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President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: Starwatch Director: |
Bob Lill Frank Grupico Karen Hagerman Wade Evans Suzanne Leap |
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West Jersey Astronomical Society www.wasociety.us
Welcome to the Official Home Page of the West Jersey Astronomical Society (additionally known as the Willingboro Astronomical Society). Our club is in its 58th year of serving both the public and the amateur astronomers of the Delaware Valley. We have a long history of public education, star parties, interesting meetings, in-depth training and experienced leadership. We are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Click here for membership information. Members in good standing have access to the gated Barnegat Road Observing Site in the dark New Jersey Pines.
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President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: Starwatch Director: |
Bob Lill Frank Grupico Karen Hagerman Wade Evans Suzanne Leap |
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Announcements Last Update: Tuesday, July 01, 2025
| July 2 | Titan Shadow Transit on Saturn, begins in morning twilight at 3:40 am EDT. |
| July 3 | Full Moon at 4:37 pm EDT in Sagittarius |
| July 10 | Earth at Aphelion, 3:54 pm EDT, 94,503,000 miles away from the Sun, which will be in Gemini. |
| July 11 | Formal Meeting at the Virtua Health and Wellness Center, Conference Ctr, Room 155A, Moorestown, NJ, 7:30 pm. Guests are welcome. Note: Both July meetings have been pushed back a week due to the July 4th holiday. |
| July 19 | Public Star Watch at Batsto, beginning at 8:00 pm, no registration required. Check back here on the afternoon of the event for the go/no-go weather call. |
| July 24 | New Moon at 3:11 pm EDT in Cancer. |
| July 24 | The 2025 Stellafane Convention begins in Springfield, VT. Runs through July 27. |
| June 25 | Informal Meeting at the Virtua Health and Wellness Center, Conference Ctr, Room 155A, Moorestown, NJ, 7:30 pm. Guests are welcome. Note: Both July meetings have been pushed back a week due to the July 4th holiday. |
Photo Spotlight Image posted 6.29.2025
This splendid image was captured by club member, Howard Schneck. It contains no less than 6 spiral galaxies! Mouseover for labels (prepared by Howard). Click here, or on the image, for a larger version.
In 1774 Johann Bode first described the two objects in the center of this image as “nebulous patches.” We now know them as Bode’s Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82). Both are spiral galaxies 12 million light-years away and part of the M81 Local Group of galaxies. In 1786, William Hershel discovered NGC 2961, another spiral galaxy which is 210 million light-years away. In 1801 he discovered NGC 3077 and NGC 2976, both spiral galaxies that are also part of the M81 Local Group. Eighty years later Wilhelm Tempel discovered NGC 2959, a spiral galaxy 204 million light-years away. M81 and NGC 2959 are roughly the same size as our own Milky Way galaxy at 87,000 light years across. M82 and NGC 2961 are about half that size, and NGC 3077 and NGC 2976 are one quarter the size of our Milky Way galaxy.
It
was taken on May 27, 2025, at WAS's Barnegat Road Observing Site in South
Jersey. The setup included a ZWO ASIAIR+ controller and a William Optics RedCat
71 telescope with a ZWO ASI2600MC camera, mounted on a Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro
mount. Guiding was handled by a RedCat Uniguide scope and a ZWO ASI120MM-S guide
camera. The total exposure time was only 1 hour, using 60 one-minute exposures.
Processing was done in PixInsight. The field of view is 3.8° x 2.5° with an
image scale of 2.2 arc seconds per pixel. Howard intends to add additional
integration time to this image and republish it to bring out more detail.
Click here for the
previous home page image.
Sky & Telescope's
This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 27 to July 6, 2025.
Get the monthly
Evening Sky Map.
Click to contact the
. Members are encouraged to submit their astronomical images to the
webmaster for inclusion on the WAS Home Page. Be sure to include a description,
date and time, as well as equipment and photo data.
Astrospheric Forecast for the Barnegat Road Observing Site...
Star & Constellation
Pronunciation Guides
United States Naval Observatory, Astronomical Applications
Solar and Lunar Eclipses in 2025
Titan Shadow
Transits in 2025 (EDT), based on this
Bob King S&T article (UT)
