On Tuesday evening, January 16, the lunar terminator will fall to the west of three prominent craters Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina and throw into stark relief many other craters in the lunar highlands. The features will be visible in quality binoculars and through any telescope. (from 2024 NASA Lunar Visualization tool) Hello, Mid-January Stargazers! Here…
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This Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image shows the major features of Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Rains. Oceanus Procellarum mare material appears along the far left side of the image. Welcome to August, Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of July 30th, 2023 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to…
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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 terrific image of Mars was taken by Andrea Girones of Ottawa on November 23, 2022 at 11:35 pm EST. The large bright area at upper left is named Aeria. the dark region below that is Sinus Sabaeus, and the dark feature to the right is Mare Acidalum. Dark features on Mars tend to be…
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User Eberhard Stickel requested this north-up image of Comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS) through the luminance filter of the robotic Burke-Gaffney Observatory at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, NS. The dust tail extending upwards reveals the comet’s trajectory downwards. The sun is toward upper right. The double star below the comet is Struve 2122 in central…
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On Tuesday evening November, 23, observers in the Americas with telescopes can view a rare treat when the shadows of Ganymede and Callisto traverse Jupiter, accompanied by the Great Red Spot, as shown here for 8 pm EST Hello, late-November Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of November 21st, 2021 by Chris…
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This simulated image of Jupiter shows how it will appear at opposition on Thursday night, August 19, 2021, when the Great Red Spot and Io and its shadow will be transiting the planet, as shown here at 10:30 pm EDT. (From Stellarium) Hello, August Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of August…
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Messier 101 also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy and NGC 5457 is a large, face-on spiral galaxy in Ursa Major near the Big Dipper’s handle tip star, Alkaid. This Sloan digital Sky Survey image spans about 25 arc-minutes top to bottom – or about the diameter of the full moon. In June the galaxy is…
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An ISS transit on Thursday night, January 21 will pass across the moon’s disk for 0.6 seconds at 6:08:39.8 pm EST. The pass will be observable by observers across Port Perry, northern Toronto / southern Richmond Hill, Brampton, and Cambridge, Ontario. Find details at https://transit-finder.com/ and www.astrogeo.ca/skylights/. This image by Eric Holland was taken from…
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This amazing photograph by Sergio Scauso of Cordoba, Argentina shows the moon occulting Mars on August 9, 2020. NASA APOD for August 15, 2020. Since the moon travels within the same band of sky surrounding the ecliptic that the planets do, its large angular size allows it to pass in front of the planets from…
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