On April 8, 2024, parts of North America will be plunged into darkness for the longest total solar eclipse to hit our continent in around 100 years. A total eclipse itself is only possible by sheer cosmic coincidence – with the Sun’s diameter being 400 times larger than the Moon’s and the Sun being almost …
A Supermoon is when a full Moon coincides with being at, or near, its closest to Earth. The Moon orbits Earth in an elliptical shape – not circular – so there are times when the Moon is closer to the Earth than others. When it is at its closest, it is known as being at …
With the turn of the season and the evenings becoming more palatable in temperature, we are approaching my favourite season of all: Space Station Watching Season. Humankind’s most expensive object orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes – travelling at an astonishing 5 miles per second. And, you can see it with your own eyes! …
Look West about thirty minutes after sunset on March 27 to see a “parade of planets”. Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Mars, and the Moon will be aligned in arc in the evening sky – although you’ll only be able to see Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and the Moon with the naked eye. Grab some binoculars or a …
You don’t need to be a nautical navigator to know what you’re looking at in the night’s sky. Although, looking at the North Star aka Polaris can be helpful according to every survival movie I have ever seen. While many folks can readily recognize constellations like The Big Dipper, Orion’s Belt, and the Southern Cross, there’s …
You may have already noticed a very bright planet looking East in the early night’s sky. This is our solar system’s largest planet Jupiter, and not only is it in opposition (meaning it is on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun), but it is also the closest it has been to Earth since …
Seven planets are now aligning in the night sky in a rare conjunction event; Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, and the Moon, which hasn’t occurred since 2004 and won’t happen again until 2040. And, they are visible in the order they are from the Sun! The five brightest planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, …
The brilliant Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team has achieved brilliance again, bringing us the first image of the black hole at the center of our very own Milky Way galaxy – Sagittarius A*. While much closer to Earth, being that it is in our own galaxy some 27,000 light years away, this black hole was …
The James Webb Telescope’s instruments are now fully aligned and focused! And, according to NASA, the “optical performance of the telescope continues to be better than the engineering team’s most optimistic predictions.” After nearly 25 years of development and a million mile do-or-die unfolding process in space this is music to my ears. To check …
On December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn will converge in the evening sky to form a “Great Conjunction” – the likes of which hasn’t been in 397 years. Step outside 45 minutes after sunset, and look low on the Southwest horizon to see these two planets seemingly appear as one (there will be a mere 0.1° …