The Astrospheric app forest fire smoke distribution map across North America for Sunday night, July 28, 2024. Purple and red indicate the most severe smoke loading in the sky overhead. Many weather forecasts will predict clear, cloudless skies – but observers and imagers will find the fainter celestial objects significantly dimmed. I highly recommend the…
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This image of Saturn through the 20″ diameter telescope at the Weikersheim Observatory in southern Germany just after it emerged from behind the moon was the NASA APOD for April 7, 2013. It was composited together from two different exposures by Jens Hackmann. Hi, Summer Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of…
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As shown above, on Friday, July 26, 2024 from 9:38 to 9:44 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 entering Earth’s shadow low in the southeast near the bright star Altair. (courtesy: Heavens-above.com) Artificial satellites…
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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, July 14, 2024 from 9:38 to 9:44 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high over the GTA in a bright pass, rising over the western horizon and then flying past Polaris and Cassiopeia before setting in the northeast. (courtesy: Heavens-above.com) Artificial satellites are visible because they…
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This image from the Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory shows the spectacular globular star cluster Messier 4. This great ball of ancient stars is one of the closest of such stellar systems to the Earth and appears in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion) close to…
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As shown above, on Friday, July 12, 2024 from 9:35 to 9:41 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising above the west-southwestern horizon near the moon and then past the bright stars Arcturus and Deneb before setting in the east-northeast. (courtesy:…
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