Bridgewater State University Observatory

Bridgewater State University Observatory The Bridgewater State University Observatory is on top of the BSU Science and Mathematics Center—we do outreach, research, and astrophotography!

The BSU Observatory has an extremely active outreach program, and can run up to about a dozen telescopes at once. During public nights, we use a combination of telescopes on our patio decks, mostly with 8-inch apertures, to view planets, stars, galaxies and nebulae. The dome houses a Celestron C-14 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope used primarily for student research. Call the observatory hotline (508-

531-3275), check this page, or follow us on Twitter to find out whether the weather will allow an event to occur. You may also call the hotline or check our website (www.bridgew.edu/observatory) to find out opening times. Admission is always free. If you are interested in scheduling a private viewing event for a group of 25 ore more people, please call the observatory office at 508-531-2093. We also run hands-on workshops geared toward K-12 students intended to occur immediately before a viewing event.

05/27/2026

Wednesday 5/27: The observatory will be closed tonight due to expected cloud cover.

05/22/2026

Summer Observatory Public Nights!

We'll be open the following Wednesdays this summer, weather allowing. Please check back here the afternoon of each event for the weather decision.
o May 27, 9:00 – 10:15 pm.
o June 10 and 24, 9:15 – 10:30 pm.
o July 8 and 22, 9:15 – 10:30 pm.
o August 5 and 19, 8:45 – 10:00 pm.

Another image not previously shared from our old telescope: The Wizard Nebula, taken in 2020 and processed by Ellen Pari...
05/07/2026

Another image not previously shared from our old telescope: The Wizard Nebula, taken in 2020 and processed by Ellen Pariser, post-processed this year to bring out more background.

As we get our new research telescope ready (collimate, sort out guiding, etc.), we'd like to celebrate the old one. Here...
05/05/2026

As we get our new research telescope ready (collimate, sort out guiding, etc.), we'd like to celebrate the old one. Here's an image of the Orion Nebula taken 11/11/2017 with our old 14" Celestron. Hundreds of 5-second images were taken to avoid saturation of bright stars, then stacked for 39 minutes of total exposure in luminance, red, green, and blue filters, overlaid to create a color image. Our then-student Ellen Pariser processed this. Today, I tweaked it a wee bit to bring out more cloud details in the background (only took me 20 minutes in GIMP).

Our upgraded research telescope is now operational! Our first light image is of globular cluster Messier 13. This is a s...
05/04/2026

Our upgraded research telescope is now operational! Our first light image is of globular cluster Messier 13. This is a simple, unguided, 60-second image through our luminance filter.

The scope needs collimation - that's why the stars have little tails. We'll handle that this week.

04/29/2026

Wed. 4/29: We'll be closed tonight due to clouds. We will announce our schedule of summer events in May!

Our filter-wheel is reassembled and ready to attach to our new research telescope!
04/22/2026

Our filter-wheel is reassembled and ready to attach to our new research telescope!

04/22/2026

Wed. 4/22: The observatory will be closed tonight due to clouds and rain. We'll try again next week!

04/15/2026

The observatory will be closed tonight, Wed. 4/15 due to predicted cloud cover. We'll try again next week!

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24 Park Avenue
Bridgewater, MA
02325

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