Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 16, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16 ■ The waning gibbous Moon rises around 10 p.m. tonight, with Spica following it up just 2° or 3° below it (for North America). The Moon will draw closer to Spica through the night, to pass only about 1° under it around dawn […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 10, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10 ■ After dinnertime Sirius the Dog Star blazes in the southeast, the brightest star of Canis Major. Look below Orion. Every February, the Moon is full or nearly so when it crosses Gemini. This February Mars greets it there. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 ■ Full Moon […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 3, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2 ■ Today is the center of winter. We cross the midpoint between the December solstice and the March equinox at 6:50 p.m. EST (23:50 UT). That minute is the very bottom of the wheel of the year, astronomically speaking. ■ On Groundhog Day […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 27, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, JANUARY 27 ■ While the evenings are still dark and moonless, use big binoculars or a telescope to hunt down the 8th-magnitude globular cluster M79 in Lepus below the feet of Orion. Summer is the season for most globular clusters, but here we have a rare […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 20, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, JANUARY 20 ■ Zero-magnitude Capella high overhead, and zero-magnitude Rigel in Orion’s foot, have almost the same right ascension. This means they cross your sky’s meridian at almost exactly the same time: around 9 p.m. now, depending on how far east or west you live in […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 13, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, JANUARY 12 ■ Mars is nearest to Earth tonight, appearing 14.6 arcseconds wide and magnitude –1.4. That’s as bright as Sirius, which sparkles whitely about four fists to Mars’s lower right in early evening, and directly below Mars when they’re highest around midnight or 1 a.m. […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 6, 2025 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, JANUARY 6 ■ First-quarter Moon (exactly first-quarter at 6:56 p.m. EST). Find the Great Square of Pegasus to the Moon’s upper right shortly after dark, and directly right of the Moon later. A diagonal through the Square points at the Moon (for evening in North America). […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, December 30, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29 ■ As the year nears its end, Orion fully comes into his own. He’s striding up the east-southeastern sky as soon as it gets dark, with his three-star Belt nearly vertical. Left of the Belt is orange Betelgeuse and right of the Belt […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, December 23, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. ■ Last-quarter Moon (exact at 5:18 p.m. EST). The Moon rises around midnight, under the hind feet of Leo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 23 ■ The little Pleiades cluster shines very high in the southeast after dinnertime, no bigger than your fingertip at arm’s length. How many Pleiads can […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, December 16, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15 ■ The Summer Triangle is finally sinking low in the west, and Altair is the first of its stars to go (for mid-northern skywatchers). Start by spotting bright Vega, magnitude zero, the brightest star in the northwest right after dark. The brightest one […]