@sjastronomy.bsky.social
We are the San Jose Astronomical Association, bringing astronomy and science to the people of San Jose, the SF Bay Area, and beyond. Come explore the cosmos with us at a star party! 🚀🌙✨🌞🛰🌌🔭 sjaa.net
REMINDER about this Saturday's speaker event:
Sign up at our Meetup: www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy...
#astronomy #space #science #bayarea
Images: (top right) Picture of black hole M87, which is ~6 billion times the mass of our sun. Credit: Event Horizon Telescope. (bottom) Artist depiction of an X-ray binary. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
PUBLIC TALK: March 7, 2026, 7:30 pm
Natasha Abrams is a 5th year astrophysics PhD student at UC Berkeley and will discuss the techniques we use to discover and characterize black holes and explore the frontiers of astrophysics!
🧪 🔭 👩🔬
It didn't help that we lost track of days and posted this late. Our next one is March 1!
SOLAR VIEWING: March 1, 2:00 - 4:00 pm
Waiting your turn to look through a telescope? Check out science stations - fun hands-on activities for engaging with the cosmos! Play a game of Astro Match and explore our neighborhood of planets, stars, nebulae and galaxies. 🔭 #bayarea
SOLAR VIEWING: Tomorrow, February 1, 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Come join us for today’s solar observing session. We expect amazing views of sunspots, solar prominences and filaments through our hydrogen-alpha and white-light filtered telescopes. Check the Meetup link in bio for more information! #bayarea 🔭
PUBLIC TALK: January 3, 2026, 7:30 pm
PhD student Natalie LeBaron will explore how the universe transforms simple hydrogen into the rich diversity of atoms that build planets, life, and everything we see around us. 🔭 🧪 👩🔬 #bayarea
Sign up at our Meetup: www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy...
PUBLIC TALK: December 6, 2025, 7:30 pm
Dr. Zheyuan Zhu will introduce some history and fundamentals in optical imaging. 🔭 #BayArea
Sign up at our Meetup: www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy...
...but the really interesting photo is the second, taken on Friday, 31 October. A strange disturbance can be seen in the comet’s tail! Mike did take a follow-up on 1 November, but the disturbance was already gone. Any thoughts on what happened?
Our members are enjoying this comet season we have been given! Check out these two images of Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) taken by member Mike Madden using his Seestar. The first is from Monday, 27 October... 🔭 🧪
Once you've joined the SJ Astronomy group, the link for the November 15 Starry Nights registration is: www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy...
In order to register to attend you must be a member of the SJ Astronomy Meetup group (it's free): www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy/
Weather permitting, the next Starry Nights public star party will be held on Saturday, November 15. The viewing site, Rancho Canada del Oro Open Space Preserve, is just 30 minutes south of downtown San Jose. #bayarea 🧪 🔭
PUBLIC TALK: November 1, 2025, 7:30 pm
Dr. Bruce Macintosh will discuss the first-ever images of other solar systems – and the technology that has allowed us to discover them, such as the Gemini Planet Imager – as well as the future planet-hunting space telescopes. #bayarea 🔭 🧪
As the month progresses, the comet can be observed low on the northern horizon after sunset. As it gets brighter, viewing should be easy through a pair of binoculars.
Here's the link to an article from @earthskyscience.bsky.social with more details and finder charts.
earthsky.org/space/comet-...
Currently, observers have reported the comet's brightness at magnitude 6.5.
At sunset, Comet Lemmon is below the horizon and rises around 1:30 am. Viewing now requires an early wake-up call, but by 5 am, it will be higher in the sky at an elevation of 30°.
Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) will potentially be the best comet of the year. Favoring Northern Hemisphere observers, it will pass beneath the Big Dipper in early October, brightening as it heads toward peak visibility around October 31. By that time, it might be visible with the unaided eye!
Member Sudhir Bud managed to capture C/2025 A6 Lemmon about a week ago in the eastern skies from Palo Alto, California, around 5 am during a brief dark hour between moonset and sunrise. 🔭 🧪
These transits occur during a six-month window every 15 years, as the Earth passes through the plane of Titan's orbit, which is closely aligned with the plane of Saturn's rings. The first transit of this cycle occurred in April, and the last one was on Sunday, which will not happen again until 2038.
The shadow of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, transited Saturn from Earth's vantage point on October 5, 2025. Luckily, member Christos Gougoussis captured the transit using his Celestron C11 telescope and ZWO ASI462MC camera. 🔭 🧪
Having an unobstructed view of the eastern horizon will allow for observing the Moon/Pleiades pair sooner, as they are lower in the sky. The bright moonlight will wash out any naked eye view of the Pleiades. But if you have binoculars or a telescope, the view will be more favorable.
- Joe Fragola
Mid-occultation will occur around 9:20 pm with the Moon sitting in the middle of the Pleiades cluster at an elevation of almost 11°. The occultation will end around 11 pm with the Moon and Pleiades at an elevation of 29°.
So, if the skies are clear Thursday night, step outside and take a look.
From San Jose, next week's lunar occultation of the Pleiades begins before 8 pm local time, while the Moon is still below the horizon. At Moonrise (8:12 pm), the occultation will continue, but it will still be a while before the Moon climbs high enough in the sky to get a good view.
Occultations are fairly common and can involve different combinations of objects. Lunar occultations occur when the Moon blocks the view of a planet or background star(s). Stellar occultations also happen when the light of a star is blocked by a planet or asteroid.
As the waning gibbous Moon rises on Thursday, October 9, it will be passing in front of the famous Pleiades star cluster (aka Messier 45). This type of event, known as an occultation, occurs when one celestial object temporarily blocks the view of another object. 🔭 🧪
Join SJ Astronomy for our next Starry Nights Star Party - Saturday, October 11, 2025, 7:30 pm. 🔭 🧪
You must be a member of the SJ Astronomy Meetup group to register to attend (it's free): www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy/
Link for October 11 Starry Nights registration: www.meetup.com/sj-astronomy...
Member Brad Haakenson captured this lovely image of the entire Veil Nebula on Monday night, September 22, 2025. It was a beautiful night at Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve – warm with no dew and very clear. The seeing even improved through the night. 🧪 🔭
Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third known interstellar object, discovered in July, and is on a fast approach toward the Sun. It is currently about magnitude 14.8 and located in the constellation of Libra, between Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali.
Comet 3I/ATLAS is getting lower in the sky but should be capturable with a smart scope and would be a good challenge object for larger telescopes in dark skies this week, leading into the new moon.
