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President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: |
Al Meloni Ray Pape Arnie Rosemoff 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 (formerly known as the Willingboro Astronomical Society). Our club is in its 53rd 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 (dues can now be paid through PayPal).
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President: Vice President: Secretary: Treasurer: |
Al Meloni Ray Pape Arnie Rosemoff Wade Evans |
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Announcements Last Update: Monday, June 01, 2020
| June 3 | Venus reaches Inferior Conjunction with the Sun at 1:44 pm EDT. |
| June 5 | Formal Meeting, 7:30 pm at the Virtua Health and Wellness Center in Moorestown, NJ, has been cancelled because of venue restrictions due to coronavirus concerns, as are all meetings there at least until June 2020. |
| June 5 | Full Moon at 3:12 pm EDT in southern Ophiuchus. |
| June 13 | Member Star Watch at Atsion. Due to coronavirus concerns, all organized events in Wharton State Forest have been canceled through June 2020. |
| June 19 | Informal Meeting, 7:30 pm at the Virtua Health and Wellness Center in Moorestown, NJ, has been cancelled because of venue restrictions due to coronavirus concerns, as are all meetings there at least until June 2020. |
| June 20 | Public Star Watch at Batsto. Due to coronavirus concerns, all organized events in Wharton State Forest have been canceled through June 2020. |
| June 20 | Solstice at 5:44 pm EDT, Summer begins for the Northern Hemisphere. |
| June 21 | New Moon at 2:41 am EDT in western Gemini, near the border with Taurus and Orion. |
Photo Spotlight Image posted 5.06.2020
Club member Joe Stieber took this snapshot of the planet Venus in the crescent phase (23% illuminated) at 9:24 pm EDT on May 2, 2020. Venus is now plunging towards inferior conjunction with the Sun on June 3, 2020. Between now and then, the crescent will be shrinking to a thin sliver that's easily visible with a small scope or binoculars — or perhaps even to the keen unaided eye since Venus' apparent diameter will grow to nearly an arc minute. On the evenings of May 21 and 22, Venus and Mercury will pass within 1.5° of each other. At inferior conjunction, Venus will pass 0.49° from the sun (center-to-center), narrowly missing a transit and ending the 8-year repetition cycle that gave us transits at the inferior conjunctions of 2004 and 2012.
This snapshot is a single frame captured with a Canon EOS RP mirrorless digital camera and a Tamron SP 150 to 600 mm f/5-6.3 zoom lens (on a fixed tripod) set to 600 mm focal length. It was exposed 1/2000 second at f/6.3, ISO 6400. To show the crescent, which was just a speck on the original frame (about 0.12 mm or 20 pixels diameter), this view has been cropped to 8.0% of the original linear dimensions.
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date and time, as well as equipment and photo data.
USNO
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(this link may be inoperative as the USNO websites are undergoing
modernization; estimated completion is Summer 2020)