BA Sidewalk Astronomer

BA Sidewalk Astronomer BASWA builds equipment, tools and educational resources to introduce the handicapped and general public to the beauty and science of our universe.

I have more than once heard persons who knew nothing about the stars, and probably cared less, utter exclamations of surprise and delight when persuaded to look at certain parts of the sky with a good glass, and thereafter manifest an interest in astronomy of which they would formerly have believed themselves incapable. Garrett Putnam Serviss - 1888 "Astronomy with an Opera-Glass"

09/17/2026

Tonight Antares, and then Delta Scorpii, shine to the right of the Moon in early evening.
https://buff.ly/kIyyYT1

09/17/2026
09/17/2026

Are you ready to spend some time Moon-gazing? International Observe the Moon Night is Saturday (September 19), and we’re encouraging everyone to take a moment to step outside, look up and really appreciate Earth’s closest neighbor. The Moon will be in a waxing gibbous phase on that night, which means binoculars or telescopes should show some excellent lunar surface details along the terminator line where the illuminated and dark parts of the Moon meet. 
 
About the image: Astrophotographer Andrew Corkill captured this image of the First Quarter Moon using an iPhone XR, an Explore Scientific ED152 Triplet Refractor and an Explore Scientific 82° Series 18mm Eyepiece. The iPhone was set at 1.9x magnification, and the result is a one-shot photo with no stacking.  

 

09/17/2026

Saturn isn't the only world with rings. 🌌

Far beyond the giant planets, a small body called Chariklo travels around the Sun between Saturn and Uranus.

It's only about 250 kilometers across — yet astronomers discovered in 2013 that it has two narrow rings surrounding it.

Now, those rings appear to have changed.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers observed Chariklo during a stellar occultation, when the tiny object passed in front of a distant star. By measuring how the star's light changed, they could probe the structure of the otherwise invisible rings.

When the new observations were compared with earlier occultations, the two rings showed opposite changes.

The inner ring now appears significantly more opaque, while the outer ring produces a much weaker signal.

Scientists say several explanations are possible, including changes in the ring material itself, differences in particle structure, or genuine evolution of the system.

Whatever the cause, Chariklo is showing that even tiny worlds can have surprisingly dynamic environments. 🔭

09/17/2026

This is the winning image of the 2026 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.

The overall winner this year is 'The Quiet Predator' by Ali Alobaidly, which shows a stream of dark cosmic clouds known as the Shark Nebula, officially LDN 1235.

09/17/2026

As summer comes to an end, the constellations of autumn are moving into prime-time evening viewing hours.
The best known are from Greek mythology: Pegasus, Andromeda, Perseus, Cassiopeia, and Cepheus, all of which stand high overhead in mid-evening.

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