This terrific image by Benjamin Law of Stouffville, Ontario shows the Leo Quartet of galaxies, which is located in the neck of Leo, the Lion. Leo is visible high in the western sky in evening during May. Other names for this group are Hickson 44 and the NGC 3190 Group. The north-up image covers 20…
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As shown above, on Sunday, May 8, 2022 from 10:17 pm to 10:20 pm EDT, the Chinese Tianhe Space Station will be visible flying over the GTA, rising from the eastern horizon near the very bright star Procyon, flying past the moon, and then entering Earth’s shadow in the southeastern sky near Arcturus. Artificial satellites are…
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A sampling of galaxy forms. Clockwise from upper left: Messier 87 “Virgo A” (elliptical), Messier 102 “Spindle” (lenticular), NGC 1365 (barred spiral), NGC 4656 “the Crowbar” (irregular), and Messier 81 “Bode’s Nebula” (spiral). All except NGC 1365 are visible on spring evenings from mid-northern latitudes. Hello, late-April Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the…
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As shown above, on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 from 5:11 am to 5:16 am EDT, the International Space Station will fly high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, exiting Earth’s shadow just above the southwestern horizon, and then flying past the bright stars Vega and Deneb before setting at the east-northeastern horizon.…
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The glorious face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101, also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is located near the bright star Alkaid, at the tip of the Big Dipper’s handle. Visible even in binoculars, it is nearly overhead on April evenings. (Deep Sky Survey image from Stellarium) Hello, mid-April Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the…
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The western portion of the moon is largely covered by the dark Oceanus Procellarum. Major craters Copernicus and Kepler are surrounded by blankets of ejecta and ray systems. Under magnification, look for small craters with dark haloes around Copernicus. The Reiner Gamma Swirl and Aristarchus regions are interesting, too. Hello, April Stargazers! Here are your…
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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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As shown above, on Monday, April 4, 2022 from 8:29 pm to 8:35 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly over the GTA in a bright pass, rising from the west-northwestern horizon, and then flying through Orion’s Belt before disappearing into Earth’s shadow just above the south-southeastern horizon. Artificial satellites are visible because they…
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This terrific Wikipedia image by Hunter Wilson from March 28, 2008 shows the Leo Triplet of Galaxies, which is located south-southeast of the bright star Chertan in Leo. The photograph, with celestial north up and East toward left, covers 0.6 degrees of the sky left-to-right. The Hamburger Galaxy is at the top – do you…
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As shown above, on Saturday, April 2, 2022 from 8:29 pm to 8:35 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising from the west-northwestern horizon, and then flying past the bright stars Mirfak, Capella, and Regulus before disappearing into Earth’s shadow just above the…
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