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Planets Galore! — at the IUSB Observatory, Jan. 29 – IU South Bend Physics & Astronomy Planets Galore! — at the IUSB Observatory, Jan. 29 Posted on January 27, 2025 by jhinnefe Details: The IUSB Observatory will be open, weather permitting, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29. Six planets are visible in the evening sky this week, and we’ll try to see them all through the ...

Here are an image of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS taken Friday night, Oct. 18 (EDT) through the IUSB Observatory's 90mm refractor, and a spectrum of the comet collected Sunday night, Oct. 20 (EDT). Not knowing much about comets, there's little I can say about the spectrum. It clearly shows an emission line at the sodium doublet wavelengths just below 5900 A, though, and also absorption at the Balmer series wavelengths.

Public observing event at the IUSB Observatory, Wednesday, Nov. 15 -- Come and take a look at Saturn and Jupiter through the 16" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope in the IUSB Observatory on the roof of Northside Hall.

Details here: https://blogs.iu.edu/iusbphys/2023/11/14/meet-the-stars-event/

Public observing night -- Wednesday, April 12, 8:30-10:30 p.m. Here are the details:

MTS Event: Wednesday, April 12th (Venus, Mars, and Stars!) – IU South Bend Physics & Astronomy MTS Event: Wednesday, April 12th (Venus, Mars, and Stars!) Posted on April 12, 2023 by jhinnefe CURRENT STATUS: Conditions for the 12th are looking good! Details: The IUSB Observatory will be open, weather permitting, from 8:30-10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12th. Venus will still be high enough to....

Orion Nebula – IU South Bend Physics & Astronomy Orion Nebula Posted on January 25, 2023 by jhinnefe I had hoped to capture an image of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) during the brief break in the clouds on Jan. 23, but it was too low in the sky — barely 10 deg above the horizon. Instead, I took a few photos of the Orion Nebula. The photo below was taken...

Seems as if it's been cloudy for weeks, but we did make some good use of the observatory this fall. Here are some spectra obtained with our Shelyak Alpy 600 spectroscope and reduced with Shelyak's Demetra software...

"Meet the Stars" event tonight - Nov. 9, 2022 -- at the IUSB Observatory, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Details at https://blogs.iu.edu/iusbphys/2022/11/08/mts-event-wednesday-november-9th/
Jupiter and Saturn will again be the major attractions.

MTS Event: Wednesday, November 9th – IU South Bend Physics & Astronomy MTS Event: Wednesday, November 9th Posted on November 8, 2022 by hpscott CURRENT STATUS: Conditions for the 9th are looking good! Details: The IUSB Observatory will be open, weather permitting, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 9th. Come to the elevators on the 1st floor of Northside Hall a...

Please note that we've moved this event to Saturday, Feb. 22! The forecast for Sunday night is pretty dismal. Check the WordPress site (http://iusbphys/wordpress.com/mts) before coming to campus on Saturday.

Meet the Stars Next Meet the Stars Event: MOVED! to Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, starting at 8:00 p.m. Current Status: The current forecast (as of 2/21) is iffy for Saturday, but worse for Sunday. So, we’ll tr…

Public observing night at the IUSB Observatory next Sunday, Feb. 23, weather permitting...

Meet the Stars Next Meet the Stars Event: Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020, starting at 8:00 p.m. Current Status: The current forecast (as of 2/16) is 35% cloud cover, but we’ll see… “Meet the Stars”…