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Welcome to the Westport Astronomical Society

  • Joshua Tan

    Joshua Tan Join us LIVE in the classroom for this great lecture!

  • The FINAL Giving Day 2023

    The FINAL Giving Day 2023 The LAST Giving Day is coming soon and we're getting a new, awesome telescope (with your help)!

  • Dr. Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla

    Dr. Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla Explore the solar system's biggest object like never before!

  • Regina Caputo

    Regina Caputo Dark matter is 27% of the universe and it's still one of the great unknowns. Or is it?

  • International Observe the Moon Night 2023

    International Observe the Moon Night 2023 Come see the Moon on an international night dedicated to lunar love!

  • Learn Astrophotography

    Learn Astrophotography Westport Observatory members can learn from our best

  • Keep Science In Your Community

    Keep Science In Your Community Become a member of the Westport Astronomical Society and explore the night sky

  • A connection with the Cosmos

    A connection with the Cosmos Find your place in the Universe

About Us

 

SEE YOUR UNIVERSE EVERY CLEAR WEDNESDAY NIGHT AFTER 8 PM

(After sunset in the summer)

 

For up-to-the-minute updates on opening the observatory, please check our Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, Tumblr and Meetup feeds.

 

We hope to see you soon under the bright skies of Westport!

 

 


 

Since 1975, the Westport Astronomical Society has brought the wonders of the night sky to the thousands who have visited the observatory. We’re an all volunteer-run, non-profit organization that’s free and open to the public every Wednesday night from 8-10 pm if the skies are clear. Remember, near the summer solstice it doesn’t get dark until late, so please plan to come after sunset.

 

The Dome Observatory covers a 14″ Celestron EdgeHD purchased in 2019 on top of a Astrophysics 1200 German Equatorial mount with an Explore Scientific 102mm f/7 Essential Apochromatic ED Triplet Refractor piggybacked on top. The lawn regularly hosts the HUGE 25″ Obsession telescope, one of the largest in Connecticut. You can also occasionally find us doing sidewalk astronomy in the community with various 8-10″ dobsonian telescopes and we really love viewing the sun with the Lunt LS100Tha double stacked solar telescope.

 

WAS has free monthly meetings with experts at the top of their fields. We feature speakers from the Hayden Planetarium, The American Museum of Natural History, Yale, NYU, UConn, MIT, Wesleyan, Columbia and educators from all over the globe who enrich our community with cutting-edge discussions on cosmology, physics, and astronomy. Additionally, there are additional special, private events scheduled throughout the year for our members and supporters.

 


 

Please consider supporting WAS and help us keep science in the community!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Westport Astronomical Society Free Monthly Lectures and Events

  • February 21, 8pm
  • March 21, 8pm
  • April 18, 8pm
  • May 16, 8pm
  • June 20, 6pm
  • July 18, 8pm
  • August 15, 8pm
  • September 19, 8pm
  • October 17, 8pm
  • October 21, 8pm
  • November 21, 8pm
  • December 19, 8pm


Professor Joshua Tan, LaGuardia Community College/CUNY- Our Galaxy Was A Quasar

 
Detailing the evidence that our galaxy was once a quasar, I’ll look at the history of quasars, how we came to understand what they are, and how we came to understand that they have something to say about our own galaxy.
 
 
A Westport Observatory favorite, Joshua Tan has spoken at WAS twice and was scheduled for a third time until we had to cancel as the pandemic shut down in-person visits with us all in 2019. We’re very excited to welcome him and you back in the WAS classroom this February!
 
 
Professor Tan is an optical astronomer by training, intensely interested in short-period binary millisecond pulsars. Aside from that, open problems in binary modeling, neutron star physics, and three-body dynamics occupy most of his research thinkspace. Recently, he became entangled with a project to commission a research and teaching telescope at Grand Mesa Observatory outside of Grand Junction, Colorado with remote access observing from New York City, either from the Astrophysics Division at the American Museum of Natural History or from the comfort of the observer’s own home! The telescope is now operational and contributing light curves to the database of the American Association of Variable Star Observers.

Dr. Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla, NASA Project Scientist for the Solar Orbiter Collaboration

 

Dr. Teresa Nieves-Chinchilla is a research astrophysics in the Heliophysics Science Division of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), NASA Project Scientist for the Solar Orbiter Collaboration and Adjunct Profesor at the Catholic University of America. She has over 17 years of experience in the study electromagnetic fields, space plasmas and energetic particles as they relate to the understanding of the properties of large-scale structures of the solar wind. Prior to joining GSFC’s Heliophysics Science Division in 2009, through the NASA Post-doctoral Program (NPP), she worked from 2006 to 2009 studying including the temperature and electron density properties in Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) using data from the WIND spacecraft. Dr. Nieves Chinchilla has over 70 publications in professional journals that includes the Solar Physics Journal, Space Weather Journal, Astrophysical Journal and IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. Dr. Nieves-Chinchilla earned her Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Alcala de Henares University in Madrid, Spain, in 2004.

 

Dr. Regina M Caputo, NASA Research AST, Fields and Particles – Dark Matter Discoveries

 

Originally from the southern Colorado town of Pueblo, I attended the Colorado School of Mines and graduated in 2006 with a B.S. in Engineering Physics and minor in Math/Computer Science.

I received my Ph. D. from Stony Brook University in 2011 in particle physics using data from the ATLAS experiment at CERN.

After graduating, I joined the ATLAS group at the Universität Mainz as a Postdoctoral Researcher working on numerous data analyses, detector operations and upgrades. In 2014, I moved to the University of California Santa Cruz where I joined the Fermi-LAT collaboration. Thus started my work in the exciting world of gamma-ray astrophysics!

I became a research scientist at the University of Maryland working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 2017 and in 2018 I was hired as a Civil Servant Scientist at GSFC.

I’m interested in dark matter searches, searches for new physics and all the astrophysics one must understand before discovering something new. 

I am currently the PI of AstroPix: Silicon Pixel detectors in space and a mission concept submitted in the 2021 MIDEX Announcement of Opportunity, AMEGO-X; the Swift Observatory Project scientist and the ComPair balloon project manager. 

 

Coming Soon!

 

The Westport Astronomical Society Pre Summer Solstice Election and Picnic!

 

Join the druids and feast upon a potluck of wonderful mystery meats and odd charred proteins cooked to perfection on the WAS Grill of Carbonation as we elect the next Westport Astronomical Society Board of Directors!

 

Charles Liu – 
 College of Staten Island
 City University of New York

Charles Liu, College of Staten Island City University of New York – Cosmic Evolution with the James Webb Space Telescope

 

The Westport Astronomical Society welcomes back for his second visit, 5 years to the day – Dr. Charles Liu!

 

Dr. Liu is an extragalactic observational astronomer.  His research focuses on colliding galaxies, starburst galaxies, and the star formation history of the universe; and it also wanders into the realm of quasars and active galactic nuclei.  He also has a great love of teaching – informal as well as formal – and he feels a great need to help make the scientific community a better place for all people who wish to be a part of it.  He is a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society, and he currently serves as chair of the department of physics and astronomy at CUNY College of Staten Island and as president of the Astronomical Society of New York.

 

Coming Soon!

 

BOB MEADOWS!

The BOB MEADOWS STELLAFANE REPORT!

 

Westport Observatory Director BOB MEADOWS returns from the 87th Convention of Amateur Telescope Makers on Breezy Hill in Springfield, Vermont with all the latest and greatest innovations in amateur astronomy.

 

Coming Soon!

 

The Moon as seen from the Westport Observatory on October 21, 2023

International Observe the Moon Night

 

International Observe the Moon Night depends on when the moon is in the first quarter. This unofficial holiday was created to spread more awareness about the moon and its importance. We open the Westport Observatory and take out the scopes to celebrate the moon with the entire world!

 

The moon plays a major role in life on Earth—in fact, Earth wouldn’t be able to function properly without the moon. The tides would be few and far between, we wouldn’t have an eclipse (lunar or solar), and our nights would be a lot darker.

 

 

 

Coming Soon!

 

 

 

The Westport Astronomical Society Pre-Winter Solstice Holiday Party!

 

 

 

Sky Forecast at the Observatory

Visual astronomy only works if you can see the sky! Astronomers, check these links to plan your observing:  
• WAS on Weather Underground • Hourly Astronomy Conditions  
• NWS Satellite Animation Loops  
• Transparency Animation
  • Seeing Animation

Become a Member

Since 1975, the Westport Astronomical Society has been introducing new generations to the wonders of the night sky. Become a member today for special access to members-only benefits while helping support science in your community.

Become a Member

Directions & Talk to Us

We want to see you here at the Westport Observatory. Get directions and come to our events!

Directions/Talk To Us

The Latest from the Observatory

Tweets by @westportskyguys

Live AllSky Camera

Weather at WAS

Westport Observatory Weather

January 2023 – Dr. Bob Dempsey – The Blue Screen of Death – The near loss of the ISS

https://youtu.be/2cggEStywv8
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