The Astrospheric app forest fire smoke distribution map across North America for Sunday night, July 28, 2024. Purple and red indicate the most severe smoke loading in the sky overhead. Many weather forecasts will predict clear, cloudless skies – but observers and imagers will find the fainter celestial objects significantly dimmed. I highly recommend the…
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This image of Saturn through the 20″ diameter telescope at the Weikersheim Observatory in southern Germany just after it emerged from behind the moon was the NASA APOD for April 7, 2013. It was composited together from two different exposures by Jens Hackmann. Hi, Summer Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of…
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This simulated 3D model of the solar system shows the position of Earth on July 30 while it is crossing through the debris field dropped along the orbit of comet P/2008 Y12 (SOHO), producing the peak of the Southern Delta-Aquariids Meteor Shower. You can manipulate the model at the website https://www.meteorshowers.org/ Hello, Summer Stargazers! Here…
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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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The Dumbbell Nebula, imaged by Steve McKinney, is a large planetary nebula in Vulpecula (the Fox). It’s visible (without colour) in a backyard telescope. Planetary nebulae are the corpses of stars with mass similar to our sun. This one resembles and apple core! This image covers a patch of sky about as wide as a…
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A comparison of images of Stephan’s Quintet of galaxies in Pegasus, taken in infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022 (left) and the visible and near-infrared wavelengths by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009 (right). The spiral galaxy at left is NGC 7320. It is only 40 million light-years away. The rest of…
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