This colour image of the full moon was taken in the UK by Simon Smith on August 31, 2012. It clearly shows the contrast between the dark lunar maria basalts, the white cratered highlands, and the ray systems extending from many recent impacts. Note the blue tint of titanium-enriched basalt in Mare Tranquilitatis (right of…
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This composite of many successive images by Kris Smith shows the International Space Station flying across the disk of the full moon.Photographing these transits require careful planning and split-second timing. Another one will occur for Toronto on Saturday evening, April 4, 2020. NASA APOD for Nov 14, 2016. Hello, April Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy…
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This lovely widefield image of Auriga (the Charioteer) was taken by Alan Dyer of Calgary on January 23, 2011. It nicely shows the rich clusters and star fields that populate that constellation’s circlet of stars. The Flaming star Nebula is the red patch. Other knots of stars are open clusters. Capella, or Alpha Aurigae, is…
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On Monday, March 23 from 8:13 to 8:19 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high over of the GTA in a very bright pass, rising over the west-southwestern horizon, flying past Venus, and then disappearing into Earth’s shadow just above the northeastern horizon. Artificial satellites are visible because they are high enough to…
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The bright and large open star cluster known as the Pleiades or Messier 45 is composed of sibling stars (the daughters of Atlas and Pleione in Greek mythology) that formed of the same gas cloud. Interstellar dust in the foreground scatters the stars’ light with a blue colour. The cluster is very easily seen with…
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On Friday, March 20 from 8:57 to 9:02 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising from the west-southwestern horizon, flying past Orion, Taurus, and Gemini, and then disappearing into Earth’s shadow in the Big Dipper, just over the northeastern horizon. Artificial satellites are…
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This image of the moon by Michael Watson of Toronto was taken 9 hours after it was full on February 22, 2016 – replicating how the March, 2020 full moon will appear on Monday night. Note that the moon’s right-hand edge shows some shadowing – evidence that it is slightly past full. The many bright…
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The Open cluster Messier 35, also known as the Shoe-Buckle cluster sits near the feet 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 width of the sky,…
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This composite photograph of the international space station was taken through a 10 inch reflector telescope by James Boone from Tampa, Florida on April 27, 2014. It takes a steady hand and some practice, but you can see a magnified view of the ISS through your own backyard telescope. Artificial satellites are visible because they…
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A close-up view of Messier 41, also known as the Little Beehive Cluster, in Canis Major. The area of the sky shown here is about four finger widths below Sirius, and spans about one finger width (or 1 degree) in height – so the cluster is as large as a full moon. Hello, Late-February Stargazers!…
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