TOMORROW: Cornell Astronomical Society is hosting a lecture by Josh Umansky-Castro, "Laser Sailing to the Stars: the Story of Cornell University's Alpha CubeSat Mission," at 7 PM! The lecture will be livestreamed, free and open to the public. 🚀🔭✨ To register: cglink.me/2ee/r2303642

If clear, Fuertes will open tomorrow morning, 3/2, from 5:30 to 7 AM, to view the total lunar eclipse on the horizon.

The Cornell Astronomical Society's lecture series will be resuming later this month! The schedule is posted on cornellastrosociety.org/lecture-series. All lectures are free, open to the public, and are presented both in-person and virtually, preceding some Friday open houses at Fuertes Observatory.

CAS is hosting the last open house of the semester tonight (12/19) at Fuertes! Please join us any time from 8 PM to midnight. Open houses will resume in the Spring semester on January 16th, 2026.

Snowman at the Fuertes Observatory. ☃️

This Friday, 11/7, CAS will be hosting a special lecture by Gillis Lowry, "The Search for Intelligent Life on Earth"! See details in the flyer attached. 🪐🔭 Lectures are always free and open to the public, both in person and virtually. More information at www.cornellastrosociety.org/lecture-series!

TONIGHT, we'll hear from Prof. Abigail Crites in her lecture, "From the First Light of the Cosmos to the Cameras that Capture it Today"! 📷🔭📡 The lecture will be streamed live over Zoom, and will take place in person in Appel Commons at Cornell. More info at cornellastrosociety.org/lecture-series!

Today is the Irving Porter Church Memorial Telescope's 103rd birthday! From the telescope's dedication: "[...] it was not shipped until late in September and its erection in the dome was completed on October 16, 1922." Read more at www.cornellastrosociety.org/about/irvhis...!

CAS will be hosting our second of five lectures this semester this Friday, 10/17, with Alexia Kubas: "We Have [Insert Planet Name] At Home: The Amazing World of Analog Studies"! 🏔️🔭❄️ More information can be found at cornellastrosociety.org/lecture-series. Please join us either in person or remotely!

Autumn colors are beginning to show around the Fuertes Observatory.

CAS's semesterly lecture series starts tomorrow, with Prof. Dongwoo Chung and their talk titled "Seeing the Forest, Not the Trees: Serendipitous Glances into the Universe"! 📡🔭🌌 More information can be found at cornellastrosociety.org/lecture-series. As always, please join us in person or remotely!

Fuertes was open for our first open house of the semester last night, from 8 PM to midnight! Crowds were impressive and there was a line out the door. Clear skies and a new moon on a Friday night is a combination that doesn't occur too often at all.

Our few-week closure will be coming to an end this Friday evening at 8 PM! Fuertes will be open until midnight for observing on what's (now) forecast to be a clear evening. We look forward to inviting both new and returning students and visitors into the 107-year-old observatory in just a few days.

Tonight, July 18th, is the last open house at Fuertes for the next few weeks! CAS has received funding for painting and carpeting in our dome room, and we'll be making use of it over the next month or so. Please stop by tonight, 8 to midnight! Cloud cover looks low and temperatures look moderate.

The Fuertes Observatory will be open tonight, on Cornell University's North Campus, from 8 PM until midnight! Cloud cover predictions are looking okay so far, and the moon will be visible later into the evening. More information at www.cornellastrosociety.org/visit!

Pluto at Fuertes Observatory 🔭 Taken through the 102-year-old Irving Porter Church Refractor Image taken by Ben Jacobson-Bell & The Cornell Astronomical Society

Here is M16, the Eagle Nebula! The photo was produced by three CAS members on June 25th, stacked from 184 x 30-second frames. 🔭 The exposures were taken using the 102-year-old f/15 Irving P. Church 12" Refractor at the Fuertes Observatory, stacked in Siril and post-processed in Photoshop.

Here's a photo of the Ring Nebula (Messier 57), a planetary nebula in the constellation of Lyra! The image was taken by three club members through the 12" f/15 Church refractor the night of June 24th. This is 67x 30-second frames, stacked in Siril and post-processed with Photoshop.

Despite the poor forecast for tonight, we will still be at the Fuertes Observatory from 8 to midnight, with CAS members offering free public tours of our historic building, museum, and the 1922 Irving Porter Church Refractor telescope! Stop by on Cornell's North Campus in Ithaca.

Here is Messier 17, the Omega or Swan Nebula, photographed by members of the Cornell Astronomical Society this Tuesday evening (6/24/25)! The images were taken through the 12" f/15 Irving P. Church Refractor at the Fuertes Observatory. This is 124 x 30-second frames, stacked in Siril.

Here is a photograph of Messier 8, the Lagoon Nebula, taken by members of the Cornell Astronomical Society through the 1922 Irving P. Church 12-inch refractor yesterday! This is 49x 30-second exposures, stacked using Siril.

Here's the Cornell Astronomical Society's image of M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, taken last night by four members at the Fuertes Observatory at Cornell! This is 8x 3-minute frames, taken through the 1922 Irving P. Church 12-inch refractor.

And after a finally clear evening (with no camera issues) of observing, here is the Cornell Astronomical Society's latest photo of M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy! This is 11 3-minute exposures, stacked, taken through the Irving P. Church 12-inch refractor at the Cornell University Fuertes Observatory.

Some recent photographs of the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, taken by members of the Cornell Astronomical Society through the Irving P. Church 12" telescope at Fuertes Observatory! Fighting with clouds gave us just a few frames to process, but we managed to create a fine image of this galaxy.

Our June 2025 newsletter is out! This edition gives guidance on astrophotography and sky tours, visits the smallest things the universe has to offer, and marks the return of alumna Justine Singleton with another moon-related article. Enjoy reading! www.cornellastrosociety.org/newsletters/

Newsletters | The Cornell Astronomical Society

Monthly newsletters about the goings-on at the Fuertes Observatory and other Cornell Astronomical Society involvements.

cornellastrosociety.org

Despite most of our student members not being present in Ithaca this summer, Fuertes is still open for weekly open houses Friday nights, from 8 PM to midnight, on Cornell University's campus in Ithaca! Tonight's weather is not looking terrible, so we might be able to see a few stars.

Fuertes has still been open tonight despite the clouds and rain! We will continue to open every Friday night until at least Reunion weekend, the first Friday night in June. Stay tuned for updates following that time.

Members of the Cornell Astronomical Society captured this image of Bode's Galaxy, M81, last night through the 1922 Irving Porter Church 12-inch refractor at the Fuertes Observatory!