In The Sky

The Dumbbell Nebula. Credit: Billy Teets In the lesser-known constellation of Vulpecula, the fox, lie the well-known remains of a small, sun-like star that perished fairly recently, at least on cosmic timescales – the Dumbbell Nebula.  Shorter exposure photographs usually only capture the brighter lobes of gas, helping to… Read More

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (indicated by the white marker) appears as a faint smudge rapidly moving against the background stars in this animation from Dyer Observatory’s Seyfert Telescope. During the five minutes between each of the frames, the comet moved approximately 10,000 miles. Click on the image for a higher… Read More

In the early morning hours of August 19, 2025, Saturn’s largest moon Titan cast a shadow on Saturn’s globe. This view is a stacked image obtained by Dyer Observatory’s Seyfert Telescope. Credit: Billy Teets In the early morning hours of Tuesday, August 19, Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, passed between… Read More

The Great Hercules Cluster (M13) is one of the brightest deep-sky objects and can even be seen by the naked eye on a dark summer night. Credit: Billy Teets We often think that in order to see pretty much anything in the sky other than the Moon or some… Read More

Dyer Telescope Night in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 13, 2025. Photo by Alondra Moya One of the highlights each month at Dyer Observatory is Telescope Night. During these events, visitors come to one of two hour-long sessions to get firsthand views of some of the wonders of the cosmos,… Read More

The Leo Trio is comprised of galaxies M65 (top left), M66 (top right), and NGC 3628 (bottom). The three galaxies appear close enough together that all three can be viewed simultaneously with a small telescope. Credit: Billy Teets Now that we have reached summertime in the northern hemisphere, many… Read More

Galaxies M81 (left) and M82 (right) appear in the same field of view of many backyard telescopes. The featured image is a composite of images totaling nearly six hours of exposure taken with a 16″ telescope at Dyer Observatory. Credit: Billy Teets Our Milky Way galaxy is a treasure… Read More

Just off the famous belt of Orion lie several regions of nebulosity, each around 1.500 light-years away, that are favorite targets for astrophotographers. To the right of Alnitak (the brightest star of the image) is a large complex of gas with a dust cloud seen in silhouette – the… Read More

The Moon as it appeared around maximum totality during the total lunar eclipse of March 14, 2025. Credit: Billy Teets It has been a little while since Nashville has had the opportunity to view the splendor of a total lunar eclipse, nearly three years in fact.  During brief gaps… Read More

The Moon and Mars about one minute prior to lunar occultation on January 13, 2025. Credit: Billy Teets   January ended up being a big month for the Red Planet as it took part in a parade, gave us all it had during opposition, and even tangoed with the… Read More