UIS Observatory

We have suspended regular posting to this platform. So long and thanks for all the fish, Follow us at the link below on BlueSky. You do -not- need an account to read our content there. web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/uisobs…

We are considering abandoning our account here. Posts on our BlueSky account can be read without creating an account there. We are open to comment here about this decision before we finalize it. go.uis.edu/UISObservatory…

WATCH: Geomagnetic Storm Category G4 or Greater Predicted Highest Storm Level Predicted by Day: Jan 20: G4 (Severe) Jan 21: G1 (Minor) Jan 22: None (Below G1) Issue Time: 2026 Jan 19 1203 UTC bit.ly/3wVgAKH

A fast moving coronal mass ejection from the Sun slammed into the Earth’s magnetic field a few hours ago. There is a chance aurora will be visible in central Illinois after sunset tonight (Monday Jan 19) For updates: swpc.noaa.gov

This is an image of nebula IC 2162 taken with the UIS observatory wide field camera last Wednesday night. IC 2162 is a region of ionized gas in the constellation Orion lit up by recent star formation. Best estimates put its distance at about 8000 ly away.

Artemis II is rolling out to the pad at Cape Canaveral today (Saturday 1/17). In a few short weeks, a launch window opens for sending four astronauts around the Moon and back. Live feed of the move on YouTube youtube.com/live/nrVnsO_rd…

Last night we use the 20 inch telescope to take 10 images of fields and nearby galaxies M31 and M33 for luminous stars project. This has been one of the best weeks in January for clear weather that we’ve had in several years.

We got another clear night yesterday. We used the 20 inch telescope to take images of nine fields in nearby galaxies M31 and M33 for the luminous stars project.

Last night we used the 20-inch telescope to image fields for the luminous stars project in nearby galaxies M31 and M33.

Thursday at #AAS247 is done. I liked the plenaries about NANOGrav and DESI but the Solar Motion Simulator from the morning astro education talks won the day for me. github.com/jvriesem/solar…

For me the highlight of Wednesday at #AAS247 was seeing my grad school classmate Jessica Gaskin. She is now the Associate Director for astrophysics at NASA. She’s going to going to make the 2030 decadalreview super fun.

My #aas247 presentation is today at 2:50 pm in room 227. “The relative ages of luminous blue variable and B[e] supergiant populations in the LMC.”

My favorite on Tuesday at #AAS247 was the session on ethical frameworks for outer space. A really engaging panel of interdisciplinary experts answered questions about how to approach questions about the use of outer space beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

The highlights of #AAS247 yesterday (Monday) for me were the Kavli lecture by Della-Giustina about Osiris-REX and the Binney’s plenary lecture about galaxy structure.

I’m at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society #aas247 I am chairing session 259 on Tuesday and presenting in session 358 on Wednesday. Honestly I also enjoy the plenary talks because I’m always learning current stuff that makes it into my lectures for classes.

Remembering Charlie Schweighauser in the year end Illinois Times. illinoistimes.com/special-issues…

We’re back! The repaired imaging camera passed testing with flying colors. Just in time to salvage a bit of the observing season for galaxies M31 and M33.

This is a stack of images for the campus observatory global meteor network meteor camera on Dec 13-14 when the Geminid meteor shower peaked. The meteors appear to radiate away from a point off the top of the strip. Link to the camera on the GMN network: go.uis.edu/campusgmn

Our first clear night in a while last night, and we used it to image fields in the Andromeda galaxy and the Triangulum galaxy four the luminous stars project. The updated camera worked great. These are images taken with the wide field camera on the 20 inch telescope.

Just a few (hundred) meteors caught by the campus, observatory meteor camera during the peak of the Geminids last night. globalmeteornetwork.org/weblog//US/US0…