Every day, a ball of fire crosses the sky.             This bizarre reality was so flabbergasting in ancient times that people could relate to it only with worship. The Aztecs and Egyptians were far from alone in regarding the Sun as a god. The Persians, Incas, and Tamils (of southern India) also elevated the Sun to […]

All week, and into next, there is a dance taking place on the celestial dome; the glittering partners move close to each other, change their positions, flirt with a crescent moon, and part. Tomorrow is the culmination of this winter’s unfolding relationship between brilliant planet Venus and radiant Jupiter: they arrive at conjunction – closest […]

 “When you think about it, there aren’t many celestial objects that change color…. But now, on January 20, the Moon will have real color, deep color.” Bob Berman, Astronomer* The year begins with celestial dynamics that excite our appetite for beauty and spark our capacity for wonder. The most dramatic event is a total eclipse […]

The dark of night extends into morning most noticeably from today through mid-January: in our neighborhood, the Sun rises around 7:20am. It is the ideal time to observe planet Venus, the Morning Star, shining brightly high in the southeast as late as 7am. During the whole period of this post, civil twilight begins just half […]

This week, December’s Geminid shower is predicted to peak Thursday the 13th after 10pm into Friday the 14th before dawn, with 2am as optimum observing. For details about the Geminids, click here. To view the original Trouvelot lithograph in the exhibition, “Extreme Nature!”, at The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, click here. Sunset, December […]

Consider that the Full Moon rises in an easterly direction at about the same time the Sun sets along the western horizon. The moon is visible all night and is equally lovely to observe the following morning, when the Full Moon sets along the western horizon as the Sun rises more or less opposite. Moving […]

Out for a walk one late afternoon on a recent weekend away from home, I looked up to appreciate the Sun. My senses were heightened in response to arriving on the sandy shore of the Great Paconic Bay that divides the North and South Forks of Long Island. As I played at the water’s edge, […]

The Summer Triangle, a majestic, nearly isosceles triangle shaped by three of the brightest stars visible at northern latitudes, is prominent in evening skies from June through December. Vega, Altair and Deneb – in descending order of brilliance – are so luminous that we can spot them in the deepening blue of twilight. http://earthsky.org/tonight/use-summer-triangle-to-locate-flat-plane-of-milky-way On […]

  A waxing crescent moon appears to the upper left of planet Saturn in the south-southwest as darkness gathers tonight, the 15th. On the 16th, a half moon (first quarter) is suspended further left of Saturn, approaching red Mars, the most riveting point of light in the sky. By the 19th, a waxing gibbous (larger […]

When the great orange star, Arcturus, makes its debut in the east around the Spring Equinox, we look through bare trees in the darkness to see the distant sun rise above the horizon. The second brightest star in northern skies – next to Sirius – Arcturus is harbinger of warm weather. Now, as leaves change […]

At nightfall, look for the Great Square of Pegasus suspended above the eastern horizon. The Great Square is an easy to recognize pattern that is shaped by three stars of the constellation Pegasus – the winged horse of ancient Greek mythology – and one star belonging to Andromeda, the constellation that follows Pegasus in the […]

My address: Planet Earth, Orion spur, the Perseus arm of the Milky Way Galaxy “A galaxy is a gargantuan collection of stellar and interstellar matter – stars, gas, dust, neutron stars, black holes – isolated in space and held together by its own gravity. Astronomers are aware of literally millions of galaxies beyond our own.” Astronomy […]

The Summer Triangle, an impressive star pattern shaped by three bright stars, is visible high in the southeast as twilight deepens and is prominent all night.   In the evening sky, the Summer Triangle hovers above Mars, the not-to-be-missed brightest celestial body – excepting the moon – in the southeastern sky. Altair, the lowest star […]

The culmination of an extraordinary celestial event is underway. Look to the southeast at nightfall: a glowing golden orb rising above the skyline will bewilder you if you have not seen planet Mars recently. Distinctly yellowish and shining at a magnitude of -2.75 today, Mars reaches peak brilliance (-2.78m) from the 26th through the 28th, […]

In early twilight, within half an hour of sunset when the western sky is pale blue, planet Venus turns our heads to receive its brilliant light, now 15 degrees above the horizon. Tonight, the 9th, Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion, is in conjunction with Venus: when twilight deepens, see “the […]

In a country cabin on a clear night last week, I was on my way to bed at about 11 o’clock when I made a detour to the front door. If the stars and planets are so bright that you spot them from a window, the allure of the rest of the sky is irresistible, […]

When we look up to the night sky we see beyond Earth’s protective atmosphere to the planets in our solar system and the universe of stars that comprise our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy. Observatory Director, Dr. Eileen Ryan, explains this image, “I’m observing with the telescope from the control room in the observatory building. […]

A note from a reader: “It is now 9pm. For the past few months, about this time in the evening, I view a very bright “planet.” I face west and this object is descending pretty quickly. Two months ago I figured it was Jupiter, now I am told Jupiter will not appear until a few more […]

As twilight deepens, the starlike light of bright Jupiter appears above the southeastern horizon. Jupiter climbs to its highest point around midnight, then descends toward the southwest. On May 8-9, Jupiter, Earth and the Sun lined up, a momentous celestial phenomenon known as “opposition.” Around this time of opposition, the planet is brightest for the […]