With a change of seasons only days away, mid-March skies offer celestial sights that even the novice stargazer will find easy to enjoy. Lunar rectangle. After nightfall on Monday, March 10, look for the waxing gibbous moon to form a corner of a rectangle with Jupiter and the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, high in the southern…
A crescent moon snuggles up to the innermost planets this week, while sky-watchers will also see mythical twins reveal two stellar wonders. Zodiacal lights. With the moon out of the early evening sky this week, ideal sky conditions prevail for hunting down the elusive zodiacal lights. This ethereal glow across the sky is caused by sunlight…
Comets dominate the pre-dawn skies and their flybys of neighboring planets offer observing challenges for early bird sky-gazers. Comet ISON Brightens. Late last week Comet ISON began to wake up and now shines ten times brighter than it did just a week earlier. At magnitude 5.5 it has finally reached naked-eye levels from dark locations, according…
Heading into the final days of September and first week of autumn sky-watchers will find the moon dancing with celestial luminaries like planets and stars. Mercury and Spica. Within a half hour after sunset on Tuesday, September 24, look toward the very low southwest horizon for planet Mercury making a remarkably close encounter with Virgo…
Heading into the final days of September and first week of autumn sky-watchers will find the moon dancing with celestial luminaries like planets and stars. Mercury and Spica. Within a half hour after sunset on Tuesday, September 24, look toward the very low southwest horizon for planet Mercury making a remarkably close encounter with Virgo…
The solar system just got a bit smaller thanks to two awe-inspiring portraits of Earth and the moon taken from nearly the opposite sides of the solar system. On Friday July 19th, Earth got a great two for one deal. Both NASA’s Cassini spacecraft at Saturn, nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away, and…
The solar system just got a bit smaller thanks to two awe-inspiring portraits of Earth and the moon taken from nearly the opposite sides of the solar system. On Friday July 19th, Earth got a great two for one deal. Both NASA’s Cassini spacecraft at Saturn, nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away, and…
Gaze skyward this week and watch our solar system’s two innermost planets have a strikingly close encounter, while changing seasons brings the year’s largest moon in the sky. Moon and Spica. On Tuesday, June 18, look towards the southern sky to see the gibbous waxing moon glide extremely close to the distant star Spica (263…
Gaze skyward this week and watch our solar system’s two innermost planets have a strikingly close encounter, while changing seasons brings the year’s largest moon in the sky. Moon and Spica. On Tuesday, June 18, look towards the southern sky to see the gibbous waxing moon glide extremely close to the distant star Spica (263…
This week skywatchers get a chance to watch the moon strike a pose with bright stars while the most elusive of naked-eye planets puts on its best sky show of the year. Moon poses with Venus. About 30 minutes after sunset on Monday, June 10, skywatchers around the world can look towards the very low…