Our weekly planetarium shows continue this month on April 4, 11, 18 & 25 at 12:30 and 2:30! Exact content is flexible based on audience interest, but common topics include constellations, planets, seasons, and astronomy history.
In observance of International Dark Sky Week, we will present a Special Movie at the Planetarium “Losing the Dark” with conversation to follow, during Planetarium shows on 4/18 12:30 pm & 2:30 pm.
April’s Science Topic – NOAA in Space!
11 Apr 2026 19:00 – 21:00
Speaker: Joe Mulligan, BPAA Secretary and Newsletter editor
The next meeting of the Battle Point Observatory’s Astrophotography Special Interest Group will be on Saturday, April 18, at 11 AM in the Gardiner Library inside of the Battle Point Observatory (Please note this is not on the usual second Saturday of the month).
Source for events and links below are In-The-Sky.org, Dominic Ford, Editor. The links provide details for each event including a scale on how difficult they are to observe. Additionally, here’s a link to a printable PDF for “Navigating the mid April Night Sky” from our friends at the Astronomical League! Apr 1 – 136472 Makemake at opposition – Full Moon Apr 2 – The Sombrero Galaxy is well placed Apr 3 – Mercury at greatest elongation west Apr 5 – Messier 94 is well placed Apr 15 – The Whirlpool Galaxy is well placed Apr 17 – New Moon Apr 18 – Messier 3 is well placed Apr 15 – Close approach of the Moon and M45 Apr 22 – Conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter – Lyrid meteor shower 2026 peak Apr 23 – 136108 Haumea at opposition Apr 24 – Messier 101 is well placed – Close approach of the Moon and M44 May 1 – Full Moon May 6 – η-Aquariid meteor shower 2026 peak May 9 – η-Lyrid meteor shower 2026 May 13 – Messier 5 is well placed May 16 – New Moon May 18 – Conjunction of the Moon and […]
Ever since the first human beings looked up at the night sky, it has been a source of wonder, inspiration, and awe.
Today, most of humanity only has access to a heavily polluted sky rather than the pristine views our ancestors enjoyed, but that sense of awe and wonder still remains.
SpaceX recently announced that it wants to launch one million more of these satellites as orbital data centers for AI computing power.
The human eye can see fewer than 4,500 stars in an unpolluted night sky. If we permit SpaceX to launch these satellites, we will see more satellites than stars—for large portions of the night and the year, throughout the world. This will severely damage the night sky for everyone on Earth.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have teamed up to capture new views of Saturn, revealing the planet in strikingly different ways. Observing in complementary wavelengths of light, the two space observatories provide scientists with a richer, more layered understanding of the gas giant’s atmosphere.
Some 550 light-years away, a bright star called Gamma Cassiopeiae is belching out bursts of X-rays. Now, astronomers have discovered that the radiation is actually coming from the star’s invisible companion, which lights up in X-rays as it gobbles up material from the star.
Planetary scientists compared existing data on the isotopic ratios of a wide range of meteorites, including those from Mars and the asteroid Vesta, with those of Earth. Isotopes are sibling atoms of the same element (same number of protons) that have a different mass (different number of neutrons).
The researchers analyzed this data in a new way and arrived at a surprising conclusion: the material that makes up Earth originates entirely from the inner region of the solar system.