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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Adrien Klamerius took this image of the Heart (upper left) and Soul (lower right) nebulas in Cassiopeia, also known as IC 1805 and IC 1848, respectively. The Double Cluster as at top centre. The area of sky covers about 10 degrees, or a fist diameter. NASA APOD for Sep 24, 2016 Hello, Night Sky Lovers!…
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On Tuesday evening, January 16, the lunar terminator will fall to the west of three prominent craters Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina and throw into stark relief many other craters in the lunar highlands. The features will be visible in quality binoculars and through any telescope. (from 2024 NASA Lunar Visualization tool) Hello, Mid-January Stargazers! Here…
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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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When the very bright “dog star” star Sirius (aka Alpha Canis Majoris) climbs high enough to clear the treetops around 10 pm local time on Christmas, its intense light and flashes of festive colour are bound to catch your eye, and just might fill you with Holiday spirit! Happy Hanukkah and Winter Solstice, Stargazers! Here…
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This terrific image of Mars was taken by Andrea Girones of Ottawa on November 23, 2022 at 11:35 pm EST. The large bright area at upper left is named Aeria. the dark region below that is Sinus Sabaeus, and the dark feature to the right is Mare Acidalum. Dark features on Mars tend to be…
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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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This north-up image of the Little Beehive Cluster, Messier 41 in Canis Major, shows the hot blue and cooler golden stars. It covers a thumb’s width of sky, measuring top to bottom. The green circle represents the field of view in a telescope at low magnification, 1.5 degrees. Hello, Winter Astronomers! Here are your Astronomy…
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This image of Messier 35, also nick-named the Shoe-Buckle Cluster, was captured by Fred Espenak on March 29, 2011 from his home in Arizona. He affixed his Canon EOS 550D camera to a Takahashi 180mm Astrograph telescope. The photo spans about a thumb’s width top to bottom. Messier 35 is about 2800 light-years away from…
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This image of the Winter Hexagon / Football was taken by Jeff Dai. Start with bright Sirius just above the hills at lower right, then head straight up to Rigel, and to the upper left to reddish Betelgeuse, and then bright yellow Capella on the left. Next head down to Castor and Pollux, and finally…
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