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This month we have one of the better annual meteor showers, the Orionids. The earliest meteors from this shower will start arriving in a sky near you about October 2 and continue to flash across the sky until about November 7. The shower is...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
To try and figure out what celestial event might have been the Star of Bethlehem 2000 years ago, we must have a reasonably accurate idea of when Jesus Christ was born. Theological historians place the birth of Jesus in September or October in 3 or 2...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
The huge and brilliant constellation Orion rises up from the eastern horizon by mid-evening in November. This one is a favourite of mine with its spectacular nebula Orion at the bottom of the sword that hangs from the three stars of Orion’s belt....
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
Many lunar observers called the Full Moon at the tail end of August a Supermoon because it occurred less than a day from perigee when the Moon is closest and at its biggest in the sky. The Moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle. It’s an ellipse...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
After a nine and then some year trip, the New Horizon space probe arrived at Pluto last month. It’s incredible that it wasn’t hit by any space debris over that long trip or suffer any major electronic or mechanical failures. It’s even more...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
Pluto is almost in the camera sights of the New Horizons deep space probe! It is scheduled to arrive on July 15. This event is especially exciting for me. I’ve had an endless fascination for the far off Dwarf planet all my life. It has caused me...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
It’s a GO! There will be a star party at the Maberly Fair grounds on Saturday, the 11th of October. The rain date will be Saturday, the 18th. Experienced amateur astronomers from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will be coming up from the...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
What a great month! There are two big events happening. First, there is a total lunar eclipse occurring during the early morning hours on October 8. The eclipse begins at 5:15 a.m. and totality starts about 6:20 a.m. Mid-eclipse occurs about 6:25 a...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
Mother Nature had her way with us and the Star Party at the Maberly Fair Grounds was weathered out. That didn’t stop a few people from Kingston and two from Ottawa from showing up just in case it cleared. No such luck. The rain date on the...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
There are two meteor showers this month. On the night of December 13-14 the Geminids make their spectacular appearance. They have a ZHR of 120. The ZHR or Zenith Hourly Rate estimates how many meteors you can expect to see in the sky under perfect...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
Grab your binoculars and have a look at a great little comet called Lovejoy that is sailing across our skies right now! You can find it to the right or west of Perseus at the start of February. It moves northwestward as the month passes. Look to the...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
The one thing about January and February observing is that when you have a crystal clear sky, the temperature is usually well into the negative teens. There have been more than a few nights like that lately. The problem with winter observing is that...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
We have a nice little meteor shower in the lineup for April. Between April 16 and 25, the Lyrid meteor shower will be active in the sky. Its radiant is in the small constellation Lyra, named after a Greek musical instrument called a Lyre. It is also...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
The Hubble Space Telescope turned 25 just recently and I’m sure that all of you were reminded of that fact by the news media. What may not have been mentioned are the many significant discoveries that the Hubble has provided. I thought that I...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
It’s that time of year again. It is the best time for observing spectacular constellations and deep space objects in the sky but, in my opinion, has the worst conditions for roaming the night sky. This time of year astronomical twilight occurs...
You may contact Fred Garrett through this paper or email to [email protected] The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy or by contacting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada www.rasc...
Here come the Perseids! This is the best, most dependable meteor storm of the year. Actually, looking up now will give you more meteors than usual and they are Perseids! The calculated peak this year is at 10 pm on August 12. We will get a build up...
by Fred Barrett Humidity, clouds and rain just about sums it up for June. On the few nights that were cloudless, high humidity made for poor transparency. It was like looking through a foggy window with only the brightest stars showing. It was also...
“The Beginner’s Observing Guide” by Leo Enright is an invaluable companion for adventures in the sky. It contains star charts and is available at the Sharbot Lake Pharmacy. It can also be ordered from the Royal Astronomical Society of...
It’s that time of year when some of the most spectacular and observable objects can be found in the night sky. But there’s a price to pay. The stars don’t come out until close to 10 p.m. You have to expect to stay up late if you go out to tour...
If you have questions or suggestions, Fred Barrett may be contacted at [email protected] This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The Beginner’s Observer’s Guide by Leo Enright is...
By Fred Barrett
Oh, the frustration! The grief and stress of suffering bad weather can be so upsetting for an amateur astronomer! I said “Good Grief!” (among other words) many times the night of the Lunar eclipse. It was a no show and sat sadly out of sight...
Boy oh boy, do we ever have an exceptional night this month! Cancel any other plans you might have for the night of April 14 - 15. There’s a total lunar eclipse during the early hours after midnight and Mars is at its closest approach to Earth all...
To try and figure out what celestial event might have been the Star of Bethlehem 2000 years ago, we must have a reasonably accurate idea of when Jesus Christ was born. Theological historians place the birth of Jesus in September or October in 3 or 2...
December is always a great month for stargazing. A telescope shows Mars as a tiny dot low in the southwest about a fist width at arm’s length (10 degrees) just after sunset. Venus is 5 degrees below Saturn in the southeast in the early days of...
December is always a great month for stargazing. A telescope shows Mars as a tiny dot low in the southwest about a fist width at arm’s length (10 degrees) just after sunset. Venus is 5 degrees below Saturn in the southeast in the early days of...
I thought that a tour of The Great Square of Pegasus and a few observing challenges would be interesting this month. Pegasus can be found during November high in the south just below the zenith. If you go out between 8 and 9 pm you should have no...
By Fred Barrett The Mars rover Curiosity is living up to its name and discovering fascinating info on the red planet – stream beds and maybe life millions of years ago! Watch for the latest NASA updates and keep track of what is being discovered...
August was a very exciting month. There was the Perseid meteor shower on the 11th; the Milky Way was at its best and will continue to be so through September; and the Curiosity rover made a very complicated and successful landing on Mars. More...
By Fred Barrett What a great Venus transit! I hope you all saw the excellent article by Julie Druker on the front page of the June 7th Frontenac News. Check the Frontenac News website archives if you missed it. July and August are the glory days for...
By Fred Barrett Don’t you dare miss the Venus transit! It’s an event that won’t happen again for 115 years. It will occur between 6 p.m. and sunset on June 5. Please protect your eyes. Use #14 welder’s glasses or solar filters that can be...
By Fred Barrett I want to give you plenty of warning for the transit of Venus across the face of the Sun on June 5. This is an extremely rare event. It begins in our area at roughly 6 p.m. EDT and you will be able to witness it until sunset at 8:48...
By Fred Barrett Photo of the Moon by Fred Barrett Exciting news this month! I have been helping my fellow amateur astronomer Bob Hillier build his new observatory. We had a good fall and were able to clear the land and complete most of the...
By Fred Barrett This month let’s talk about naming stars! There’s nothing to stop you from naming a star after yourself. When I was very young, there was a very bright star in the north that I decided was mine and I named it “Fred’s Star”....
By Fred Barrett Coronal Mass Ejections and spectacular views of the Aurora Borealis have been in the news lately and I thought that a review of Sun basics and what causes CMEs and flares was in order. The Sun makes up 99.8 % of the mass of the solar...
By Fred Barrett Calling all observers! Send me your sightings. We can share what we have seen through this column. We live in a beautiful dark sky area. Don’t let what you have seen go unreported. This month I am going to give a few pointers on...
By Fred Barrett The Sun is especially magnificent right now. It is close to its maximum sunspot level. This happens every 11 years and the maximum is predicted for 2012. We have a good number of sunspots right now and if this is before the maximum,...
By Fred Barrett The Sun is especially magnificent right now. It is close to its maximum sunspot level. This happens every 11 years and the maximum is predicted for 2012. We have a good number of sunspots right now and if this is before the maximum,...
By Fred Barrett Let’s talk aurora borealis this month! I’m sure some of you have seen recent displays of these spectacular rippling curtains of light in the sky. We are in the midst of what is called a Solar maximum. During a Solar maximum the...
By Fred Barrett This month pull out your binoculars and search the area shared by Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Throughout October they can be found by looking straight up at the zenith of the sky. Now shift your gaze 20 degrees (a fist width) to the...
I couldn’t have planned things better! I was searching through my sky charts for a good object for you to look for this month and I wanted it to be in the area where I challenged you last month. I thought it would be doubling your pleasure to...
By Fred Barrett Last column I said that we were going to visit the huge constellation Ophiuchus this month. I changed my mind and decided to challenge you with finding two of the smallest constellations. They are the constellations Delphinus, the...
By Fred Barrett Let’s have a look at Corona Borealis this month. It’s a small constellation and can be found between the constellation Bootes to its right and Hercules to the left. I hope some of you, using the techniques I mentioned last month,...
By Fred Barrett I’ve been giving you a good dose of hard science lately. I thought that maybe I should give that a rest for a while and change direction by offering up a few tips and techniques on basic observing. Some of you have written or...
By Fred Barrett This month let’s have a look at where White Dwarf stars come from. We learned last month that stars under 8 times the mass of our Sun do not blow up as Supernovae. Stars with less than 8 solar masses fuse hydrogen to helium in the...
By Fred Barrett Supernovas, planetary nebulas, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes. What are they all anyway? It was all over the news recently that 10-year-old Kathryn Gray of Fredericton, New Brunswick, became the youngest person ever to...
By Fred Barrett Photo left: Fred Barrett, courtesy Fred Barrett Normally in the last column of the year I would write about what to expect in January of next year. But January is quite a few days away, so I thought instead to give you a few...
By Fred Barrett November’s column marks the start of my second year as your friendly, local astronomy scribbler. I hope that I have tempted more than a few of you to go out and look up at the beauty of our dark country skies. It’s something that...
By Fred Barrett Nights are cooling off now and darkness is falling much earlier. Speaking of fall, I have written before that it is the best time of the whole year for astronomy. You don’t have to wait up late for a dark sky and there are few or...
By Fred Barrett The nights are getting longer and the sun is setting earlier. Thank goodness we don’t have to stay up quite so late to tour the heavens and there are fewer squadrons of bugs orbiting about our heads. With its crisp clear and steady...
By Fred Barrett The Summer Triangle - note that straight up is North East. This month we’re off to rummage around the asterism known as the Summer Triangle. It’s made up of three bright stars Vega, Deneb and Altair in three constellations, Lyra,...
By Fred Barrett This month and next provide a feast of stellar targets for binoculars and wide field telescopes. There are enough nebulae, galaxies, globular and open clusters to satisfy the greediest of stargazers and most are quite easy to find!...
By Fred Barrett There’s a special treat this month for those of you willing to put in a little extra effort. About an hour before the first glimmer of dawn in the East, you will be able to see Comet McNaught (Comet C/2009 R1). Robert McNaught of...
