Island County Astronomical Society

10/07/2025

We do not use messenger. Email us if you want a reply. Email link is on our webpage.

01/21/2025

Bill Brooks of the Island County Astronomical Society took a picture of the Horse Head Nebula, IC434.
Camera / Telescope - ZWO SeeStar S50
Exposure time - ~6 hours
Location - Oak Harbor WA

01/13/2025

Annual photo contest winners photos are now on our webpage. Look under the club tab, subtab gallery.
www.icas-wa.org/gallery

10/13/2024

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan - Atlas

With clear ‘enough’ skies a few of us were able to capture this beauty last night. 4 different types of equipment, 4 success views. This comet is following closely behind the sun, so if you’re interested in seeing this one, you have until the last week of October to catch it… in the west, as the sun sets.

If you’re thinking of catching it ‘next time round’ … that will be in 80,000 years.

10/04/2024

As the sun sets on another beautiful day at Camp Delaney, we wish all our fellow amateur astronomers good viewing this October. 🔭

04/12/2024

ICAS team members travel to Texas for the 2024 Great Eclipse
Several members of Island County Astronomical Society (ICAS) traveled to Texas to view and photograph the total eclipse. Planning for the eclipse, started 2 years ago for many of us. Thankfully, the weather cooperated. For some of the team, the clouds parted just in time for totality. It allowed us to capture some very good pictures. However, getting the most from these pictures requires us to make it back home to process them. But, in the meantime, please enjoy these two screen shots of what we were able to witness.

02/13/2024

Star Party; Tuesday, February 13th - Ft. Nugent Park, Oak Harbor - 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm!

The sky is clear and the forecast for tonight looks good. Unless the clouds move in, the Star Party is on for tonight. Hope to see you there!

Come and enjoy the night sky with members of the Island County Astronomical Society.

02/09/2024

Unfortunately, due to weather, we have to cancel the Star Party scheduled for tonight, 2/9/2024, at Fort Nugent Park in Oak Harbor. We are hopeful that the skies will clear up and we will be able to have our Star Party on 2/13 at Fort Nugent. Stay in touch with us here on Facebook and our website, www.icas-wa.org for updates and events.

Clear Skies everyone
ICAS

Island County Astronomical Society (ICAS) of Washington State is a group dedicated to amateur astronomy, education within local schools and civic groups, encouragement for public appreciation of the...

01/17/2024

2024 Star Party Schedule:

Friday, February 9th - Ft. Nugent Park, Oak Harbor - 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Tuesday, February 13th - Ft. Nugent Park, Oak Harbor - 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Friday, March 8th - Ft. Nugent Park, Oak Harbor - 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Friday, March 15th - Ft. Nugent Park, Oak Harbor - 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Friday, August 9th - Deception Pass Astronomy Talk 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Start Party 9:30 pm - 11:00 pm

TBD (Sept) Ft Casey
TDB (Sept) Camano State Park

Saturday, September 14th - International Observe the Moon Night in conjunction with the Anacortes Library 7pm to 8:30pm - Location to be determined.

October 2024, Ft. Nugent Park, Oak Harbor - TBD

We are pleased to announce our 2024 Star Party Schedule. Some dates and details still need to be finalized so please visit us often for updates. As always, Star Parties and dependent on clear skies. Even partly cloudy skies may cause us to cancel these events. Please check out our Star Party page on our website at www.icas-wa.org for updates / cancellations the day of a Star Party.

12/05/2023

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC (New General Catalogue) 598. Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.

The galaxy is the smallest spiral galaxy in the Local Group and is believed to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy or on its rebound into the latter due to their interactions, velocities, and proximity to one another in the night sky. [1]

The galaxy gets its name from the constellation Triangulum, where it can be spotted. It is a face-on galaxy from our point of view and as such, not as luminous (bright) as other galaxies of similar or even greater distance.

This image of M33 was taken from Anacortes WA in September of 2023. It consists of over 900 subframes taken over two nights, stacked together to produce this image.

Hope you enjoy!

1. Wikipedia