This account is going to become temporarily inactive, due to changes in staffing. We hope to be back on BlueSky soon!

Today's the day — it's officially T-0! GET READY: Your full First Look at images from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory is just hours away! We're about to reveal the preview of the greatest cosmic movie ever made 🎬 #RubinFirstLook #CaptureTheCosmos 🔭🧪 ⌚️ 11am US EDT 🔗: ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream

Ever wondered what the rain sounds like inside one of our steel 🔭 domes?

Here's last night's aurora! 🔭

Aurora are visible in UK skies right now! 🔭

And another view!

View from the allsky camera! 🔭

One of our students took these spectacular photos earlier this evening, showing what is thought to be fuel from a Falcon 9 rocket! 🔭

Last night, our robotic telescopes 🔭 captured their 110,000th image in autonomous mode. That's 3,475 hours of imaging without human supervision!

And that’s a wrap for this season’s Open Evenings! Thank you to everyone that came along tonight - we had a great time, and hope you did too! Open Evenings will return next winter - but there will still be other opportunities to visit us over the summer, so stay tuned!

There are only a few tickets left for our last Open Evening of the season, for the 17:30 slot on Friday 7th March.   The theme for this Open Evening is radio astronomy. The optical telescopes 🔭 will still be open, but we'll also be showing off our unique radio interferometer 📡

We've had a great time at @stalbanscathedral.bsky.social this week! We've been there with our mobile planetarium giving shows to local schools, and last night Dr. Emma Curtis-Lake gave a public lecture. And now we're all back at the observatory for tonight's sold-out Open Evening!

Here's a quick view of Jupiter, taken during a student practical session last night 🔭 From left to right, you can see three of Jupiter's moons: Europa, Ganymede and Io. You can also see Io's shadow on the face of Jupiter - it is the small dark spot near the upper right edge.

What a great start to #NationalAstronomyWeek at the #DarkSkies event in Hertford. We had a screening of The City Dark film followed by a light switch-off and stargazing with astronomers from Bayfordbury Observatory in Hertford Castle grounds. Frosty and fantastic! #NAW

There is a lovely 22° halo around the Sun this morning. These halos appear when sunlight passes through hexagonal ice crystals in the atmosphere, and can often be seen in the winter months. 🔭

Tickets are available for our penultimate open evening of the season, on Feb 7th with the theme "Aurorae and Our Solar System" This is a great opportunity to learn about the spectacular aurorae we've witnessed over the past year, and another chance to observe the ongoing planetary parade 🔭

Yesterday we ran the first event with our new inflatable planetarium! From 5th-7th February, we'll be at @stalbanscathedral.bsky.social showcasing the new planetarium as part of their Science Festival Week. To book us for your school or another event, see here: www.herts.ac.uk/bayfordbury/...

Come and check it out next Friday! Tickets selling fast: www.eshop.herts.ac.uk/search?cid=459 #hertfordshire 🔭 #astronomy #herts #BedsBucksHerts

It's a planetary parade! Throughout Jan and Feb, you will be able to see four planets lined up in the sky. With a telescope 🔭, you can also see Neptune and Uranus to make it six planets in a row! This picture was taken with our Allsky camera just before 6pm (GMT) on Tuesday.

It's a frosty day here at Bayfordbury 🔭❄️

With our James Webb Space Telescope themed Open Evening coming up on Jan 17th, here's a throwback to when one of our telescopes caught JWST heading to its new home 🔭

Tickets for the next @bayfordburyobs.bsky.social open night selling fast! We’ve got 4 planets on show in the early evening this month, so don’t miss your chance to see them through our telescopes! 🔭 #hertfordshire #astronomy

Aurora sightings are being reported across the UK this evening - but unfortunately all we can see is clouds! 🔭

A perfect last-minute gift for astronomy lovers - come and visit us! 🔭

Happy #WinterSolstice everyone!

We’re looking forward to supporting this!

It’s hard to believe our newest 🔭 is now over three years old! The 0.6m CDK24 is a favourite of our students, and one of the most popular attractions during our public open evenings. It’s easy to see why!

Hello world 👋 For those of you that don’t already know us, we’re the UK’s largest teaching observatory, and probably one of the busiest too! It’s cloudy tonight, but here’s a glimpse at some of the cool things we get up to: