Month: July 2021

Science Outreach Specialists

Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of August 1st, 2021

As shown above, on Monday, August 2, 2021 from 9:54 pm to 9:58 pm EDT, the International Space Station will make a low pass visible in the GTA, rising from the western horizon near Venus, and then disappearing into Earth’s shadow in the southern sky in Scorpius. Artificial satellites are visible because they are high…
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Multiple Meteor Showers, Saturn Shines Brightest, and a Trip Through the Triangle and its Zoo!

This gorgeous image of the Dumbbell Nebula, aka Messier 27, in Vulpecula was captured by Steve McKinney of Toronto near Thornbury, Ontario on July 29, 2017. It shows a shell of glowing gas surrounding a hot white dwarf star, the corpse of a star similar in mass to our sun. The image spans about 0.4…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of July 25th, 2021

As shown above, on Thursday, July 29, 2021 from 9:49 pm to 9:55 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly over the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising from the northwestern horizon near Venus, flying through the bowls of both dippers and Cygnus, and then entering Earth’s shadow in the east-southeastern sky above…
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Shooting Star Season Starts, Pallas Pauses, and the Librated Full Thunder Moon Greets Gas Giants!

On Friday, July 23, the moon will reach its full phase. On that evening, the libration of the moon will cause the moon to appear to tilt downwards and twist to the left a bit, allowing Earthlings to see features along the moon’s northeastern limb that are normally not visible (green labels). Major lunar features…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of July 18th, 2021

As shown above, on Monday, July 19, 2021 from 9:37 pm to 9:43 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly over the GTA in a bright pass, rising over the western horizon near Venus and then setting below the northeastern horizon. Artificial satellites are visible because they are high enough to be bathed in…
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Venus veers Past Mars near a Waxing Moon, Midnight Planets plus Pluto, Sights for Moon-nights, and Lunar X !

This simulated view of Saturn for this month shows how the rings are closed enough now to reveal a bit of Saturn’s southern polar region. Hello, mid-July Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of July 11th, 2021 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of July 11th, 2021

As shown above, on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 from 11:06 pm to 11:13 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the west-southwestern horizon, flying closely past the bright star Arcturus, and then setting below the east-northeastern horizon. Artificial satellites are visible because…
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A Look at Ophiuchus, Aphelion for Earthlings, Mighty Planets Post-midnight, Young Moon meets Mercury, and then Venus-Mars!

This terrific image by Amir H. Abolfath was featured in NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for October 14, 2020. The bright star inside the orange zone at lower left is Antares in Scorpius. The big and bright globular cluster Messier 4 sits to its lower right. The pink region is glowing hydrogen gas…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of July 4th, 2021

Tom Glenn of San Diego, CA used software to work out when the International space Station would fly past Mars, and captured this amazing image on Monday, September 21, 2020. He recorded a video through his camera affixed to a tracking telescope. NASA APOD for Sept 23, 2020. Artificial satellites are visible because they are…
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