My friend Alan Dyer of Alberta captured this spectacular image of a lone Geminids meteor streaking across an aurorae-filled sky on December 13, 2023. From Collingwood, Ontario I saw two terrific Geminids in one hour on December 14. Follow Alan’s @amazingskyguy account on X.com and visit his ww.amazingsky.com page for more. Hello, Start-of-Winter Stargazers! Here…
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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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Andrea Girones of Ottawa captured this amazing image of Saturday’s annular solar eclipse from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She used a Lunt 40mm solar telescope, an ASI 174MM camera on a Skywatcher Star Adventurer tracker. Hello, Autumn Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of October 15th, 2023 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to…
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This fantastic image of the Heart and Soul Nebulae in Cassiopeia was captured by my friend Steve Mallia at Starfest in Ayton, Ontario on September 15, 2023. The pinks are produced by ionized hydrogen gas and the blues by starlight scattering from interstellar dust. The entire scene spans about a palm’s width the sky. Despite…
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This nice photo of the First Quarter moon was taken by Michael Watson of Toronto. Michael’s galleries of astro-images are hosted on his Flickr page. Hello, Late-June Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of June 25th, 2023 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me…
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This beautiful natural image of the Hyades and the Pleiades clusters in Taurus, was captured and processed by Alan Dyer while he was travelling to Arizona in December, 2017. He used a Canon 5D MkII camera on a tracking mount and a total of eight minutes of exposure. The bright star Aldebaran at left is…
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This spectacular image by my friend Andrea Girones was taken recently at Morant’s Curve, Alberta using a DSLR with a 20mm lens on a star tracking mount. It captures the arc of faintly glowing reddish hydrogen gas around Orion and the nimbus around his head (at left), the bright compact Rosette Nebula (upper left), Mars…
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A labelled map of the Mare Imbrium region of the moon, shown for 8 pm on Friday, March 3. On the previous evenings, the pole-to-pole lunar terminator will sweep across Mare Imbrium, highlighting its features. (Starry Night Pro 8) Hello, Fellow Moongazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of February 26th, 2023 by…
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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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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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