STEM Education, Astrophysics Research, Astrophotography, and Outreach located at 24 Park Ave., Bridgewater MA. You'll find us on the two outdoor balconies on the 5th floor, and you'll find our official website here: https://www.bridgew.edu/center/case/observatory .
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We'll be open the following Wednesdays this summer, weather allowing. Please check back here the afternoon of each event for the weather decision.
o May 27, 9:00 – 10:15 pm.
o June 10 and 24, 9:15 – 10:30 pm.
o July 8 and 22, 9:15 – 10:30 pm.
o August 5 and 19, 8:45 – 10:00 pm.
Messier Catalog at Uniform Scale
Image Credit: Sylvain Villet
Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
Explanation: What are some of the most interesting astronomical objects you can see in the night sky? Armed with a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you can look for the very popular objects in the Messier Catalog. Most of them, but not all, are also visible from the southern half of the Earth. The featured image shows all 110 objects in the catalog at uniform scale – the same magnification. Charles Messier created the catalog in the 18th century. He was interested in comets, and his catalog was a list of known comet-like “objects to avoid” in the sky when observing or hunting for comets. The deep sky objects in the catalog include a supernova remnant (the Crab Nebula, M1), other galaxies (such as Andromeda, M31), nebulae (e.g. the Orion Nebula, M42, a star-forming region) and stellar clusters (such as the Pleiades, M45, a bright young open cluster).
This observation features dunes at high latitude with frost well into summer. This image footprint is in Planum Boreum at the South Pole of Mars. With this picture, we can acquire repeat observations to track changes over time.
ID: ESP_076979_2650
date: 28 December 2022
altitude: 319 km
Supernova in a Sideways Spiral
Video Credit: Hunter Outten & Kaleb Jordan
Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)
Explanation: A long time ago, in a distant galaxy, a massive star was destroyed in a supernova explosion. The light of this event travelled for tens of millions of years and reached Earth last week as Supernova 2026kid. The featured video shows a time-lapse over three nights of the host galaxy NGC 5907, an edge-on spiral also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy, as the supernova appears and becomes brighter. (The occasional streaks are satellites in Earth orbit.) At its brightest, a supernova can outshine the sum of all other stars in its galaxy. Supernova 2026kid appears relatively dim, probably because we are seeing it through the edge-on disk of the galaxy. Such explosions typically happen about once per century in galaxies similar to the Milky Way, and their light can take months to fade away. The brightest supernova in recorded history was SN 1006; it is reported to have been brighter than Venus, and even visible in the sky during daytime.
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Another image never shared from our old telescope: The Wizard Nebula, taken and processed in 2020 by Ellen Pariser, post-processed in 2026 to bring out more background.
The Retrograde Dance of Saturn and Neptune
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN)
Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)
Explanation: What does it mean for Saturn and Neptune to be in retrograde? Featured is a composite of images taken over 34 nights from May 2025 to February 2026 tracing Saturn (brighter, foreground) and Neptune (dimmer, background). Over that time, the two planets exhibited retrograde motion, meaning they appeared to move backward in the sky. This apparent backwards motion occurs when Earth overtakes the slower outer planets as they orbit the Sun. Imagine the Solar System is a running track. Earth “runs” faster along the inside of the track compared to the outer planets. As Earth approaches, aligns, and then “laps” the outer planets, they change position from ahead to behind from the Earth’s perspective. This perspective shift is what causes the outer planets to change position in the night sky. An animation corresponding to today’s image shows Saturn and Neptune’s months-long dance across the northern night sky. Saturn stepped from the Pisces constellation into Aquarius and back again while Neptune remained in Pisces. This is the closest Saturn and Neptune have been in the sky since their last conjunction in 1989.
As we get our new research telescope ready (collimate, sort out guiding, etc.), we'd like to celebrate the old one. Here's an image of the Orion Nebula taken 11/11/2017 with our old 14" Celestron. Hundreds of 5-second images were taken to avoid saturation of bright stars, then stacked for 39 minutes of total exposure in luminance, red, green, and blue filters, overlaid to create a color image. Our then-student Ellen Pariser processed this. Today, I tweaked it a wee bit to bring out more cloud details in the background (only took me 20 minutes in GIMP).
A few things of note: this nebula is about 1500 light years away from us, and it's not alone. It's part of the giant Orion Molecular Cloud Complex which basically takes up the entire constellation of Orion in the night sky. It's a region of space that forms new stars. Parts of it with hot, bright stars are lit up and were recognized as "nebulae" already hundreds of years ago. The darker parts of the cloud could not then be seen.
Our upgraded research telescope is now operational! Our first light image is of globular cluster Messier 13! This is a simple, unguided, 60-second image through our luminance filter.
The scope needs collimation - that's why the stars have little tails. We'll handle that this week.
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The Bubble Nebula, imaged at the Bridgewater State University Observatory, August 3, 2016. Processed by Rydia Hayes-Huer, post-processed by BEAR Team. Credit: BSU Experimental Astrophysics Research (BEAR) Team. Originally imaged in luminance and photometric red, green, and blue filters. Combines about 50 minutes of exposure time. Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 14. Camera: Apogee Alta U47.
The Bubble Nebula is about 9,000 light-years away from us in the direction of the constellation Cassiopeia. Stars produce stellar wind as particles stream from their surfaces, and extremely hot, high-mass stars produce a lot of it - enough to blow bubbles in space, like the one we see here. The area is embedded in a molecular cloud which glows red due to hydrogen gas, excited by the high-energy light emitted by the hot star within the nebula.
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Over approximately 10 days, our Artemis II crew successfully completed a voyage around the Moon. They gave us stunning photos of the far side of the Moon, Earth, and a solar eclipse, along with inspirational messages, laughs, and even a few tears. Let's recap the Artemis II mission.
First step: fit check.
Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen got suited up and had their spacesuits checked to make sure they were ready to go to space.
Once their custom-fit suits were checked and the astronauts were ready, they walked out to greet the crowd at our Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After saying hi to everyone, including their families, the quartet made their way onto the Orion spacecraft that would carry them to the Moon.
The astronauts entered Orion and completed more checks. Next, the closeout crew closed the final hatch on Orion.
Then, it was time for the big moment – well, the first big moment of the mission: Liftoff!
Orion was on its way to the Moon, and the astronauts aboard had plenty to do.
They exercised…
and conducted interviews…
all while showing the camaraderie and collaboration that make missions possible.
And that means Rise, too! The little plush zero gravity indicator was a constant companion throughout the mission.
Finally, it was time for them to go around the Moon and observe its far side. As the astronauts began to describe features of the Moon that they saw, they had a heartfelt moment when suggesting that a crater be named after Reid's late wife, Carroll.
During the lunar flyby, the foursome experienced a solar eclipse that only they could see!
All throughout the mission, there were many moments of "Moon Joy."
After the crew completed their observation duties, it was time to start the journey back home.
On April 10, the Artemis II astronauts safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing the mission to a triumphant end.
These GIFs are just a taste of the amazing imagery and memorable moments from Artemis II. Relive it all on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/NASA
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
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