Night Sky

• DEC 2 –  On this day in 1609, Galileo used the small telescope that he built himself to look at the moon. Rather than seeing a perfect and unblemished sphere, which, at the time, was the predominant idea as to what all heavenly bodies should be, he saw that the moon was “uneven, rough, … Highlights of the December Sky 2019

  The solar system’s innermost planet is also its most bashful.   Because it hugs the Sun at an average distance of 36 million miles, Mercury becomes an elusive world to spot from here on Earth. Whenever it does venture far enough away from the Sun, it will make a brief appearance in our skies for … November 2019 Feature – The Transit of Mercury

  • NOV 1 –  The waxing crescent moon is just to the west of Saturn.   Jupiter lies just a bit further west of the moon.   Both the moon and Jupiter straddle the summer Milky Way.                 • NOV 2 –  Tonight, the crescent moon is now to … Highlights of the November Sky 2019

“It is a most beautiful and delightful sight to behold the body of the moon.” Galileo Galilei, “The Starry Messenger” (1610)   If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a bazillion times: the moon is one of the most rewarding celestial objects you can observe with either a pair of binoculars or a small … October 2019 Feature – The Lunar Chain Gang

• OCT 1 – NASA began operations on this date back in 1958 • OCT 3 The waxing crescent moon and Jupiter form a lovely conjunction in the sky tonight. • OCT 4 –  Sputnik became the first artificial satellite on this date back in 1957, ushering in the Space Race.     • OCT … Highlights of the October Sky 2019

  As we bid farewell to summer this month, I thought it might be a good idea to pay a visit to one of the season’s best deep sky objects while we still can, Messier 27, a.k.a., “The Dumbbell Nebula”.   FINDING M27 Locating this nebula can be a bit tricky, but once you find … September 2019 Feature – Messier 27: The Dumbbell Nebula

• SEPT 2 –  Viking 2 lands on Mars. NASA’s Viking Project consisted of two space probe missions to the Red Planet. Each probe consisted of an orbiter that would survey the planet from above, while a lander would analyze the composition of the Martian soil as well as conduct a number of biology experiments.   … Highlights of the September Sky 2019

• AUG 1 – Maria Mitchell (1818-18890) was born on this day. Maria, the third child in a family of 10 children, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts and would go on to become America’s first paid woman astronomer after being hired on at Vassar College to both teach astronomy and to run the university’s observatory. … Highlights of the August Sky 2019

The universe is filled with a multitude of wonder and beauty, but, in my opinion, the most wondrous and beautiful of all celestial objects must surely be star forming nebulas. This month, I want to show you a photograph of one such place within the universe and it is known as the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud … August 2019 Feature – Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex

  • JULY 2 New Moon begins at 2:16 PM CDT. • JULY 4 The planet Earth is at aphelion, the furthest point in its orbit around the Sun, at a distance of 94.5 million miles (5:00 PM CDT). On this day in the year 1054, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic astronomers record seeing SN1054, a … Highlights of the July Sky 2019