What’s Up in the Night Sky? – August 2023
The Perseids are coming! August nights are lengthening as we head for the autumn and that means extra time for observing. That’s a bonus because the main event this month is the annual Perseid meteor shower. It’s the big one with more fireballs and bright tracks than any other shower.… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? July 2023
Oh my, oh my! It’s summer nights with only a few hours of darkness plus bugs galore to keep you company, but that’s not to say that enjoyable night sky travelling can’t be done. With Solstice done, the dark time is getting longer as the sun sets earlier and covering… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? June 2023
The planets are the main attraction this month. You can’t beat the brilliant sight of Venus high in the west this month. It’s prominent soon after sunset until it sets about 11:30 pm. Its brightness reaches -4.7 by month’s end. It sits in Gemini near the twin stars Castor and… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? May 2023
No spectacular astronomical events are expected this month unless you count pointing your eyes up at the night sky and having an entire universe to investigate. Sadly, that’s becoming more difficult as light pollution decreases sky darkness each year. Add to that the explosion of satellites filling up our sky.… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? May 2023
No spectacular astronomical events are expected this month unless you count pointing your eyes up at the night sky and having an entire universe to investigate. Sadly, that’s becoming more difficult as light pollution decreases sky darkness each year. Add to that the explosion of satellites filling up our sky.… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? – April 2023
Welcome to the Lyrid meteor shower this month! It’s active from April 14 to the 30th. Its radiant is in the constellation Lyra and close to the bright star Vega. It peaks on the evening of the 22nd. Just in time at mid month, the constellation Lyra appears over the… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? – March 2023
Through most of February, brilliant Venus and Jupiter have been a spectacular and stunning sight in the west just after sunset. It’s hard not to notice them in the evening sky, as their orbital paths bring them closer to each other every evening. They will be at their viewable closest… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? – February 2023
Snow, snow snow! It sure would be nice to have lots of starry light falling from a clear sky instead. There are no meteor showers to speak of this month except for the unexpected and random streaks of sporadic background meteors. We do have the Zodiacal light making its spring… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? – December 2022
What a great month for amateur astronomers! First, we have the eye popping Geminid meteor shower peaking at about 150 meteors per hour on the evening of December 13/14 and then we have a very bright, 70 degrees high in the sky, Mars for most of December. Although Mars was… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? – November 2022
We have a pretty good month coming up. Another decent meteor shower graces our sky - the Leonids, and there is a total eclipse of the Moon on the 8th! Don’t overlook Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They are easy and extraordinary sights in early and mid evening, especially in binoculars… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? – October 2022
It crashed! A NASA mission known as DART succeeded in colliding with an asteroid to test technologies for protecting Earth from asteroids that might be on a collision course with us. The space flight gathered information on a defense technique known as kinetic impact. Kinetic energy is equal to the… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky?
Saturn and Jupiter are a must to follow and observe through September. We have a cool fall sky with early darkness and no bugs! Saturn is a month past opposition and Jupiter will be at opposition late in the month. At opposition, a planet is as close to Earth as… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? – July 2022
I really enjoy taking you on a tour of the Milky Way and the summer triangle at this time every year. The observing hour is not too late for amateurs and family to go out and enjoy a not too difficult observing challenge with or without binoculars. By 10 pm… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? Planets Galore! June 2022
The appearance of all seven planets in the eastern morning sky later this month before sunrise, will present to us a pretty rare view of all the main bodies of our solar system. On the 24th, they will all be lined up along the ecliptic with a crescent Moon near… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? May 2022
We have a real sky treat this month, a total eclipse of the Moon! It will be the first of two this year (The second occurs on November 8 in the early morning). The eclipse begins about 9:30 pm EDT when the outer edge of the Earth’s shadow, the penumbra,… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? April 2022
Great news! The Webb Space Telescope is open for business. After an incredibly complicated journey and a complex mechanical opening from its compact storage configuration in the Ariane rocket nose cone, it’s now taking its first pictures. We can look forward to many fundamental new discoveries about the origins of… READ MORE
