This Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image shows Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows, on the northwestern edge of large Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Clouds. The “Golden Handle” is the curved Jura Mountains, the remains of an impact crater that has been flooded by basalt magma flows. The feature, which is easy to see without a…
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This annotated image of the Lyrids Meteor Shower was captured by Petr Horalek when the Lyrids streaked over Seč Lake in the Czech Republic in April, 2020. The meteors appear to radiate from a point in the sky in Hercules near the very bright blue star Vega of Lyra (the Harp). Don’t watch the radiant…
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This beautiful photo of the Aurora Borealis was captured by my friend Yvonne Wong in Alaska recently. The aurorae are more frequent around the two equinox periods each year because the N-S component of the Earth’s magnetic field is reduced and less able to fend off the solar wind. Hello, Spring Stargazers! Here are your…
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This image of the waxing crescent moon was taken by Michael Watson of Toronto on March 2, 2014. It nicely shows the Earthshine phenomenon, and the way the position of the lit crescent on the young moon at this time of year resembles the Cheshire Cat’s smile. Michael’s gallery of images are hosted on his…
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NASA’s Perseverance Rover is scheduled to land in Jerzero Crater on Thursday, February 18 at about 3:55 pm EST, joining the Hope orbiter of the United Arab Emirates and the Chinese Tianwen-1 mission that arrived on February 9 and February 10, respectively. (Image from NASA https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/) Hello, Valentine’s Day, Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights…
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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 spectacular image by “AmazingSky” guy Alan Dyer of Calgary, Alberta, taken on November 15-16, 2020, captured the fuzzy green blob of comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) as it passed the bright, bluish star Bellatrix in Orion (the Hunter). The red nebulosity at top left is glowing Hydrogen gas surrounding Meissa, aka Lambda Orionis, the head…
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Hello, mid-October Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of October 18th, 2020 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics. You can also follow me on Twitter as @astrogeoguy! Unless otherwise noted, all times are expressed in Eastern Time.…
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