Tag: New Moon

Dark Nights’ Targets, Bright Pre-Dawn Planets Bracket a Globular Cluster, and a Moon and Planet Party in the Post-Sunset Sky!

This image of globular star cluster Messier 13 was captured by Martin Pugh of New South Wales, Australia. Left to right, it spans 40 arc-minutes, or 1.3 times the full moon’s diameter. The cluster, which could hold up to million yellow and blue stars, is approximately 23,000 light years away from our solar system. NASA…
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Stargazing Suggestions, the Pretty Moon Poses with Evening Venus, and Morning Planet Antics!

This lovely widefield image of Auriga (the Charioteer) was taken by Alan Dyer of Calgary on January 23, 2011. It nicely shows the rich clusters and star fields that populate that constellation’s circlet of stars. The Flaming star Nebula is the red patch. Other knots of stars are open clusters. Capella, or Alpha Aurigae, is…
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An Ancient Yule, a Comet in the Camel Leopard, the Sun Surrounds the New Moon, and a Flight through Pegasus!

This image of the beautiful Superman Galaxy, more formally known as NGC7479 and Caldwell 44, was captured by Goran Nilsson using the 2-metre Liverpool Telescope on the Canary Islands. The galaxy is 105 million light-years away from the sun, in the constellation of Pegasus. It’s also considered by astronomers to be “peculiar”. Hello, December Stargazers!…
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Mercury at Maximum near Mars, the Young Moon meets Pretty Planets, and Touring the Lucky Stars of Aquarius!

Globular star Cluster Messier 2 aka NGC 7089 is located 55,000 light-years from our sun in the constellation of Aquarius. In binoculars and backyard telescopes, the cluster will appear as a faint fuzzy patch of light – as opposed to this spectacular Hubble space Telescope image from earlier this year. NASA APOD for April 4,…
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Earth Flees Giant Planets at the Equinox, Ganymede Goes Missing, and the Awesome Andromeda Galaxy!

The beautiful Triangulum Galaxy, also known as Messier 33, dim because it is oriented nearly face-on to Earth, spans 1.5 full moon diameters in the sky. Some people have been able to see it with unaided eyes. At 2.75 million light-years from Earth – that’s the farthest object a human eye can see! This image…
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