Month: June 2024

Science Outreach Specialists

Morning Moon Covers Planets, Spotty Saturn, Bring Out the Binoculars, and Mercury Mounts After Sunset!

This view of the southern evening sky at 11 pm local time for the latitude of Toronto shows how the Milky Way rises from the southern horizon and arcs across the eastern sky at this time of the year. The coloured symbols and labels are a selection of the brighter deep sky objects sprinkled available…
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Greater Toronto Area Space Station Flyovers for the week of June 23rd, 2024

As shown above, on Monday, June 24, 2024 from 4:47 to 4:53 am EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, exiting Earth’s shadow above the southwestern horizon and then passing the bright star Altair before setting in the east-northeast near Jupiter. (courtesy: Heavens-above.com)…
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Planets Precede Sunrise, Wishing Stars Outshine the Strawberry Moon and Solstice Signals Summer!

When the moon is full, and within hours on either side of that phase, there are no shadows cast anywhere. All of the variations we see are due to changes in the moon’s geology. This image by Michael nicely shows the numerous rays systems emanating from the younger craters, the various types of dark basalt…
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The Moon in Evening Spells L-O-V-E, Some Illumination Rumination, Noctilucent Cloud Season, and Titan Travels Saturn in Morning

I captured this handheld smartphone image of the young crescent moon and the strong auroral display of May 10, 2024 behind my home in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada. Conditions are again favorable for another spectacle if the sun sends a mass ejection in our direction over the next few days, before the moon brightens too much.…
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A Mini Morning Planet Parade, and the Absent Moon Lets Us See Spring Galaxies and Some Small Comets!

This Digital Sky survey image shows the Antenna Galaxies aka NGC 4038, 4039 in the constellation of Corvus, which shines brightly in the lower part of the southern sky on early June evenings. The bright segments are the cores of two galaxies in the process of merging by mutual gravitational attraction. Curved streams of stars…
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