This beautiful annotated image of the summer Milky Way arching over the Great Wall of China was captured by Steed Yu. The bright star at centre far right is Antares. It’s little claw stars shine to its upper right. The dark dust patches and lanes are apparent. It was the NASA APOD for July 3,…
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This terrific image by Amir H. Abolfath was featured in NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for October 14, 2020. The bright star inside the orange zone at lower left is Antares in Scorpius. The big and bright globular cluster Messier 4 sits to its lower right. The pink region is glowing hydrogen gas…
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In celebration of July 1 in Canada and July 4 in the USA, here is a photo of the Firecracker Galaxy, also known as NGC 6946 and Caldwell 12. The magnitude 9.6 face-on, type SAB spiral galaxy, 25 million light-years distant, is visible in good binoculars and backyard telescopes under dark skies. It straddles the…
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An image of globular the star cluster Messier 10, also known as NGC 6254, by Höcherl. The cluster spans about 40% of the full moon’s diameter. At magnitude 6.4, it can be seen with unaided eyes at a dark location, and in binoculars and through any size of telescope. It is estimated to be 14,300…
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A triangle of dark ash deposits left by long-extinct volcanoes are easily visible in the crater Alphonsus using any size of telescope when the moon is fully illuminated. Hello, Moon in June Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of June 12th, 2022 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to…
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This terrific image by Amir H. Abolfath was featured in NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for October 14, 2020. The bright star inside the orange zone at lower left is Antares in Scorpius. The big and bright globular cluster Messier 4 sits to its lower right. The pink region is glowing hydrogen gas…
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This terrific image of the sword of Orion was taken on January 7, 2019 by Rick Foster of Markham, Ontario. The colourful Messier 42 nebula is glowing by the light of young stars formed within it. The area shown here covers about 2 finger widths of the sky. Hello, mid-winter stargazers! Here are your Astronomy…
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Ian Wheelband captured this close-up view of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) at 4:17 am on July 11, 2020 from his home in Nova Scotia. Note the brighter tail composed of dropped particles, and the slightly offset ion tail to its left. The stacked, combined 4- and 10-second exposure photograph was taken using his Nikon D7100…
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This simulated view of Jupiter shows the transit of Jupiter’s moon Io and its shadow across Jupiter, accompanied by the Great Red Spot, on Tuesday, July 7 at 2:40 am EDT. A good backyard telescope will let you view the 2.5-hour event, although a telescope might flip and/or mirror this view. Hello, July Stargazers! Here…
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The Moon as it will appear at 11 pm Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, June 25, 2020. The prominent, dark, round crater Theophilus located mid-moon, near the terminator line, will change in appearance each night this week as its rim, and then its floor, fills with sunlight. These hourly images are available from NASA’s Moon…
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