RASC Calgary Centre

A telescopic photo of a red nebula. There's a bright star in its center and a thin, irregular dark cloud of dust cuts across it horizontally.

Here's a nebula known as Rodgers-Campbell-Whiteoak 2, but it's better known as the head of the Seagull Nebula, which is huge and pretty much out of this image. 🔭

First rain/hail storm and shelf cloud of the season. Note the ‘brownage’ in the first photo. Looking east from south of Langdon, 3:10-3:19 pm. #abstorm

Deep Sage Nine Starcast Episode 037 Go Dark Hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss the importance of preserving pristine night skies while highlighting International Dark Sky Week, occurring April 13th to 20th, 2026, through community advocacy, citizen science, and local astronomical events. Episode Links:  International Dark Sky Week (official):  Crestone Dark Sky :   Globe at Night App: Sky Quality Meter:

Deep Sage Nine Starcast Episode 037

Go Dark Hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss the importance of preserving pristine night skies while highlighting International Dark Sky Week, occurring April 13th to 20th, 2026, through community advocacy, citizen science, and local astronomical events.…

The aurora last night in Beaver, Alaska was just incredible. This is a real-time video (not sped up) of the crazy motion I saw. Also, look how BRIGHT it is, wow!

This frames the stars of the northern autumn sky and Milky Way setting over Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a U.N. World Heritage Site, in southern Alberta near Fort MacLeod. Technical -This is a blend of: — A stack of 4 x 1-minute exposures, tracked for the sky, with no filter. At f/2.8 and ISO 1600. — A stack of 2 x 2-minute exposures, tracked for the sky with a Maven 20nm H-Alpha filter for the red nebulas. At f/2.8 and ISO 3200. — A stack of 3 x 30-second exposures, tracked for the sky with a Maven StarWalker diffusion filter for the star glow effect. At f/2.8 and ISO 1600. — A stack of 3 x 2-minute exposures, untracked for the ground, with no filter, taken with the Moon in the east behind the camera about 5º up at this point and in some cloud but clear enough to light the scene. At ISO 1600 and at f/8 , for depth of field.

This frames the stars of the northern autumn sky and Milky Way setting over Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a U.N. World Heritage Site, in southern Alberta near Fort MacLeod. Technical -This is a blend of: — A stack of 4 x 1-minute exposures, tracked for the sky, with no filter. At f/2.8 and ISO 1600. — A stack of 2 x 2-minute exposures, tracked for the sky with a Maven 20nm H-Alpha filter for the red nebulas. At f/2.8 and ISO 3200. — A stack of 3 x 30-second exposures, tracked for the sky with a Maven StarWalker diffusion filter for the star glow effect. At f/2.8 and ISO 1600. — A stack of 3 x 2-minute exposures, untracked for the ground, with no filter, taken with the Moon in the east behind the camera about 5º up at this point and in some cloud but clear enough to light the scene. At ISO 1600 and at f/8 , for depth of field.

Two versions, with and without labels, of the autumn stars and Milky Way setting over the prairie landscape at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in southern Alberta, at moonrise on Feb. 5.
Details in the Alt Text.

That place is amazing!

Free #astronomy talk in Strathmore February 20: Exploring the northern lights along the coast of Norway. Speaker: @amazingskyguy.bsky.social

And how is Dr Ghent? 😜

This obviously complicates things. We must also remember that bunting nestlings learn the northern stars including the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia as way markers for navigation.

12 STEM Activities for Lunar New Year - Year of the Horse Science | Science Buddies Blog 12 free science and engineering activities to celebrate Lunar New Year with STEM!

Celebrate Lunar New Year and the Year of the Horse with these free science and engineering activities for enriching hands-on STEM. www.sciencebuddies.org/blog/lunar-n... via @sciencebuddies.bsky.social #STEM #SciEd #ScienceProjects #SciChat

M34 is an open cluster located about 1500 ly away in the constellation of Perseus.

It has a higher average metallicity than the Sun, meaning it has slightly more elements heavier than helium than the Sun does. #astronomy

🔭

Tagging @calgaryresponse.bsky.social

M23 is an open cluster located about 2000 ly away in the constellation of Sagitarius.

The bright star to the upper right is a 6th magnitude star (about as dim as a star can get and still visible to the unaided eye) and is only 330ly away. #astronomy

Repeat of what I posted on LinkedIn on Thursday, but worth putting out there for BlueSky too. A thread.. 🧵

February is Black History Month in Canada. It started yesterday, February 1. This shouldn't be your reminder that we have #BHM, but it might be and I'm going to help you out. 1/

NyxSat: The New Italian-Chilean Nanosatellite for Monitoring Light Pollution

edunews24.it/ricerca/nyxs...

Gorgeous!

A bright full moon lights up a trail through the snowy forest to almost as bright as day.

Snow Moon on the trail just across from my house.

A telescopic image of the full Moon showing smooth, dark lunar plains and bright impact craters.

Fully Moon, baby! 🔭

Going Wild Brian Keating - Dalhousie Community Association An inspiring evening focused on wild places near and far and the importance of protecting our natural spaces.

This just went live yesterday! If you are around & in Calgary on March 26, it would be fantastic to see you there!

www.dalhousiecalgary.ca/events/brian...

What's the point of going back to the moon? | CBC News Artemis II is set to blast off to the moon in early February with four astronauts, including the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen. But we've already been to the moon, so why are we going back? Do...

We’ve already been to the moon, so why are we going again? Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen is preparing for flyby in early February. cbc.ca/news/science... #astronomy #NASA #NASAMoonCrew #science #SciChat

A very nearly full Moon with bright impact craters and smooth, dark lunar plains.

The Moon tonight is very nearly full (99.3%). 🔭

A telescopic image of the planet Jupiter showing brown, white and tan stripes of clouds. The Great Red Spot is visible just to the lower right of the right hand dark brown stripe.

A telescopic image of the Moon in the waxing gibbous phase showing many impact craters and smooth, dark lunar plains.

The Moon and Jupiter are close together in the sky right now. Here's how they looked (separately) in just now with my telescope. 🔭

🔭

#astronomy

YouTube video by EAI - European Astrobiology Institute EAI Seminars: The Astrobiological Potential of Venus

Attention astrobiology nerds:
The talk I gave on Tuesday for the European Astrobiology Institute “The Astrobiological potential of Venus” is now online.
🧪👽🔭
youtu.be/f941vluwtFI?...

Screenshot from publisher's website showing the article title "Assessing and mapping taxon-specific effects of ecological light pollution for environmental impact analysis".

New paper by @travislongcore and collaborators: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320726000169

#LightPollution #Lighting #Ecology #Night

Canada’s next eye on the Moon Western University wins a CSA contract to develop the Dual Sensor Multispectral Imager, a camera system designed to hunt for water ice on the Moon.

Canada’s next eye on the Moon - Western University and partners win Canadian Space Agency contract for Lunar imager. spaceq.ca/canadas-next... #CdnSci #CSA #science #AstroPhysics #SciChat

🔭