EYES TO THE SKY June 10 – 23, 2019 Jupiter shines all night. Sun’s longest day A pivotal celestial event occurs this evening, June 10: Planet Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, rises in the southeast opposite the setting Sun in the northwest. The king of the planets, a brilliant star-like light, will […]

EYES TO THE SKY May 28 – June 9, 2019 The Spring Triangle – an asterism   While writing my recent column about bright stars in the south at nightfall, I was reminded of patterns those stars shape in addition to the position each has in an official constellation. Arcturus is the brightest star in […]

On springtime evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, extend the handle of the Big Dipper to arc to Arcturus, spike Spica and slide into the constellation Corvus the Crow. This arc is sometimes called the spring semicircle. The Crow’s bill is pointed toward the Virgin’s jewel, Spica, as if it were waiting for a chance to grab […]

Evening twilight, end of April, first days of May. image: Starry Night, Judy Isacoff For delight in discovery plan to observe many fleeting moments that mark the movement of the seasons and other special events in the sky this week. Beginning with the short window of evening twilight, bid farewell to the scintillating stars of […]

“Lightning Bugs” 2012 by Donald R. Pettit, NASA astronaut The spectacular image, above, was produced by Donald R. Pettit, a NASA astronaut, from multiple photographs captured during Expedition XXXI of the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting 240 miles above Earth.”It is a star trail and Earth image showing massive thunderstorms. The white flashes are lightning […]

The seasons result from the Earth’s rotational axis tilting 23.5 degrees out of perpendicular to the ecliptic – or Earth’s orbital plane Everyday movements of the planets, stars, moon and Sun, through day and night, are “aha” moments when we remark the changes of the positions of celestial bodies in the sky and in relation […]

At this moment every year, we meet to observe with delight the first signs of spring in the sky, before the earth thaws. The increasing light and heat of the Sun and the re-appearance of spring stars Regulus and Arcturus in the evening sky are heralds of flowering elm trees, blooming willows and alders, redwing blackbirds, and, […]

It was nearly 7 a.m. and 14 degrees under a pale blue sky dappled with speeding, silvery-outlined golden clouds just overhead. I was north of town, in the countryside, walking swiftly to an opening in the forest for a view to the southeast where planet Venus might still be visible. Once there, I scanned above […]