Transit of Venus Star Party on June 5, 2012 We will be hosting a special day-time star party at Southwind Park from 5pm to sunset in Springfield, IL to…

First Light on New CCD Camera (March 2012) The image of the galaxy M81 above is the “first-light” image taken by the new U42 CCD camera at the UIS…

Nearby Galaxy M33 This is a composite image of the galaxy M33 in the constellation Triangulum.  It is a collection of 40 billion stars about 3 million…

Perseid Meteor Star Party August 11/12 The University of Illinois Springfield Astronomy-Physics Program is co-hosting a viewing of the Perseid Meteor…

Supernova 2013df in NGC 4414 The spiral galaxy to the left of center in this picture is NGC 4414.  It is about 62 million lightyears away from Earth in the…

The following is an excerpt from a column by University of Illinois Springfield Associate Professor of Astronomy-Physics John Martin. This column appeared in…