Special to CosmicTribune.com, May 19, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, MAY 19 ■ The brightest asteroid, 4 Vesta, is nicely placed in a moonless dark sky in late evening. It’s about two weeks past opposition and still about magnitude 6.0. It’s located 24° below Arcturus, near the Virgo-Libra border, and about 9° and 10° above Beta and […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, May 14, 2025 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher The United States faces major technical and political challenges in its race with China and Russia to create sustainable manned bases on the Moon. However, it is also assuring that this is not just a geostrategic competition — as important as it is that the […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, May 11, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, MAY 11 ■ What is the oldest thing you have ever seen? For everyone in the world it’s at least the Sun and other objects of the solar system, age 4.6 billion years. (Virtually everything on or a little way under Earth’s surface is much younger.) Next […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, May 7, 2025 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher Thirty years ago in early 1995, Chinese paramilitary naval forces began a crucial phase in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) objective to impose its control over the South China Sea, clearing the way to secure global hegemony and also, hegemony in space. In those early […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, May 4, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SATURDAY, MAY 3 ■ Now the waxing Moon shines next to Mars. They’re only couple degrees apart. Meanwhile, Mars is less than 1° to the right of the Beehive star cluster, as binoculars or a telescope at low power will reveal. SUNDAY, MAY 4 ■ Mars skims […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, April 28, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, APRIL 27 ■ Arcturus is the brightest star high in the east these evenings. Spica shines lower right of it by about three fists at arm’s length. To the right of Spica by half that distance is the distinctive four-star constellation Corvus, the springtime Crow. […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, April 23, 2025 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher Without having to respond to a free press or an inquisitive legislature, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is free to define government transparency as it pleases, usually minimally in order to deny critical insights to adversaries looking to defend themselves from CCP aggression. This is […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, April 20, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, APRIL 20 ■ Find Procyon high above brilliant Sirius in the southwest right after dark. Look upper left of Procyon by 15° (about a fist and a half at arm’s length) for the dim head of Hydra, the enormous Sea Serpent. His head is a […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, April 14, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, APRIL 13 ■ Vega, the bright “Summer Star,” rises in the northeast these evenings. How early or late depends on your latitude and also on your longitude within your time zone. Exactly where should you watch for Vega to come up? Spot the Big Dipper […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, April 8, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, APRIL 6 ■ The Big Dipper stands high in the northeast these evenings, tipping over to the left dumping water. Its handle plus the two stars of its bowl closest to the handle form a broad, rough arc. To the right of the arc, not […]