What’s Up in the Night Sky – January 2017
I hope the New Year finds you all raring to get out there and find all the adventures and challenges that our beautiful skies have to offer! Of course, the minus temperatures demand dressing carefully to keep warm but the crisp, clear vista overhead that comes with the below zero… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky - The Star of Bethlehem
To track down the celestial event that occurred 2000 years ago that might be interpreted as the Star of Bethlehem, 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 BC. They… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky - December 2016
I remember a Christmas Day some 15 years ago when a ¾ partial eclipse of the Sun occurred at midday. It was a cool, clear day and I was out there with my tripod and camera (a primitive DSLR) taking time lapse photos of the event while family and friends… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? February 2016
Is there a Planet X out there? Gravitational irregularities are shaping the orbits of some very distant Kuiper belt objects far out in the outer Solar System. Researchers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown at Caltech hypothesize that a very large planet some 5000 times the mass of Pluto, gravitationally dominates… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? May 2016
May is Mars month! Every 780 Earth days (2.14 years) Mars has its closest approach to Earth when it is in opposition, which occurs when it is in a line between the Earth and the Sun. Mars has the second greatest eccentricity after Mercury. Eccentricity is a measure of how… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? June 2016
Yahoo! I had a wonderful time getting a video of Mercury transiting the Sun last month. I have to say it was quite a challenge setting everything up to record the event. I can’t say that I’ll qualify for an Oscar with my not very exciting video of a tiny… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? September 2016
One of the biggest announcements in astronomy recently was the discovery of a planet orbiting the star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. First, let’s look at a bit of introductory information. Proxima Centauri is part of a trinary star system called Alpha Centauri, which is about 4.4… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? October 2016
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 predicted to peak on October 21… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? December 2015
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 BC. They researched several… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? November 2015
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. It is easy to make out with… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? September 2015
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 – an oval… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? August 2015
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 astonishing that it flew past Pluto and… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? July 2015
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 much frustration seeing… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? September
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 Kingston Chapter of the RASC and… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? October
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.m. and it ends close to 7:20 a.m.… READ MORE
What’s Up in the Night Sky? November
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 following weekend suffered… READ MORE
