Mohawk Valley Astronomical Society - MVAS

09/26/2026

Another milestone achieved...
✅ Ground stations ready to receive massive amounts of data -- about 1.4 Terabytes (TB) every day -- from the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Large file incoming 📡

Ground systems worldwide supporting the Roman Space Telescope have confirmed the ability to receive the 1.4 terabytes
of daily data!

Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/4ykCGB2

09/25/2026

Eyes to the skies, fellow astronomers...
There's a full moon on the rise - check out the full Harvest Moon after sunset on Saturday and take a look nearby as planet Saturn makes its grand entrance!
Of course, weather forecast calls for clouds (figures 😕) but just in case be prepared 🙂.

There’s a full Moon rising. 🌕🍂

The Harvest Moon is the full Moon that occurs closest to the fall equinox. This year, it falls on Saturday, Sept. 26. As the Harvest Moon rises in the east shortly after sunset, Saturn will appear nearby.

Take a moment to look up and enjoy the view.

09/25/2026

A great size perspective of the size of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft that carried NASA astronauts into space during the early space program. Quite the difference!!

The relative sizes of the one-man Mercury spacecraft, the two-man Gemini spacecraft, and the three-man Apollo spacecraft. Also show are line drawings of the launch vehicles (Saturn V, Titan II and Atlas-D) to show their relative size and the position of the spacecraft at launch. This is an old NASA illustration (1964) so some details, such as the shape of the front egress hatch on the lunar module were changed in the actual flown spacecraft.

NASA id: S64-22331

09/25/2026

Piecing together the evolution of the Perseus galaxy cluster over billions of years...

09/24/2026

Potential northern lights tonight -- WKTV's Bill Kardas is monitoring!

Northern lights tonight? A minor geomagnetic storm is in the forecast tonight, peaking near midnight EDT. If the forecast is accurate, it will be a camera only kind of event.

I'll be watching the data tonight just in case this one overperforms. We have crystal clear skies and a chilly night expected!

If I'm able to spot the northern lights on Smith Hill, I'll send out an alert on the WKTV Weather App.

09/24/2026

An up close, infrared view of Messier 82 (M82) - the Cigar Galaxy - helping solve the mysteries of its structure, courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope.

09/24/2026

Fun look at being a NASA Flight Director for the ISS.

09/23/2026

Meet planet Uranus, image courtesy of the Voyager 2 spacecraft taken in January, 1986 during the only close flyby of the planet ever by a spacecraft. It took 143 years for us to get this view since it was discovered in Sept 1846.

Whoomp there it is!

After two astronomers, Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams, independently calculated its predicted location, Johann Gottfried Galle found the planet Neptune 180 years ago on Sept 23, 1846.

In 1989 when Voyager 2 became the first—and so far only—spacecraft to visit Neptune, it took thousands of images of Neptune, its rings, and its moons, including this one.

09/23/2026

Happy Autumnal Equinox fellow astronomers, aka the official start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere!

Crisp air. Crunchy leaves. Cozy sweaters. 🍂

The autumnal equinox happens tonight at 8:05 p.m. EDT, officially kicking off the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere. But what exactly causes the seasons? It's all about that tilt!