This terrific image by Gabor Balazs shows the bright planet Mars (top centre) shining between the little Pleiades CLuster (right of centre) and the V-shaped Hyades Cluster, which forms the face of Taurus, the Bull in late December, 2022. The bright reddish star Aldebaran shines at the corner of the V. The image spans about…
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As shown above, on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 from 6:44 to 6:49 pm EST, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in a very bright pass, rising over the west-northwestern horizon and then flying closely past Mars and Betelgeuse before entering Earth’s shadow low in the east-southeastern sky near Sirius.…
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This amazing image of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) shows the narrow blue ion tail and the broad dusty debris tail. Celestial north is up. It was imaged by Michael Jäger of Austria on January 20, 2023 at 1:40 UT. He posted it on Twitter, where you can find a fantastic animated version. Follow him at…
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As shown above, on Monday, January 23, 2023 from 5:56 to 6:02 pm EST, the International Space Station will be visible flying past the GTA in a bright pass, rising over the western horizon to the right of Venus, and then flying under Polaris before entering Earth’s shadow low in the northeastern sky. (courtesy: Heavens-above.com) Artificial…
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This amazing composite image by Detlef Hartmann shows the continued expansion of the Crab Nebula Supernova Remnant (aka Messier 1) in Taurus over 10 years (Sept 29, 2008 through Sept 22, 2017). It spans about 0.1 degrees of the sky. In the heart of the nebula sits a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits radio…
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As shown above, on Saturday, January 21, 2023 from 5:54 to 6:01 pm EST, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the WSW horizon near Venus, and then flying past the W shape of Cassiopeia before entering Earth’s shadow low in the…
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This spectacular image of the Pleiades Star Cluster (Messier 45) in Taurus was captured and processed by Shawn Nielsen of Kitchener, Ontario. Notice both the bright blues of reflection nebulosity and the darker dust in the background. Shawn posts his images on social media as @Visible Dark_ . His website https://visibledark.ca/ contains many more treasures.…
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This fantastic widefield composite image of the 2020 Quadrantids meteor shower over Flajšová, Oravská Lesná, Slovakia was captured by Czech astronomer Petr Horálek on the nights bracketing the peak of January 4.The radiant is out of frame to top left. That year, the star Betelgeuse in Orion (right of centre) was unusually dim. The glowing…
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As shown above, on Monday, January 2, 2023 from 6:53 to 6:59 am EST, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, exiting Earth’s shadow low in the west-northwestern sky, then flying past the Big Dipper and the very bright star Arcturus before setting below…
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Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! This wonderful object, known as the Christmas Tree Cluster or NGC 2264, is located in the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn), which occupies the winter sky between Orion and Gemini. The red glows are hydrogen gas being energized by the clump of hot, young stars recently born in the…
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