Month: May 2024

Science Outreach Specialists

Moon Leaves Evening to Dance with Morning Planets, Spotty Saturn, and We Take a Boo at Boötes!

This image of the Snowglobe Globular Star Cluster (aka NGC 5466) in Boötes simulates the view through a telescope at 132x. The area covered by the red circular viewport covers a bit more than the full moon’s size in the sky. On a dark night, the cluster can be seen as a faint fuzzy patch…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of May 26th, 2024

As shown above, on Sunday, May 26, 2024 from 9:53 to 9:58 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the west-northwestern horizon near the bright stars Pollux and Castor and then passing even brighter Arcturus before entering Earth’s shadow just…
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Moon Maps, Full Flower Moon Floods Night with Light, and Planets Prefer Predawn!

Hello, Mid-May Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of May 19th, 2024 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics. You can also follow me on Twitter as @astrogeoguy! Unless otherwise noted, all times are expressed in Eastern Time.…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of May 19th, 2024

As shown above, on Thursday, May 23, 2024 from 10:43 to 10:47 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the west-northwestern horizon and then crossing through the Big Dipper before entering Earth’s shadow in high the east-southeastern sky near the…
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Awesome Aurorae, Gorgeous Luna Grows in Evening, Planets Parade in the Pre-Dawn, and Big Dipper Benefits!

I captured this image of the once-in-a-lifetime aurora borealis on May 10, 2024 at 10:41 pm, from the trail behind my house in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. Despite somethin cloud we were able to see the aurorae in motion. The green glow is from singly ionized oxygen. The blue arises from nitrogen and the purples come…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of May 12th, 2024

As shown above, on Monday, May 13, 2024 from 9:20 to 9:26 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the west-southwestern horizon and then past the the crescent moon and through the Big Dipper’s handle before setting in the east-northeastern…
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The Crescent Moon Moves from Morning to Evening, Planets Primarily in Pre-dawn, and the Lion Leads Spring Galaxies West!

This image of the Mice Galaxies (NGC 4676) obtained with the Hubble space Telescope. The two galaxies, 300 million light-years away from us, are in the process of merging, tugging on one another with gravity. Eventually, the stars will coalesce, likely into a far less interesting-looking elliptical galaxy. For now, the streams of stars extending…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of May 5th, 2024

As shown above, on Friday, May 10, 2024 from 10:12 to 10:18 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the southwestern horizon and then past the bright stars Arcturus and Vega before entering Earth’s shadow just above the east-northeastern horizon.…
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