A Peek at Peak Venus, the Golden Handled Moon Crosses the Pleiades After an X Event, Algol Fades, and Mars Comes Closer!
This image of the pretty waxing crescent moon shining to the left of the Pleiades Star Cluster aka Messier 45, Matariki, The Seven Sisters, Bugonagiizhig, and Subaru was captured by Jerry Lodriguss and shared as the NASA APOD for April 14, 2005. The passes near the cluster, and sometimes directly through it, on a monthly basis. View more of Jerry’s work at https://www.astropix.com/
Hello, Start of 2025 Stargazers!
Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of January 5th, 2025 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. To subscribe to these emails please click this MailChimp link.
If you’d like me to bring my Digital Starlab portable inflatable planetarium to your school or other daytime or evening event in Simcoe, Grey, and Bruce Counties, or deliver a virtual session anywhere, contact me through AstroGeo.ca, and we’ll tour the Universe, or the Earth’s interior, together! My book with John A. Read entitled 110 Things to See With a Telescope is a guide to viewing the deep sky objects in the Messier List – for both beginners and seasoned astronomers. DM me to order a signed copy!
There’s a lot going on this week! The moon will continue to wax through its first quarter phase, making it a pretty sight during evening. It will also sport the first of many Lunar X events for 2025, pass directly through the Pleiades star cluster, and display the Golden Handle. I also highlight how it visits Venus every month. On Saturday, Mars will reach peak brightness and closeness to Earth in more than two years ahead of next week’s long-awaited opposition, Venus will cease its motion away from the sun, Jupiter will display several moon shadow transits, and the variable star Algol will fade at a convenient time to watch it do so. Read on for your Skylights!
The Moon (and Venus)
Have you been enjoying the sight of the pretty crescent moon shining near Venus recently? Several people have asked me about the very bright star near the moon. I guess they hadn’t noticed Venus gleaming in the western sky every evening for the past few months until the pretty moon drew attention to it. In fairness, Venus has climbed a LOT higher over time because Venus’ orbit has been carrying it farther from the sun since it crossed the sun at solar conjunction last June. The farther east of the sun Venus gets, the later it sets and the higher it shines in the post-sunset sky. Venus will reach the end of its leash on Friday. I’ll tell you more about that in the planets section.
The moon’s orbit around the Earth carries it through the stars and past the planets on a “monthly” basis. It actually passes the same stars every 27.3 days, an interval we call its sidereal period. The extra 0.3 days (about 7 hours) means that the moon won’t be exactly where you saw it 27 nights ago. Because the moon slides east in its orbit by about its own diameter every hour, it will be several finger widths (or 7 lunar diameters) to the right (or celestial west) of your favourite reference star than you expect it to be. If you are willing to head outside for a look seven hours later, the moon will be very close to where it was last month!
The planets are constantly in motion with respect the stars (the word “planet” comes from the Greek word for “wanderer”), so the moon’s meetings with a particular planet happen on a different schedule. The planets that are far from the sun, especially Uranus and Neptune (and Pluto), move so slowly across the stars that they are visited by the moon on more or less the sidereal interval. The moderately far planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn move faster eastward, so the moon needs extra time to catch up to them – unless they are undergoing westerly retrograde motion, but that’s a topic for another day.
The innermost planets Mercury and Venus are speedy! The moon and Venus kissed in twilight, very low in the sky, on August 5. Their September 4-5 and October 5 and November 4 and December 4 meetings weren’t as intimate, but they were progressively higher in a dark sky. The latest one was January 3, but the moon takes several nights to approach and then pass by Venus each time. Those intervals have been about 30 days because Venus has been racing east rapidly. Their next two gorgeous visual and photo ops will be on February 1 and March 1. By the way, the moon’s phases repeat on a 29.5 day cycle called its synodic period, so the moon has been showing a similar crescent phase at every Venus meeting this fall/winter. But it typically brings a difference face to its monthly dates with a given planet. The 2-day difference between the sidereal and synodic periods arises because the Earth orbits the sun with the moon pulled along with it.
Returning to the moon, the first part of this week will be the best time of the lunar month to view Earth’s natural satellite under any amount of magnification. As the moon waxes during evening, the terrain alongside the pole-to-pole terminator boundary shows exquisite detail. As the moon gets fuller on the coming weekend, it’ll look more impressive in the sky, but less interesting in binoculars or a telescope because there will be far fewer shadows cast from elevated areas.
Today (Sunday) the nearly half-illuminated moon will rise at midday and chase Venus across the sky all afternoon. After dusk the circle of stars of the western fish of Pisces will appear to the moon’s upper right (or celestial northwest). The faint blue planet Neptune will be lurking about four finger widths to the moon’s lower right.
24 hours later in the Americas, the moon will complete the first quarter of its journey around Earth, still in Pisces (the Fishes), at 6:56 pm EST, or 3:56 pm PST, or 23:56 Greenwich Mean Time. At first quarter, the moon’s 90-degree angle from the sun causes us to see it half-illuminated on its eastern side and the terminator temporarily as a straight line. Some of the first quarter moon events this year will offer us glimpses of the Lunar X feature. I describe that in the next section.
The waxing gibbous moon will spend Tuesday and Wednesday in Aries (the Ram) and approaching bright Jupiter. Skywatchers in the Americas on Thursday evening can watch the orbital motion of the bright, 82%-illuminated gibbous moon carry it through the Pleiades star cluster (aka Messier 45, Subaru, and the Seven Sisters). In the Eastern Time zone, the event will last from about 7 pm to 10:30 pm EST (or 00:00 to 03:30 GMT on Friday). The moon will occult several of the bright stars in the cluster. In the Pacific Time zone, the moon will start crossing the cluster in a bright sky. While bright moonlight overwhelms fainter objects, viewing the encounter through binoculars will show the “sisters” well. Skywatchers in other parts of the world will only see the moon shining close to the cluster. As I talked about above, the moon will pass the Pleiades every month this winter, but it won’t be close to it again until April 1.
Also on Thursday, the lunar terminator will fall across the western edge of Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows. The circular, 249 km-wide feature is a large impact crater that was flooded by the same basalts that filled the much larger Mare Imbrium to its right (lunar east) – forming a rounded “handle” on the western edge of that mare. A claire-obscure effect called the “Golden Handle” effect is produced when the rising sun lights up the peaks of the prominent curving Montes Jura mountain range surrounding Sinus Iridum on the north and west, while the floor of the bay at their feet remains unlit. Watch for the promontories named Heraclides and Laplace that poke into Mare Imbrium to the south and north of the bay, respectively. Any telescope will show you that Sinus Iridum is almost craterless – so we know that it is geologically young. But it does host a set of northeast-oriented dorsae or “wrinkle ridges” that are nicely revealed at this lunar phase. Don’t fret if you miss seeing the Golden Handle. The effect returns every few months a few days before full moon.
Jupiter will gleam to the moon’s lower left while it is busy with the Pleiades. From Friday until Sunday night, the nearly full moon will shine inside the Winter Football asterism, also known as the Winter Hexagon and Winter Circle. The asterism is composed of the brightest stars in the constellations of Canis Major, Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, and Canis Minor – specifically the stars Sirius, Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Castor & Pollux, and Procyon. Once Sirius has risen above the rooftops in the southeast around 8 pm local time, the huge pattern will straddle nearly 70 degrees of the southeastern sky. In late evening, the asterism will stand upright in the southern sky, with the band of the Milky Way ascending vertically through it. The hexagon is visible during evening from mid-November to spring every year.
Jupiter, which is brighter than any of the asterism’s stars, will be spending this month on the western rim of the football, between Aldebaran and Capella. On Friday night, the bright moon will shine almost a palm’s width to the upper left of Jupiter, just cozy enough for them to share the view in binoculars. The duo will make a lovely photo opportunity when composed with some nice foreground scenery. The moon and Jupiter will culminate due south around 9:30 pm local time and set in the west before dawn on Saturday morning. By then the diurnal rotation of the sky will lift the moon above Jupiter.
The nearly full moon will end this week by passing into Gemini (the Twins) on next Sunday night. By then it will shining above the very bright reddish dot of Mars, which it will connect with next Monday.
Lunar X in 2025
Several times a year, for a few hours near its first quarter phase, a feature on the moon called the Lunar X becomes visible in powerful, tripod-mounted binoculars and through any size of backyard telescope. When the rims of the craters Purbach, la Caille, and Blanchinus are illuminated from a particular angle by the sun, they form a small, but very obvious X-shape. The phenomenon is an example of pareidolia – the tendency of the human mind to see familiar objects when looking at random patterns. The Lunar X is located near the terminator, about one third of the way up from the southern pole of the moon (at lunar coordinates 2° East, 24° South). A prominent, round crater named Werner sits to its lower right (or lunar southeast).
On Monday afternoon, January 6, North Americans with clear skies can see the Lunar X while the moon is shining in a bright sky. The ‘X’ is predicted to start developing around 5:10 pm EST (or 17:10 Greenwich Mean Time). When the sun’s light first touches the crater rims, the X will be indistinct. The shape will intensify until around 7:10 pm EST (or 00:10 GMT) – in a dark sky for the Eastern Time Zone -and then gradually fade out over the following couple of hours. This Lunar X will be visible from anywhere on Earth where the moon is shining, especially in a dark sky, during the hours I indicated.
During a Lunar X event, you can also look for the Lunar V and the Lunar L on the moon. The “V” is produced by combining the small crater named Ukert with some ridges to the east and west of it. It is located a short distance above the moon’s equator at lunar coordinates 1.5° East, 8° North. For a further challenge, see if you can see the letter “L” down near the moon’s southern pole. Its position is to the southwest of three prominent and adjoining craters named Licetus, Cuvier, and Heraclitus which, in combination, resemble Mickey Mouse’s head and ears. I’ll post a photo of the “letters” here.
During 2025, there will be two excellent Lunar X events for the Eastern Time Zone – in evening on May 4 and Dec 26 – plus five more daytime or twilight occurrences. Observers in other time zones will have their own Lunar X events. Here is a list of the start times for Lunar X events during the rest of this year, rounded to the nearest 5 minutes. I’ve also listed local times and notes for the Eastern Time Zone. If the GMT time converts to late afternoon or evening in your own local time zone, mark your calendar!
| Lunar X Date | Start Time | Local Start Time | Notes for Eastern Time Zone |
| 06-Jan-25 | 17:15 GMT | 12:15 pm EST | (daylight sky) |
| 05-Feb-25 | 08:15 GMT | 3:15 am EST | (below the horizon) |
| 06-Mar-25 | 22:55 GMT | 5:55 pm EST | (twilit sky) |
| 05-Apr-25 | 12:45 GMT | 8:45 am EDT | (below the horizon) |
| 05-May-25 | 01:35 GMT | 9:35 pm EDT on May 4 | (excellent!) |
| 03-Jun-25 | 13:20 GMT | 9:20 am EDT | (below the horizon) |
| 03-Jul-25 | 00:15 GMT | 8:15 pm EDT on Jul 2 | (darkening sky) |
| 01-Aug-25 | 10:45 GMT | 6:45 am EDT | (below the horizon) |
| 30-Aug-25 | 21:25 GMT | 5:25 pm EDT | (twilit sky) |
| 29-Sep-25 | 08:45 GMT | 4:45 am EDT | (below the horizon) |
| 28-Oct-25 | 21:10 GMT | 5:10 pm EDT | (twilit sky) |
| 27-Nov-25 | 10:45 GMT | 5:45 am EST | (below the horizon) |
| 27-Dec-25 | 01:25 GMT | 8:25 pm EST on Dec 26 | (best one of the year!) |
The Planets
This is a big week for planets. Dust off that telescope!
Mercury is hidden from view while it slides ever closer to the morning sun until early February.
As I mentioned in the moon section above, Venus continues to gleam as the brilliant “Evening Star” in the southwestern sky every evening, visited by the pretty crescent moon every month. The planet will be visible even before the sky darkens, but if the bright object you see is moving left or right, or flashing, that’s an airplane! The stars of Aquarius (the Water-Bearer) that are hosting Venus will appear after the sky darkens. On Friday, January 10, Venus will officially reach its widest separation of 47 degrees east of the sun. Viewed in a telescope, the planet will exhibit a half-illuminated phase, like the first quarter moon. In fact, you ARE seeing Venus at the first quarter of its orbit! For best results, observe Venus during evening twilight when the contrast between the bright planet and the surrounding sky is lower. After Friday, our sister planet will continue to brighten and increase in apparent disk diameter as it swings sunward for its inferior solar conjunction in late March. Galileo noted that Venus’ size and illuminated phase changed, leading him to conclude that it must be orbiting the sun.
Venus’ orbital motion has been carrying it in the direction of Saturn. They’ll “kiss” in a close conjunction next week. This week, Venus will be setting at about 9 pm local time and Saturn will be less than a fist’s diameter to Venus’ upper left (or celestial east) and setting at about 9:45 pm local time.
You’ll have clear views of the ringed planet in any backyard telescope only until about 8 pm. Since it’s much less bright than Venus, you’ll need the sky to darken a bit more before you can see Saturn’s yellowish dot in the lower part of the southwestern sky. The prominent star Fomalhaut in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish) twinkling about two fist diameters below, and a little to the right, of Saturn, will be almost as bright. Saturn will share the faintish stars of Aquarius (the Water-Bearer) with Venus until that planet moves into Pisces in late January.
Saturn’s bright, but extremely thin rings effectively disappear when they become edge-on to Earth every 15 years. Since we are only 2.5 months away from that event, in late March, 2025, the rings already appear as a thick line drawn through the planet. Any size of telescope will show the rings and some of Saturn’s larger moons, too. In most years, Saturn’s moons are sprinkled around the planet, unlike Jupiter’s Galileans moons, which are always in a line. But while Earth is within months of being aligned with Saturn’s ring plane, its moons don’t stray very far from the ring plane.
Saturn’s largest and brightest moon Titan “TIE-tan” never wanders more than five times the width of Saturn’s rings from the planet. The much fainter moon named Iapetus “eye-YA-pet-us” can stray up to twelve times the ring width during its 80-day orbit of Saturn. The next brightest moons Rhea “REE-ya”, Dione “Dee-OWN-ee”, Tethys “Teth-EES”, Enceladus “En-SELL-a-dus”, and Mimas “MY-mass” all stay within one ring-width of Saturn. You may be surprised at how many of those six you can see through your telescope if you look closely when the sky is clear, dark, and calm.
During early evening this week, Titan will start from a position to Saturn’s upper left (or celestial east) tonight (Sunday). It will pass under the planet from Monday to Tuesday and then stretch increasingly farther to Saturn’s lower right (celestial west) by next Sunday. (Remember that your telescope will probably flip the view around.) The rest of the moons will be tiny specks in a line near the rings. Earth’s perspective of the Saturn system will also cause Saturn’s moons and their small black shadows to frequently cross its disk – but you’ll need a very high quality telescope to watch those.
The distant and dim, blue planet Neptune is about an hour behind Saturn on the ecliptic. That places Neptune 1.3 fist widths to Saturn’s upper left (or celestial ENE) and a palm’s width to the lower left of the circle of faint stars that forms Pisces’ western fish. Neptune won’t be visible in a backyard telescope this week and next while the moon is bright.
Three more planets are visible in the eastern sky every evening. The distant ice giant planet Uranus will be observable all night long, but the bright moon will make seeing it hard this week. Uranus is located in the eastern early evening sky about a palm’s width to the right (or celestial southwest) of the bright little Pleiades star cluster in Taurus (the Bull). If you use your binoculars to find the medium-bright stars named Botein and Epsilon Arietis, Uranus will be the dull-looking blue-green “star” located several finger widths below (or southeast of) them. To get you in the vicinity of Uranus, look for the bright star Menkar shining 2.2 fist diameters off to the right of the Pleiades and down a little. Uranus will be a quarter of the way along the line joining the bottom star of the Pleiades to Menkar. In late evening, Uranus will be below the Pleiades in the southwestern sky.
Only outshone by the moon, Jupiter has been dominating the lower part of the eastern sky after dusk – from around the same time that Venus first appears in the west. From now until early February, Jupiter will be creeping west towards the stars that form the triangular face of Taurus (the Bull) and Taurus’ brightest star, reddish Aldebaran, which marks the eye of the beast at the lower corner of the triangle. This week, Jupiter and Aldebaran will be a palm’s width apart. The winter constellations will rise below Jupiter every evening. By the time the clock strikes midnight, those constellations will have rotated to the planet’s left.
Viewed in any size of telescope, Jupiter will display a substantial disk striped with brown dark belts and creamy light zones, both aligned parallel to its equator. With a better grade of optics, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a cyclonic storm that has raged for hundreds of years, becomes visible for several hours when it crosses the planet every 2nd or 3rd night. For observers in the Americas, that GRS will cross Jupiter’s disk during early evening on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, and also after 10 pm Eastern time on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and next Sunday night. If you have any coloured filters or nebula filters for your telescope, try enhancing the spot with them.
Any size of binoculars will show you Jupiter’s four Galilean moons named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto lined up beside the planet. Those moons complete orbits of the planet every 1.7, 3.6, 7.2, and 16.7 days, respectively. If you see fewer than four moons, then one or more of them is crossing in front of or behind Jupiter, or hiding in Jupiter’s dark shadow – or two of the moons are very close together, or one moon is eclipsing or occulting another one. All four moons will gather to one side tonight (Sunday).
From time to time, observers with good quality telescopes can watch the black shadows of the Galilean moons travel across Jupiter’s disk. In the Americas, Europa and its little shadow cross Jupiter on Monday, January 6 between 9:54 pm and 12:25 am EST (or 02:54 to 05:25 GMT on Tuesday). Io and its good-sized shadow cross Jupiter on Wednesday morning, January 8 between 1:08 am and 3:16 am EST (or 06:08 to 08:16 GMT on Thursday). Io and its shadow will cross again on Thursday evening, January 9 from 7:36 pm to 9:44 pm EST (or 00:36 to 02:44 GMT on Friday).
Arguably saving the best planet news for last, our best views of Mars in more than two years will be delivered during the next couple of weeks! Every 25.5 months, Mars and the Earth line up on the same side of the sun, making the two planets closer than at any other time. Mars has been growing in apparent size (in your telescope’s eyepiece) and increasing its visual brightness in the sky because Earth is passing the red planet on the inside track around the sun. Earth’s faster motion also makes Mars seem to slide westward through the stars in a retrograde loop that will last until the end of February.
The night when Mars is opposite from the sun in the sky will happen next week on January 15, but the red planet will actually be closest to Earth this coming Saturday in the Americas. That night, Mars will be 96.08 million km or 5.33 light-minutes away from us. You can view the bright reddish planet from late evening onward, near the bright stars Pollux and Castor in Gemini (the Twins).
Mars is a terrific object to view in a backyard telescope when it gets this close. This week, Mars will climb highest, and sit due south, around 2 am local time – but views from mid-evening onward will be nearly as good. In a telescope this week, Mars will show a 14.6 arc-seconds wide disk. If the air is steady you might see some dark markings wrapping around the planet and the white patch of its northern polar cap. Mars takes about 20 minutes longer than Earth to rotate once fully on its axis. So viewing the planet at the same local time on subsequent nights will show roughly the same view of it, with its surface markings turned by about 5°. If you have coloured filters for your telescope, see if the blue, orange, or red one improves the view.
Mars will continue to brighten in the sky until opposition night. The difference in the two dates arises because the distance between Earth’s and Mars’ elliptical orbits is increasing at this time of the year. Don’t fret if it’s cloudy on Saturday – Mars will actually show the same sized disk from Friday through next Monday. Mars will be slightly farther from Earth at its next opposition in February, 2027. It won’t be this close to Earth until June, 2033! The August 15, 2050 Mars opposition will be closest of all – only 56 million km, yielding a 25 arc-seconds wide disk!
Watch Algol Fade
On early-January evenings the constellation of Perseus (the Hero) is high in the eastern sky. Just for winter 2024-25, bright Jupiter will also be gleaming to the lower right of Perseus.
Perseus’ bright star Algol represents the glowing eye of Medusa from Greek mythology. Also designated Beta Persei, it is among the most accessible variable stars for skywatchers. During a ten-hour period that repeats like clockwork every 2 days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes, Algol dims noticeably and re-brightens by about a third when a fainter companion star with an orbit nearly edge-on to Earth crosses in front of its much brighter primary, reducing the total light output we perceive. Astronomers call that arrangement an eclipsing binary star.
Algol normally shines at magnitude 2.1, similar to the star Almach (aka Gamma Andromedae) that shines 1.2 fist diameters above it. While it is fully dimmed, Algol’s brightness of magnitude 3.4 is almost identical to Rho Persei (or Gorgonea Tertia or ρ Per), the star that sits just two finger widths to Algol’s right (or 2.25 degrees to the celestial south).
On Sunday evening, January 5 at 6:42 pm EST (or 23:42 GMT), Algol will start to fade from its usual brightness. At that time it will be shining very high in the eastern sky, above and between the bright star Capella and Jupiter. Five hours later, at 11:42 pm EST (or 04:42 GMT on Monday), Algol will have faded to its minimum brightness. It’s location at that time will be about halfway up the western sky below Capella and Jupiter.
Algol’s variations are best seen with unaided eyes or binoculars, which allow you to see its comparison stars at the same time. The website of Sky & Telescope magazine has an interactive tool to let you look up the Minima of Algol where you live. It’s at https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/the-minima-of-algol/.
Public Astronomy-Themed Events
Every Monday evening, York University’s Allan I. Carswell Observatory runs an online star party – broadcasting views from four telescopes/cameras, answering viewer questions, and taking requests! Details are here. They host in-person viewing on the first clear Wednesday night each month. Other Wednesdays they stream views online via the observatory YouTube channel. Details are here.
On Saturday, January 11 from 7 to 9 pm EST, the in-person Astronomy Speakers Night program at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario will feature Katerina Osztertag. Her talk will be Blazars: Cosmic Cannons of Supermassive Black Holes.After the presentation, participants will view interesting celestial objects through telescopes on the lawn (weather permitting). More information is here and the registration link is at ActiveRH.
Space Station Flyovers
Artificial satellites are visible because they are high enough to be bathed in sunlight while the sun is below the horizon for earthbound observers. When the geometry is just right, brilliant beams of sunlight are reflected to Earth from flat, shiny surfaces on the spacecraft – which we see as a steady point of light that crosses the night sky in mere minutes.
Low Earth orbiting satellites (LEOs) like the space station can only be seen within an hour or two of dusk and dawn (even though they are passing overhead at all hours of the day and night). Satellites with higher orbits can be seen throughout the night. Geostationary satellites such as telecom and satellite television transmitters need to broadcast toward specific regions of the Earth, so they are placed in very remote orbits that hold them fixed at a specific altitude and azimuth in the sky.
Engineers do not bother attaching lights to satellites. If you see a night sky object that has flickering or flashing lights, it’s an aircraft. Decommissioned satellites and space “junk”, such as spent rocket boosters, can smoothly vary in brightness if they are tumbling.
Recently, people have been surprised by long chains of satellites crossing the night sky. Those are freshly launched Starlink satellites from SpaceX that have not yet spread out into their final orbits.
A very good website for satellite pass predictions is www.heavens-above.com. Click on the Location link and enter your geographic location – manually, or by dropping a pin on the provided map. Then return to the main page and select from the provided list of object types, such as “ISS”. Apps such as Sputnik!, free ISS Detector, and Orbitrack will put satellite predictions in your pocket, alert you of imminent passes, and even show you where in the sky to look. The SkySafari 6 app also includes an extensive satellite database.
The ISS (or International Space Station) will be visible gliding silently over the Greater Toronto Area this week. The best passes at (mostly) convenient times are listed below. If you can’t see the station at the start given start time, be patient. The station will become most visible once it’s a bit higher.
(Note: The more negative the Mag. number, the brighter it will look. The larger the Max Alt. number, the higher up in the sky it will be!) The higher and brighter passes are highlighted with “!!”. (Data adapted from www.Heavens-above.com. If you enter your location in their website, you will get a list of the passes for your location.) All the times below are expressed in Eastern Time.
Date Start & End Times (EST) Direction of Travel Max Alt. Mag.
Sun, 12-Jan 6:58:56 pm to 7:01:05 pm moves SSW to S 30° -2.4
My Insider’s Guide to the Galaxy YouTube video about satellites is here.
Keep your eyes on the skies! I love getting questions and requests. Send me some!