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President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: |
Jim Fusco Bob Lill Suzanne Leap Wade Evans |
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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 57th 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: |
Jim Fusco Bob Lill Suzanne Leap Wade Evans |
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Announcements Last Update: Friday, November 22, 2024
| Nov 23 | Public Star Watch at Batsto, beginning at 5:30 pm EST. No registration is required. Check back here on the day of the event for the go/no-go weather call. This will be the last Public Star Watch for 2024. |
| Dec 1 | New Moon at 1:21 am EST in Scorpius, very close to Antares, but the nearby Sun is in Ophiuchus. |
| Dec 6 | Formal Meeting at the Virtua Health and Wellness Center, Conference Ctr, Room 155A, Moorestown, NJ, 7:30 pm. Guests are welcome. Elections for the 2025 officers will be held. |
| Dec 12 | The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks overnight December 12-13. It's typically one of the best meteor showers of the year, but this year, the view will be hampered by a nearly full Moon. |
| Dec 15 | Full Moon at 4:28 pm EDT in Taurus, near Elnath (Beta Tau), Taurus' northern horn tip at one vertex of Auriga's pentagonal stick figure. |
| Dec 20 | Informal Meeting at the Virtua Health and Wellness Center will instead be the member's annual Holiday Dinner at the Legacy Diner in Audubon, NJ. Details reviewed at meetings and on the club Google Group. |
| Dec 21 | Solstice at 4:21 am EST, the Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere. |
Photo Spotlight Image posted 11.11.2024
Club member John McDaniel captured this image of Jupiter on November 3, 2024, around 11:34 pm EST. The Galilean satellite Europa is also visible to the east (left) of the Jovian disc, while Europa's shadow, the dark spot just left of the central meridian, is transiting the disc. The Great Red Spot, indenting the South Equatorial Belt, is also prominent to the right of the central meridian. John used a Celestron Evolution 8 telescope tracking on a ZWO AM5 mount and a ASI678MC CMOS color astronomical camera. He captured about 24,000 frames of video at 360p, keeping just the best 5%. Processing was done with AutoStakkert, RegiStax and Lightroom.
Jupiter will be at opposition on December 7, 2024, when it's nominally closest to earth and at its greatest apparent diameter (48.2") for this apparition, so it's a good time to observe it. For predictions of the ever-changing position of the Jovian satellites, see this Sky & Telescope utility. For Great Red Spot transit times, see this S&T utility. The current longitude for the meandering GRS is available at JUPOS.org.
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Sky & Telescope's
This Week's Sky at a Glance, November 22 to December 1, 2024.
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Evening Sky Map.
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. 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.
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