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Wilton Observatory

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Wilton Observatory

The Wilton Observatory represents a new dawn in educational excellence, opening pathways of exploration for the next generation of great explorers!

05/06/2026

Galaxies are large collections of stars (and their solar systems), gas, dust, and dark matter all gravitationally bound and moving through the Universe together. There are multiple types of galaxies that scientists have classified based on their shapes, including spiral, elliptical, and irregular, each with their own sub-categories. The galaxies seen here were taken with the Wilton Observatory by the Wilton Astronomy Club.

“The Whirlpool Galaxy is a spiral galaxy that is located roughly 23 to 31 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy is approximately 60,000 to 76,900 light-years in diameter, or about 88% the size of the Milky Way. From Earth’s perspective, this galaxy is situated near the handle of the Big Dipper, in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is also accompanied by a smaller yellow amorphous (meaning it has no identifiable shape) galaxy NGC 5195. This is one of the most interesting features of the Whirlpool Galaxy: one of its arms stretches out and over the other galaxy as they shift toward each other, slowly merging. In the center of this massive spiraling galaxy, there is a super-massive black hole pulling nearby stars and gas inward. As that gas accelerates inward, it ionizes and becomes plasma, emitting electromagnetic radiation, including x-rays and visible light. This is what causes the brightness that you see. The orange color you see is where stars are born inside of this galaxy. The blue represents the already created stars that are burning at very high temperatures.”

-Write-up by Keller Huthmacher and Jackson Benton

04/17/2026

Good news! The Wilton Observatory is fully functional again after having had our mount computer go out on us last summer and then having to reset many of our systems. What are we doing with it now? Expanding student understanding and experience, of course! Take a look at this shot of the Orion Nebula we took last week!

"Nebulae are essentially clouds of dust and gases that act as homes for new stars and the debris field from dead stars. The four main kinds of nebula classifications include reflection, dark, planetary, supernova remnants, and emission, which is the class The Orion Nebula is in.

Located just below Orion's Belt, this nebula is an absolutely stunning astral formation of colorful space dust. It is more than that, though, it’s a star factory. This small dot in our night sky is over 1,500 light years away and possibly contains 3,000 or more stars inside of it. The reddish pink is the light passing through large clouds of hydrogen and the blue is through oxygen. This is home to hundreds or thousands of stars surrounded by protoplanetary dust that may eventually form into solar systems. With all of those stars and all of that light it emits over 210,000 times as much light as our sun earning it the classification of an emission nebula, which simply means that it emits its own light instead of reflecting it from other places, suggesting that the nebula is relatively young compared to others."

Write-up by Jackson Benton and Keller Huthmacher

03/28/2026

Congratulations to Bridget Harkness and Oaklan Jirak for their 1st Place finish at the Muscatine County Science Fair yesterday for the high school division! They also received 3rd Place from the Muscatine Power and Water over all grade levels. Through their Astronomy class last semester, they developed and carried out an investigation titled "Effects of Lunar Regolith on Hydroponic Lavender Growth" to test whether unprocessed lunar material would aid or harm plant development. As humans venture into space and establish bases and potentially colonies, we'll need to utilize local natural resources to produce our own food as much as possible. That will come with a new set of problems that scientists need to solve before venturing out there and while in those new locations. The lunar regolith they used was dust gathered from the cutting of lunar meteorites and donated to us by Grant Harkness.

03/24/2026

Sometimes, moons are more interesting than planets!

Io, the moon seen closer to Jupiter in this picture, is the most volcanically active body in our solar system. Io’s atmosphere contains thin sulfur that collapses and freezes when in the shadow of Jupiter. Beyond its volcanic plumes, Io acts as a massive electric generator, creating 400,000 volts as it orbits through Jupiter's magnetic field, creating a ring of radiation known as a plasma torus. The moon's chemical composition is dominated by sulfur and silicates. Its structure is highly differentiated, consisting of a dense metal core and a rocky exterior that is constantly recycling its chemical components through intense volcanism. Black areas on the moon represent the hottest silicates and molten sulfur, red indicates short-chain sulfur polymers recently ejected from vents, and the yellows and whites consist of cooler sulfur frost and sulfur dioxide that coat the majority of the plains.

Europa, pictured further from Jupiter, is the 4th largest moon around the planet and is one of the most interesting in our solar system. The icy shell on the surface of this planet could be hiding a huge secret, an ocean twice the size of all of Earth’s combined. This ocean has been created from Europa’s hot metal core heating the interior while the outside stays frozen and frigid. This is backed up by measurements of the magnetic fields of the moon telling us that there is a conductive liquid below the surface, as well as visible plumes of water v***r coming off of the surface of the moon. This means that this moon could be a very viable place for life to form.

Write-up by Keller Huthmacher and Jackson Benton with the Wilton Astronomy Club.

10/01/2025

Wilton Astronomy is hard at work!

Firework Galaxy, referred to as NGC 6946, is located about 22 million light-years away from Earth. Meaning if you traveled at the speed of light, clocked at 299,792,458 meters per second, it would take you approximately 22 million years to reach the Firework Galaxy. This also means that the photons (light waves/particles) from the Firework Galaxy took 22 million years to reach us. Technically, you are looking into the past of the Firework Galaxy, as it was 22 million years ago. But where does the galaxy get its name? The term “Firework” comes from the unusual number of supernovae that occur inside the galaxy. A supernova is a huge explosion, commonly referred to as the “death” of a star. Supernovae emit very powerful and bright light, giving “Firework Galaxy” its well-deserved name.
This image is brought to you by the Wilton Astronomy Class, with the generous help of Grant Harkness. While the Wilton Observatory mount computer is in the “shop” for repairs (hopefully), students were treated to Grant’s setup that gives him the ability to host a mobile observatory. On Saturday, Sept. 27th, Grant set up two telescopes at West View Park in Wilton. Through the use of his Celestron Origin, hundreds of pictures were taken of the Firework Galaxy’s area in the sky. These pictures were then stacked and corrected hundreds of times to produce the image you see now. The whole process took multiple hours due to the low number of photons hitting the Earth from that far away and the need to stack so many pictures. Thanks, Grant!

(Write-up and photo editing by Oaklan Jirak)

04/09/2025

Recently, while taking a series of photographs of the Sun using our solar scope, we caught this! I wish I would have looked up where it was heading. It messed up our pictures a bit, but made for a pretty neat shot itself, especially with the granulations and sunspots visible!

03/28/2025

End of 3rd quarter deserves another picture from the Wilton Observatory! This is another photo taken during the parade of planets event we help a couple months ago. You may look at this and assume that it's a picture of the Moon, but it is actually a shot of Venus! Galileo was the first one to realize that Venus goes through phases like the Moon. Due to its position around the sun compared to Earth, we get a partial view of the side facing the sun and the side facing away from the sun, creating the crescent shape you see here. With an atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide, with a few percent of nitrogen, Venus is known for its thick clouds of sulfuric acid. This gives it the yellowish-white color seen in the picture. Picture taken and edited by Colton Miller.

03/04/2025

Thank you to all that were able to make it out on Saturday for the event! We got some great views of the planets and our astronomy students are working on processing the pictures now. Here is a great one of Jupiter, taken by Colton Miller and processed by Christian Ochiltree!

02/28/2025

Been wondering what the Wilton Observatory is all about? Feel free to come and join us tomorrow night (3/1) as we use it to view the "Parade of Planets". All 7 other planets in our solar system will be visible in the night sky at the same time and we're planning to take the opportunity to do some astrophotography and maybe check out some other celestial objects along the way. The event will be from 6:00 pm until about 9:00 pm and we will be initially meeting at the observatory itself (behind the utility shed, southeast of the football field), before transitioning indoors to control the telescope remotely. This event is free and open to the public.

01/17/2025

On Monday, 1/13, the Wilton HS Astronomy Club got the chance to watch the occultation of Mars by the Moon. Students were able to time part of the event to provide data for scientists. Here is a photo of the Red Planet about to go behind the Moon, taken and edited by Colton Miller.

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Wilton, IA
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