A high resolution image of the moon’s Imbrium Basin, captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. From Monday to Friday this week, the lunar terminator will march across this huge feature in the moon’s northern hemisphere, showing off its best aspects. Hello, June Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of June 5th, 2022…
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This terrific image by Benjamin Law of Stouffville, Ontario shows the Leo Quartet of galaxies, which is located in the neck of Leo, the Lion. Leo is visible high in the western sky in evening during May. Other names for this group are Hickson 44 and the NGC 3190 Group. The north-up image covers 20…
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The moon at its first quarter phase, imaged by Michael Watson of Toronto in mid-twilight on April 22, 2018. The nights surrounding first quarter on Saturday, April 9 are the best ones for evening views of the moon through binoculars and any size of telescope. Welcome to International Astronomy Month, April Stargazers!l Stargazers! Here are…
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The southeastern sky, shown here at 6 am local time at the latitude of Toronto, hosts the bright planets Venus and Mars, with Saturn to the east (lower left). Before the sky brightens too much, observers can try to spot fainter main belt asteroid Vesta near Venus and Mars. Hello, March Stargazers! Here are your…
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This image from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the entire Mare Imbrium region. On Thursday and Friday this week, the terminator will bisect the huge region, casting in stark relief the ringed mountain ranges to the east: Montes Alpes, Montes Caucasus, and Montes Apenninus. On Saturday night, the terminator will highlight the curved Montes Jura…
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A portion of a frame from NASA’s Lunar Visualization Tool, showing the northwestern quadrant of the moon at 9 pm on January 14, 2022, annotated. The Dial-A-Moon page is at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4955 Hello, January Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of January 9th, 2022 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along…
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With unaided eyes, three patches of light make up the sword of Orion, which hangs below his famous 3-starred belt. My friend John Deans of Toronto captured this image of Orion’s Sword while in Bancroft during February, 2021. Even binoculars will reveal that the central patch of light is the splendid Orion Nebula, also known…
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This terrific image of Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) was captured by RASC member Paul Mortfield using RASC’s Robotic Telescope in the sierra Mountains of California on December 8, 2021 at 4 am PST. The green glow of the coma is apparent, and the ion tail points anti-sunward. Hello, mid-December Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights…
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On November 24, 2021 Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) passed between two well-known galaxies, the Whale (top right) and the Hockey Stick (lower left), otherwise known as NGC 4631 and NGC 4656, respectively. Gregg Ruppel of Tucson, Arizona captured this beautiful image of the rendezvous through his telescope-mounted astro-camera. This image, which spans 1 degrees of…
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An image of the moon by Michael Watson of Toronto, taken five hours after reaching first quarter on November 7, 2016 . More of Michael’s moon images can be enjoyed at https://www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/albums/72157634160736057 Welcome to the Darker skies of November, Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of November 7th, 2021 by Chris Vaughan.…
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