Phillips Exeter Academy Grainger Observatory

10/10/2026

On this day in 2024 we were given a fabulous geomagnetic storm and a giant auroral display here that evening. These are photos taken while looking to the north over the soccer fields towards the observatory.

Nikon D9 20mm.

10/07/2026

Enjoyed the lunar occultation of Jupiter on Tuesday morning, though not from the observatory which does not have a view that low to the horizon.... I went up the path a ways to a field that has an unobstructed easterly view and setup a portable scope there. Unsurprisingly, no one joined me at 3am for this! The view was spectacular, complete with the last of the cold crickets chirping and the owls hooting in the distance. Three photos for you: one with an overexposed Moon to allow you to see the moons of Jupiter. The others are a regular exposure to show the lunar and Jovian details.

10/01/2026

Exeter, NH: This one is a little less appealing in terms of timing..... ;-) If you like to get up early, then this one is for you.

The Moon will be occulting Jupiter on the morning of October 6th
at the lovely hour of 4:25am or so for Exeter. Best views will be just before the event... or you will not see Jupiter again until about 5:30am. The Moon will be almost perfectly due East and 23 degrees above the horizon... an easy target with binoculars and low power scopes.

Right now, the weather is looking good! And that could easily change.

09/28/2026

This recent nor'easter has given us 1.46" if rain thus far, and it's still coming down. Much needed!

09/22/2026

Wishing you all a happy and joyous Equinox Day (Autumnal for the northern hemisphere and Vernal for the southern hemisphere). May you enjoy the change of seasons.

09/13/2026

Birds aren't the only ones on the move this fall… Some bats migrate too! 🦇

Each September, species like the hoary bat, silver-haired bat, and eastern red bat take flight, heading south to warmer climates in the U.S. and Mexico, where insects are still active. They follow natural routes like tree lines, rivers, and coastlines, navigating the night just like birds.

As bats begin their journey this fall, remember: Lights out for the birds… AND the bats. Visit https://bit.ly/4sz9Zwt to learn more. ✨

09/13/2026

An animated loop of the motion of Barnard’s Star. This star is relatively close to us, about 5.96 light-years away from our Sun, making it the fourth nearest star to us (other than the group comprised of Alpha Centauri and friends). To our 0.7m telescope this is about as bright an object as we can image without overwhelming the detector: Barnard’s Star has a visual magnitude of +9.5. Its motion is about 10.3 arcseconds per year: fast! … and easily noticed with telescopic observations. Relative to our Sun, Barnard’s Star has the greatest proper motion. All sorts of studies have been done on this object, so check that out on sites like Wikipedia. This image is a composition of four years of data (2022, 2033, 2025, and 2026. You will see as the images blink, the varying sky conditions caused by weather, moonlight, and even a satellite or two.

09/12/2026

NGC 6888, or the Crescent Nebula, is a well known and well studied object in the constellation of Cygnus. A large region of gas which the star WR 136 had tossed out many years ago is now being excited by the same star's faster and more recent stellar winds. We see this as the arc of excited gas in this image taken with the 0.7m telescope last night using the narrow wavelength band of emissions from Hydrogen gas, called Hydrogen-alpha (656.3nm in the red region of the visible spectrum). This is a 30 minute integration with the imager running at -25 degrees Celsius . This nebula is about 5000 light-years distant.

08/30/2026

Launch Morning! watch live:

Tune in to watch our newest orbiting observatory launch to space. O...

08/26/2026

A hugely important telescope launch coming in the next few days. What this scope will do is amazing.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrived Tuesday to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy’s Space Center in Florida, just days before its scheduled launch.