Welcome to the Official Home Page of the West Jersey Astronomical Society (additionally known as the Willingboro Astronomical Society). Our club is in its 59^th 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.

President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: Starwatch Director:

Bob Lill Frank Grupico Karen Hagerman Wade Evans Suzanne Leap

This image captures two open clusters near the foot of Castor in Gemini, the Twins. They're aligned by chance along our line of sight. Messier 35 (upper left, mouseover for labels) is a young, loose open cluster about 2,800 light-years away, spanning roughly 23 light-years and containing several hundred member stars. In contrast, the compact cluster NGC 2158 (lower right) lies far in the background at approximately 15,500 light-years, measures only ~16 light-years across, and is far richer, with several thousand stars, appearing dense due to its great age (1–2 billion years) allowing long term dynamical evolution that has stripped away outer stars and concentrated the remaining core. Though they share the same field of view, the two clusters are separated by more than 13,000 light-years offering a striking example of depth within our Milky Way. Captured in my Mount Laurel, NJ backyard (Bortle 7) with an ASIAIR+ controlling a Celestron EdgeHD 8” aperture, f/10 telescope with a 0.7x focal reducer (1,474 mm FL), and a ZWO ASI2600MC camera riding a Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro mount. Guiding was done with an Orion 60 mm scope and ZWO ASI120MM-S guide camera. Integration time was 2 hours (240 x 30 sec). Calibration was done with Pixinsight using 60 dark, 20 flat and 60 dark-flat sub-frames. The field of view is 0.9° x 0.6° with an image scale of 0.526 arc-seconds per pixel. Click here for a larger version.

Click here for the previous home page image.

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.