASA’s GSFC)

Explanation: What is the most spook-tacular nebula in the galaxy? One contender is LDN 43, which bears an astonishing resemblance to a vast cosmic bat flying amongst the stars on a dark Halloween night. Located about 1400 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus, this molecular cloud is dense enough to block light not only from background stars, but from wisps of gas lit up by the nearby reflection nebula LBN 7. Far from being a harbinger of death, this 12-light year-long filament of gas and dust is actually a stellar nursery. Glowing with eerie light, the bat is lit up from inside by dense gaseous knots that have just formed young stars.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241027.html

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.