Westport Astronomical Society

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Westport Astronomical Society

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WAS Weekly Wednesday Star Parties from 8-10 (after sunset during the summer) if it's clear! We do suggest a donation of $5 per person if you're not a member.

The Westport Observatory, run by the volunteers of the Westport Astronomical Society brings the night sky down to the thousands who visit annually. We’re a non-profit that’s free and open to the public every Wednesday night from 8-10 pm if the skies are clear. In-person or zoom lectures on the 3rd Tuesday monthly.

09/29/2026

🐒🎈 A robotic monkey that flew on a helium balloon? Come hear the story at the next Astronomy & Ham Radio Hob Nob from K1WAS! Larry AB1JC and Gary WE1M share the 2019 UB student project, built through the NASA Space Grant CT. We'll also talk about new astronomy activities K1WAS will be taking on, so bring your ideas.

Sat, Oct 3, 9:30 AM
Westport Astronomical Society, 182 Bayberry Lane, Westport, CT

All welcome! 🔭

09/05/2026

Less than one week to go until CSP36– the Connecticut Star Party. This is arguably the finest annual stargazing event in Connecticut, hosted by the Astronomical Society of New Haven. Please register now and help support our neighboring astronomy club. The weather should be excellent. https://asnh.org/slideshow/CSPpicIndexGoshen.php

08/18/2026

While we don't usually endorse "stuff" at WAS, but we'd be remiss if we did not alert the astrophotography community to a new post-processing tool that came out over the summer. This is a specialty post-processing tool for getting rid of distractions in star trail photo stacks. The app is called StarTrailCleanR and is by Bruce Herwig, a star trail photography enthusiast.

WAS astrophotographer Steve Labkoff recently discovered this tool. The results were stunning... Right now, Bruce has an open beta running - the tool is free to download and use.

If you are interested in star trail photography, give it a look - but be sure to read the website information. This is a pretty sophisticated bit of AI that relies upon some very slick algorithms to clean up a stack of star trail images frame by frame - it's not fast, but it is very effective.

Clear Skies! And thanks to Bruce for putting this out for the community.

https://startrailcleanr.com/

luminantpix
Steven Labkoff

08/17/2026

Last Friday night, WAS Astrophotographers Shannon Calvert and Steven Labkoff went to the Frosty Drew Observatory & Sky Theatre in Rhodes Island to do some astrophotography.

They had a suprise in the sky that night: A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida about 9:12PM - and shortly after that, the rocket sped by Rhodes Island (and much of the East Coast!).

Steve had a time lapse of the Galactic Core running and caught the rocket leading up to stage separation - you can see the rocket clearly in the resultant video clip - each frame was 10s with a 3s delay between frames. There were 17 frames until the rocket had stage separation and went dark to the camera - all viewable in this sequence.

A second time lapse was being run in the northern sky which may be posted later showing a fuel dump as a blue-colored cloud of expanding gases moving from NW to NE in the sky on that series of images as well. More on that perhaps later.

As an aside, their photography was spoiled by all the high clouds in the sky.

luminantpix

08/16/2026

WAS astrophotographer Dana Weisbrot captured this close up view of the Sun yesterday through a Hydrogen Alpha solar telescope.

08/11/2026

The wildfire smoke has returned, so even though it's technically partly cloudy, there isn't much to see through this heavy haze and the dome will be CLOSED Wednesday 8/12 for the third week in a row.

This is particularly disappointing with a partial solar eclipse and the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower on the same day, so we're going to TRY opening briefly for solar viewing from 1:00pm to 2:15pm. Bear in mind that this is just a slight partial solar eclipse through thick smoke, and any expectations should be low!

08/10/2026

Don't miss our next free lecture! Join us August 18th at 8pm as WAS member and Stanford University student Michael Telesco describes a newly-discovered solar system with a planetary architecture similar to our own... LIVE in the classroom at the Westport Observatory or join us on Zoom & YouTube. Free & open to all! https://was-ct.org/events/michael-telesco_first-solar-system-like-planetary-architecture/

07/25/2026

WAS astrophotographer, Steve Labkoff, spent the week in Acadia National Park this past week, where he had some seriously dark skies.

luminantpix
Steven Labkoff

07/15/2026

Heavy smoke has drifted over the area from wildfires in Minnesota and Canada. Since this completely blocks out the stars and violates our no smoking policy, the WAS Weekly Wednesday Star Party is cancelled for tonight, 7/15. We hope to see you next week! https://was-ct.org/
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07/13/2026

With ZWO Astrophotography – WAS just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

Address

182 Bayberry Lane
Westport, CT
06880

Opening Hours

8pm - 10pm

Telephone

+12032938759

Website

https://www.was-ct.org/

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