Department News Archive

Prof John Martin Earns Grant From National Science Foundation (July 2011) On July 1 the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that a collaboration including UIS Assistant Professor John Martin earned a three-year grant for…

Prof John Martin’s Article in June 2011 issue of Gemini Focus magazine (June 2011) The June 2011 issue of Gemini Focus magazine contains an article written by UIS Assistant Professor John Martin about his use of an infrared camera…

Prof John Martin Named University Scholar (October 2011) Assistant Professor of Astronomy-Physics John Martin has been named the 2011 University Scholar for the University of Illinois Springfield. The University Scholar program…

A Department of Children and Family Services caseworker was attacked and killed while on a welfare check this month. It's happened before and that's making state lawmakers take notice of the dangers with the job. We talk with a former…

Perseid Meteor Star Party August 11/12 The University of Illinois Springfield Astronomy-Physics Program is co-hosting a viewing of the Perseid Meteor shower before dawn on Monday, August 12.   Read more information

The Eagle Nebula (M16) The cloudy weather lately has been bad news for Friday Night Star Parties but it has given us some time to reduce a back-log of pretty pictures the UIS Barber Observatory took over the summer…

Transit of Venus Star Party on June 5, 2012 We will be hosting a special day-time star party at Southwind Park from 5pm to sunset in Springfield, IL to view the rare Transit of Venus event on Tuesday, June 5, 2012.   Read…

Supernova 2013df in NGC 4414 The spiral galaxy to the left of center in this picture is NGC 4414.  It is about 62 million lightyears away from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices.  On June 8th astronomers in Italy…

Supernova Impostors The UIS Barber Observatory has taken advantage of the clear weather patterns and our new wide-field U42 camera to follow the brightness variations of suspected supernova impostors in distant…

First Light on New CCD Camera (March 2012) The image of the galaxy M81 above is the “first-light” image taken by the new U42 CCD camera at the UIS Barber Observatory on March 14, 2012. The new camera was purchased to image…

All three schools in the University of Illinois System will see tuition hikes this fall. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees voted Thursday morning to increase tuition for in-state freshmen. This is only the second tuition…

Nearby Galaxy M33 This is a composite image of the galaxy M33 in the constellation Triangulum.  It is a collection of 40 billion stars about 3 million light years away.  M33 is one of three large galaxies in our local group (…