Special to CosmicTribune.com, September 22, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 ■ Goodbye to summer — at last! Today is equinox day. Earth passes the September equinox point in its orbit at 8:44 a.m. EDT (12:44 UT). This is when the Sun, in its six-month journey south, crosses the celestial equator — and equivalently, […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 19, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, AUGUST 18 ■ Whenever bright Vega shines nearest your zenith, as it does right after dark now. Two hours later, when Deneb passes the zenith, it’s the turn of little Delphinus and boat-shaped Capricornus down below it to stand at their highest due south. After […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 29, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SATURDAY, JULY 27 ■ Last-quarter Moon (exact at 10:52 p.m. EDT). The Moon, in Pisces, rises around 11 or midnight tonight below the head of Andromeda and the Great Square of Pegasus. SUNDAY, JULY 28 ■ Starry Scorpius is sometimes called “the Orion of Summer” — […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 8, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, JANUARY 7 ■ Sirius and Procyon in the balance. Sirius, the Dog Star, sparkles low in the east-southeast after dinnertime. Procyon, the Little Dog Star, shines in the east about two fists at arm’s length to Sirius’s left. ■ On Monday morning the 8th, the waning crescent […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 1, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, JANUARY 1 ■ After the noise and celebration at the turning of midnight tonight, step outside into the silent, cold dark. The waning gibbous Moon will be shining high in the east, with the Sickle of Leo floating about a fist at arm’s length above it. […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, October 16, 2023, 2023 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 ■ Now that it’s mid-October, Deneb has replaced Vega as the zenith star after nightfall (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes). MONDAY, OCTOBER 16 ■ The Great Square of Pegasus is now high in the east-southeast after dark. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17 ■ Look for bright Capella […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, October 3, 2023 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1 ■ The waning gibbous Moon rises in the east-northeast around the end of twilight. Ten or fifteen minutes later, Jupiter rises just 2° or 3° to the Moon’s lower right. Later in the evening the two shine high, as shown below. These are currently […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, September 4, 2023 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 ■ Jupiter’s four bright Galilean moons are roughly the size of our own Moon, but at 1,800 times the distance, they appear in a telescope as hardly more than pinpoints. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot should transit the planet’s central meridian tonight around 1 a.m. […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 10, 2023 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 ■ The Big Dipper hangs diagonally in the northwest after dark. From its midpoint, look to the right to find Polaris (not very bright) glimmering due north as always. MONDAY, AUGUST 7 ■ A few Perseids trickle in starting in late July, then they […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, May 13, 2023 May is the month when the Milky Way is altogether missing from the evening sky, for those of us living in the latitudes of the continental United States. That’s because the Milky Way now lies all the way around the horizon in a circle, and the North Galactic Pole […]
