Alan Dyer of Calgary captured this spectacular image of a comet named Wirtanen passing the Pleiades star cluster on December 15, 2018. His gallery of incredible images can be found here and at AmazingSky.com. Hello, January Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of January 12th, 2020 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to…
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This wide field image of Orion was captured on January 2, 2020 by Alan Dyer of Alberta, Canada. Orange-tinted Betelgeuse, which marks Orion’s shoulder (top centre), normally shines as bright as Orion’s opposite foot – the bright, blue star Rigel. In the last few weeks, Betelgeuse has diminished noticeably in apparent brightness – a possible…
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This wide field photograph of the sky shows Orion at left and Taurus to the upper right. The stars have been slightly overexposed to emphasize their colours and relative brightnesses. Normally, reddish Betelgeuse at Orion’s shoulder (left above centre) is the same brightness as blue Rigel at Orion’s opposite foot. But recent images shows Betelgeuse…
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This image of the beautiful Superman Galaxy, more formally known as NGC7479 and Caldwell 44, was captured by Goran Nilsson using the 2-metre Liverpool Telescope on the Canary Islands. The galaxy is 105 million light-years away from the sun, in the constellation of Pegasus. It’s also considered by astronomers to be “peculiar”. Hello, December Stargazers!…
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This widefield photograph spanning about 10 degrees of of the sky near Cassiopeia was taken by Adrian Klamerius. It shows the redly-glowing Hydrogen gas clouds of the lovely Heart and Soul Nebulas, and the spectacular Double Cluster. NASA APOD for September 24, 2016. Happy Solstice, Winter Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week…
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This long exposure image by Bill Longo of Toronto shows the trail produced by the International Space Station when Expedition 41 flew over the David Dunlap Observatory in 2014. Bill’s gallery of beautiful images can be explored at https://interceptedphotons.com/ Happy December, Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of December 8th, 2019 by…
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Several times a year at the moon’s first quarter phase, a feature called the Lunar X becomes visible in strong binoculars and small telescopes. For a few hours starting at approximately 11:15 pm EST on Monday, December 2, the illuminated rims of the craters Purbach, la Caille, and Blanchinus will combine to form a small,…
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Globular star Cluster Messier 2 aka NGC 7089 is located 55,000 light-years from our sun in the constellation of Aquarius. In binoculars and backyard telescopes, the cluster will appear as a faint fuzzy patch of light – as opposed to this spectacular Hubble space Telescope image from earlier this year. NASA APOD for April 4,…
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This image of the beautiful Pleiades open star cluster, also known as the Seven sisters, Subaru, and Messier 45 was captured by Stuart Norman of Toronto from a dark sky location near Georgian Bay, Ontario on October 19, 2017. The blue nebulosity is light from the sibling stars being reflected off interstellar gas and dust.…
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This image of Mercury transiting the sun on November 8, 2006 was taken using a Hydrogen-alpha telescope. To see tiny Mercury on the sun during the 5.5 hour event, a properly solar filtered telescope will be required. Or watch the event online, if you get cloudy skies! Hello, November Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights…
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