When the moon is full, and within hours on either side of that phase, there are no shadows cast anywhere. All of the variations we see are due to changes in the moon’s geology. This image by Michael nicely shows the numerous rays systems emanating from the younger craters, the various types of dark basalt…
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I captured this handheld smartphone image of the young crescent moon and the strong auroral display of May 10, 2024 behind my home in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. Conditions are again favorable for another spectacle if the sun sends a mass ejection in our direction over the next few days, before the moon brightens too much.…
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This Digital Sky survey image shows the Antenna Galaxies aka NGC 4038, 4039 in the constellation of Corvus, which shines brightly in the lower part of the southern sky on early June evenings. The bright segments are the cores of two galaxies in the process of merging by mutual gravitational attraction. Curved streams of stars…
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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