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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The Open cluster Messier 35, also known as the Shoe-Buckle Cluster and NGC 2168 sits near the westerly foot of Castor in Gemini. The small open cluster NGC 2158 is to the lower right of it in this image from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The area of sky shown here measures about one finger’s…
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As shown above, on Monday, March 21, 2022 from 8:23 pm to 8:29 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly over of the GTA in a very bright pass, rising from the west-southwestern horizon, and then flying closely past Polaris before disappearing into Earth’s shadow just above the northeastern horizon. Artificial satellites are visible…
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On the early evening of Tuesday, March 15, 2022, the nearly full moon will occult the bright star Algieba in Leo. times vary by location. This scene shows the end of the event at 8:57 pm EDT, after the star has emerged near Mare Crisium. Hello, mid-March Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the…
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As shown above, on Saturday, March 19, 2022 from 8:19 pm to 8:25 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising from the southwestern horizon, and then flying closely past the bright star Betelgeuse before disappearing into Earth’s shadow above the east-northeastern horizon. Artificial…
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The southeastern sky, shown here at 6 am local time at the latitude of Toronto, hosts the bright planets Venus and Mars, with Saturn to the east (lower left). Before the sky brightens too much, observers can try to spot fainter main belt asteroid Vesta near Venus and Mars. Hello, March Stargazers! Here are your…
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