Here is the picture for the last message (I hope)

The Webb telescope has pretty exotic engineering. The mirrors are constructed out of a metal called Beryllium and coated in a thin layer of gold. Beryllium is very stable in cold temperatures. It is r

As Bruce Powers spoke about at last Thursday BBAA general meeting, Virginia State Parks are embracing the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) standard for meeting the requirements to become Dark

Moon is up so I'm back to visual. Seeing turned out better than expected last night. I chased down a fair number of doubles and variables from Kent's last observing session - thank you Kent. Moved ove

Despite a 40% moon last night was very clear from a reasonably dark sky at a friend’s place in NC. Was it ever cold, getting down to 26 degrees. I was testing a rare telescope I’m going to put up for

I found the location Chuck and I were trying to remember last night during the BBAA meeting, during the discussion of a new star party location. It is a YMCA campground in Currituck County, south of M

If you missed the club meeting and wanted to watch or listen to the audio we have been uploading the recording and linking them on our website. Click here http://backbayastro.org/documents.php and go

Topic: BBAA Start Time: Jan 6, 2022 07:30 PM First copy the Passcode, then click on the link to view the meeting. Access Passcode: BBAA_001 Meeting Recording: https://vccs.zoom.us/rec/share/OB46tRVANx

It really wasn’t easy – https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/nasas-new-james-webb-space-telescope-hunky-dory-after-problems-fixed Although NASA made it look easier than it was. Big step – the most com

On NASA TV, app and website, Saturday 1/8/22 no earlier than 9 AM EST for live coverage of final steps of deployment completion (!), followed by a media briefing at about 1:30 PM, per NASA news releas

Got a little time on M78 last night. The clouds rolled in around 11pm so I didn't get as much data as I wanted but you take what you can get clear sky wise these days. Cheers Ian https://ianstewart.ze

I was hoping to get one last view of Comet Leonard after sunset last night. At 6:00 pm it was only 5 degrees above the western horizon. I rode my bike to a neaby park with a good horizon, armed with a

Sometimes it is good too get the big picture The Planets Today : A live view of the solar system The Planets Today : A live view of the solar system The planets today shows you where the planets are n

Went over to Jim Tallman's place out in Chesapeake tonight as he has a low western horizon. Actually he has a superb east and southern sky too. The goal this evening was to see the thin crescent Venus

Professor Leah Flax sent us an email informing us that the TCC campus has been closed to everyone until at least Jan 18th due to COVID. The TCC president will reevaluate the situation then, but as of

The Webb heat shield deployment (as shown here https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html ) has been stopped at the step for day 6 for about 3 days now. Here’s why: https://www.cbsnews.

The James Webb’s first image is back: https://i.redd.it/enppk11y8y781.jpg Happy New Year everyone! Ted

For Webb watchers try this site: Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb 'WhereIsWebb' shows the status of Webb on its journey to L2 orbit. The page constantly updates as Webb travels, ...

If you get a chance to look, the sun today has a complete catalog of what you can see on the sun. Big prominence, many smaller ones filaments, numerous hot spots and sun spot groups. Things are defini

A beautiful evening last night. Got some time in Ha on IC443 or the Jellyfish Nebula. Haven't imaged this in quite awhile. I had a hard time fitting it all into the field of view. Cheers Ian IC443