This colour image of the moon during the penumbral lunar eclipse of September 16, 2016 was taken by Robin Lee in Hong Kong. It was the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day for Oct 12, 2016. Welcome to mid-Spring, Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of April 30th, 2023 by Chris Vaughan.…
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As shown above, on Sunday morning, May 7, 2023 from 5:26 to 5:32 am EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying over the GTA in a very bright pass, rising over the northwestern horizon, and then flying through the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia before setting in the east. (courtesy: Heavens-above.com) Artificial satellites are…
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This beautiful natural image of the Hyades and the Pleiades clusters in Taurus, was captured and processed by Alan Dyer while he was travelling to Arizona in December, 2017. He used a Canon 5D MkII camera on a tracking mount and a total of eight minutes of exposure. The bright star Aldebaran at left is…
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As shown above, on Tuesday morning, April 25, 2023 from 5:31 to 5:37 am EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, exiting Earth’s shadow above the southwestern horizon, and then flying past the bright stars Vega and Deneb before setting in the east-northeast.…
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A sampling of galaxy forms. Clockwise from upper left: Messier 87 “Virgo A” (elliptical), Messier 102 “Spindle” (lenticular), NGC 1365 (barred spiral), NGC 4656 “the Crowbar” (irregular), and Messier 81 “Bode’s Nebula” (spiral). All except NGC 1365 are visible on spring evenings from mid-northern latitudes. Hello, Meteor and Galaxy lovers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights…
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As shown above, on Sunday, April 23, 2023 from 5:32 to 5:37 am EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying over the GTA in a bright pass, exiting Earth’s shadow above the south-southwestern horizon, and then flying under the bright star Altair before setting in the east-northeast. (courtesy: Heavens-above.com) Artificial satellites are visible…
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This spectacular photograph by Alan Dyer of Alberta, Canada captured Venus’ swing past the Pleiades Star Cluster, or the Seven Sisters, on Tuesday, April 3, 2012. The image, spanning about two fingers widths of the sky, nicely shows the mini-dipper shape of the stars that you would see through binoculars. Alan’s original blog post is…
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This image taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the fascinating Aristarchus Plateau. The crater Aristarchus at lower right is very prominent, and can be seen even with unaided eyes as a very bright patch. To its left is the similar-sized, but darker crater Herodotus. Vallis Schröteri, the largest sinuous rille on the moon, starts…
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As shown above, on Sunday, April 2, 2023 from 8:47 to 8:52 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying over the GTA in a very bright pass, rising from the west-northwestern horizon, and then flying closely past Venus, Orion’s Belt, and the bright star Sirius before entering Earth’s shadow low in the…
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