Big Sky Astronomy Club

08/19/2026

The recent Logan Pass Star Party got slammed with a mountain top fog bank that just sat over the visitor center parking area and eliminated any stargazing! However once we dropped a 1/4 mile down the mountain there was a beautiful clear sky. and lots of Perseid meteors flying by! We will try again on Logan Pass on September 4th and hopefully third time lucky! Don't forget to get your car pass at either the Apgar or St Mary visitor center the day before, on Thursday September 3rd. They usually sell out so get there in the morning if you can.

This coming Friday night at 7pm at the West Valley Fire Station on Farm to Market Road in Kalispell, the club will have its monthly meeting. The presentation this month is about our nearest star...the Sun! Anyone interested in learning more about the club is welcome to come!

Here is our Logan Pass Crew ever hopeful the sky will clear....

08/12/2026

Logan Pass Star Party coming up this Friday, August 14th! Hopefully the weather and smoke will cooperate and we will have a starry evening! Car passes to attend the event are available at Apgar and St Mary Visitor centers starting at 8am the day before the event (Thursday August 13th). They usually sell out so get there in the morning if you can.

08/10/2026

The Big Sky Astronomy Club recently hosted a stargazing evening for Boy Scout Troop 1 from Stow, MA. The Montana Space Grant Consortium provided a member of their SPOT team (Space Public Outreach Team) to do a presentation on Black Holes. Kali provided an outstanding presentation that captivated the audience and stimulated many questions. This was followed by sky tours and telescope observation let by members of the Big Sky Astronomy Club. Below are a few galaxies and nebula captured that night through one of the telescopes.

08/10/2026

Big Sky Astronomy Club recently hosted a star party at the Hungry Horse for Boy Scout Troop 1 from Stow, Massachussets. Kali from the Montana Space Grant Association captivated the group with an outstanding presentation on Black Holes which stimulated lots of great questions and discussion! This was followed by stargazing and viewing the sky through a variety of telescopes. We were lucky to have a reasonably clear night in light of all the smoke in our area. Many thanks to Kali and the Montana Space Grant Consortium for joining us and helping to make the night a great success. We look forward to working together again with Kali and Amy from the Montana Space Grant Consortium for future programs.

💫 When Jim reached out on behalf of the Big Sky Astronomy Club to ask about working together, we couldn’t wait to jump in. BSAC is a community-based non-profit that promotes astronomy education and inspires space curiosity across Northwest Montana.

💪🏻 Our new SPOT Director, Kali Shoaf-Laughlin, jumped right in to offer programming on Black Holes. The group was hosting a stargazing experience for 35 scouts outside of Glacier National Park.

🔭 BSAC offers a number of stargazing events open to the public - check them out! If you are hosting a group and would like to include space-related engaging workshops curriculum, we’re here for you! That’s what SPOT is all about.

🤍 Thanks again, Jim! We look forward to continuing to work with BSAC!

07/14/2026

Logan Pass Star Party coming up Friday July 17th. Get your car pass at Apgar or St. Mary Visitor Center on Thursday July 16th. Spectacular views of the night skies framed by majestic mountains! See the Milky Way light up over Reynolds Mountain. Join the Big Sky Astronomy Club and The Glacier Conservancy for this educational evening under the stars. The night will include a presentation, constellation tours, and viewing through telescopes and binoculars. Be sure to get to Logan Pass by 9:30 and program will run from 10pm to midnight.

photo by Baylee Goodwin

07/10/2026

Aurora over Polebridge and over Flathead Lake July 3rd, 2026

07/10/2026

🌌 Vera Rubin has released an ocean of stars, and it is a preview of the sky about to come alive.

This new image peers through the crowded plane of our own Milky Way, in the constellation Lupus. At first, it looks like a dense glittering field. Look closer, and individual stars separate by color and brightness, with distant galaxies scattered behind them.

The image is not just beautiful. It shows what the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is built to do: capture huge, deep views of the sky again and again with its 3.2-gigapixel camera. This “Ocean of Stars” view was made from 917 exposures and spans 4.5 degrees across the sky.

Rubin will spend 10 years carrying out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, repeatedly scanning the southern sky. Over that survey, it is expected to measure around 17 billion resolved stars and 20 billion galaxies.

That repeated watching is the key. Stars that pulse, dim, explode or shift position will no longer be frozen in single images. Rubin will turn the sky into a time-lapse record.

This is not only an ocean of stars. It is the first frame of a cosmic movie.

📄 OFFICIAL IMAGE RELEASE
📌 NSF DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, “Rubin’s Ocean of Stars”, Rubin Observatory (2026)

06/02/2026

Here's a few memories from the Cinco de Mayo event that The Big Sky Astronomy Club held at the Glacier Institute in Columbia Falls, MT. A very engaged group from the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) attended the event.

Also a few weeks after the Cinco de Mayo event, club member Mark Paulson provided an educational afternoon to the Montana Hybrid Academy also held at the Glacier Institute. This was focused on general astronomy and the Earth - Sun relationship. Solar telescopes were used to view that sun that afternoon as is came in and out of view between the clouds.

On Thursday June 18th the club will the highlighted non-profit organization at the Columbia Falls Farmers Market. Come find out more about the club and look through solar telescopes to see what is happening on the surface of the Sun and also in its atmosphere. 165 Veteran Dr. Columbia Falls, MT. 5pm - 8pm June 18th

06/02/2026

🌌 June 2026 is going to be a beautiful month for skywatchers.

The biggest highlight is the Venus-Jupiter conjunction on June 8–9, when the two brightest planets will appear extremely close in the western sky after sunset.

Here's your complete guide to the 10 best night sky events of June 2026.
https://sou42.co/jun-2026

05/20/2026

✨🌒 On the evening of May 19, the Moon hangs between Venus and Jupiter in the western sky, and together they reveal something you don't usually see: the ecliptic, the plane of our solar system.

All three objects trace a line from the west-northwest horizon upward, marking the flat disk along which Earth, Venus, Jupiter, and all the other planets orbit the Sun. Venus blazes below at magnitude -3.9. Jupiter shines above at magnitude -1.9. A 15% crescent Moon, earthshine glowing on its dark side, connects them.

🔭 Look west about 45 to 60 minutes after sunset. Venus appears first, even in bright twilight. Jupiter reveals itself as the sky darkens. The crescent Moon connects them. No equipment needed. Binoculars will enhance the earthshine and may pick up one or two of Jupiter's Galilean moons as tiny dots near the planet.

📸 Wide-angle photographs of this scene are stunning. A phone on a tripod with a 3 to 5 second exposure can capture all three objects, the earthshine, and the background stars of Gemini.