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…
Read more
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,…
Read more
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,…
Read more
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.…
Read more
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…
Read more
While we’re used to looking for the Lunar X that appears every few months near the first quarter phase, a group of Japanese astronomers decided to add a little LOVE to the half-illuminated moon. This image by Masaru Takeo and Junichi Watanabe was NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for November 3, 2018. See if…
Read more
The Witchhead Nebula in Orion is very large, but dim. It’s best seen in long exposure astrophotos – like this image taken by Jeff Signorelli in the NASA APOD for October 30, 2015. The name is a misnomer. The blue colour is produced when light from the bright star at centre left reflects off nearby…
Read more
The Double Cluster in northwestern Perseus makes a fantastic target for binoculars at this time of year. This wide field image was taken by Volker Wendel and was NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day on December 7, 2007. Hello, October Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of October 20th, 2019 by Chris…
Read more
This image of the full moon was captured by Michael Watson of Toronto hours after it was full in September, 2017. Notice how the craters along the right-hand edge show some shadowing while the rest of the moon is “flat”. Michael’s gallery of wonderful astro-images are here. Hello, October Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights…
Read more
On Sunday evening, October 13, observers in the Americas can see a rare double-shadow transit on Jupiter. At dusk, Europa’s shadow will be midway across the northern hemisphere of the planet – accompanied by the Great Red Spot. Shortly before 8 pm EDT, Io’s shadow will join in the fun for approximately 35 minutes –…
Read more