Night Sky

  • JAN 2 Earth is at perihelion, its closest distance to the Sun at 91.4 million miles. Prolific science fiction author and polymath, Isaac Asimov was born this day in 1920. National Science Fiction Day marks the occasion of his birth. • JAN 3 The Quadrantid Meteor Shower peaks tonight. It’s a generally reliable … Highlights of the January Sky 2019

What would December’s holiday season be without festive light displays? Well, with the exception of a few Scrooges and Grinches, most of us would say not very festive at all. I guess you could say that we are rather fortunate this year since an otherwise uncaring universe is bestowing upon us, not one, but two … December 2018 Feature – Cosmic Lights for Holiday Nights

I’m just as human as anyone else, so if I see a good two-for-one deal, I’m going to take advantage of it. The universe occasionally makes these kinds of offers so that we stargazers can fit two (or more) celestial objects into a single field of view (i.e. double stars, galaxy pairs, galaxy clusters, lunar … November 2018 Feature – The Double Cluster, NGC 869 and NGC 884

  In 2009, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), successfully entered into orbit around the moon in order to carry out its primary mission of mapping and imaging the lunar surface in unprecedented detail. The following year, at the Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA decided to celebrate the success of the mission with the general public … October 2018 Feature – International Observe the Moon Night

To best appreciate this month’s feature object, we must go back in time 4.6 billion years ago to when our solar system was born.   Prior to this, the solar system was nothing more than a gleam within the eye of a cloud of interstellar gas and dust orbiting two-thirds of the way out from the … September 2018 Feature – Comet 21/P Giacobini-Zinner

  Every backyard stargazer has their favorite object to showcase in a telescope, objects that are guaranteed to elicit a few “oohs” and “ahs” from among the uninitiated. Things like the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, the Orion Nebula, and the Hercules Cluster are all going to be on their lists and I can almost guarantee you … August 2018 Feature – Albireo

Mars tugs at the human imagination like no other planet. With a force mightier than gravity, it attracts the eye to the shimmering red presence in the clear night sky – John Noble Wilford, Mars Beckons Of all the planets in our solar system, Mars holds a special fascination for us. Upon its dusty red … July 2018 Feature – Mars

    Astronomy is perhaps the oldest of the sciences. Ever since our distant ancestors were capable of looking up at the night sky and wondering what those points of light in the darkness were, we became, in essence, astronomers.   Of course, it would be millennia before we could know that stars were distant suns, … June 2018 Feature – The Summer Triangle

    Mnemonic devices are useful memory tools and astronomy is certainly no stranger to them. In elementary school many of us of a certain age learned the order of the planets of our solar system with this bit of doggerel: “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas”. The first letter of each … May 2018 Feature – Arc to Arcturus and Speed on to Spica

    There is always something magical about seeing the bright flash of a meteor as it streaks across a dark, star-filled sky.   One moment you are gazing upwards, admiring the view of the “fixed” stars upon the dome of the sky, when, suddenly, from out of nowhere, a tiny bit of rubble left behind … April 2018 Feature – The Lyrids – An April Shower