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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, February 16, 2024
| Feb 16 | Informal Meeting at the Virtua Health and Wellness Center, Conference Ctr, Room 155A, Moorestown, NJ, 7:30 pm. Guests are welcome. |
| Feb 24 | Full Moon at 7:30 am EST in Leo. |
| Mar 1 | Formal Meeting at the Virtua Health and Wellness Center, Conference Ctr, Room 155A, Moorestown, NJ, 7:30 pm. Guests are welcome. |
| Mar 10 | Daylight Saving Time begins, 2:00 am EST becomes 3:00 am EDT ("Spring ahead, Fall backwards"). |
| Mar 10 | New Moon at 5:00 am EDT in Aquarius. |
Photo Spotlight Image posted 1.25.2024
Club member Howard Schneck captured this image of the beautiful Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31, which is is a barred spiral galaxy about 2.5 million light-years away and 150,000 light-years across. It is one of the farthest objects that can be seen by the unaided eye, appearing as a small smudge of light. It is very similar in size to our Milky Way with approximately 1 trillion solar masses. Dark dust lanes showing the spiral structure are very evident in this image. It is also on a collision course with our Milky Way in 4 billion years! M31 has a number of satellite galaxies, two of the largest being M110 (above center) and M32 (just below the galaxy core). Mouseover for annotations, click here for a larger version.
The image was captured using a ZWO ASIAIR+ and a William Optics RedCat 71 with a ZWO ASI2600MC camera riding a Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro German equatorial mount. Guiding was done with a RedCat Uniguide and an ASI120MM-S guide camera. Integration time was 6.3 hrs. Post-processing was done with PixInsight. The FOV is 3.1 x 2.1 degrees and has an image scale of 2.2 arc-seconds per pixel.
Click here for the
previous home page image.
Sky & Telescope's
This Week's Sky at a Glance, February 16 to 25, 2024.
The USNO's
The Sky This Week,
February 13, 2024,
Looked Over, Then Overlooked?
Get the monthly
Evening Sky Map.
Bob King at S&T,
Best Comets for 2024.
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
(URL still okay)
Lunar X Predictions for 2024
