As shown above, on Sunday, April 23, 2023 from 5:32 to 5:37 am EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying over the GTA in a bright pass, exiting Earth’s shadow above the south-southwestern horizon, and then flying under the bright star Altair before setting in the east-northeast. (courtesy: Heavens-above.com) Artificial satellites are visible…
Read more
This spectacular photograph by Alan Dyer of Alberta, Canada captured Venus’ swing past the Pleiades Star Cluster, or the Seven Sisters, on Tuesday, April 3, 2012. The image, spanning about two fingers widths of the sky, nicely shows the mini-dipper shape of the stars that you would see through binoculars. Alan’s original blog post is…
Read more
This image taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the fascinating Aristarchus Plateau. The crater Aristarchus at lower right is very prominent, and can be seen even with unaided eyes as a very bright patch. To its left is the similar-sized, but darker crater Herodotus. Vallis Schröteri, the largest sinuous rille on the moon, starts…
Read more
As shown above, on Sunday, April 2, 2023 from 8:47 to 8:52 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying over the GTA in a very bright pass, rising from the west-northwestern horizon, and then flying closely past Venus, Orion’s Belt, and the bright star Sirius before entering Earth’s shadow low in the…
Read more
This spectacular image by my friend Andrea Girones was taken recently at Morant’s Curve, Alberta using a DSLR with a 20mm lens on a star tracking mount. It captures the arc of faintly glowing reddish hydrogen gas around Orion and the nimbus around his head (at left), the bright compact Rosette Nebula (upper left), Mars…
Read more
As shown above, on Friday, March 31, 2023 from 8:46 to 8:51 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising from the west-northwestern horizon, and then flying closely past the bright star Capella and then the moon before entering Earth’s shadow in…
Read more
The beautiful Rosette Nebula in Monoceros consists of a circular patch of glowing hydrogen gas and an internal star cluster, created as the hydrogen gas collapsed. Stan Noble tool this image, which was featured as the SkyNews picture of the week for November 3, 2017, in Aneroid, Saskatchewan. The image spans about two finger widths…
Read more
As shown above, on Sunday, March 19, 2023 from 8:39 to 8:44 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying over the GTA in a very bright pass, rising from the west-southwestern horizon, and then flying closely past Venus and then between the two dippers before entering Earth’s shadow low in the northeastern…
Read more
The relatively bright galaxy named NGC 2903 sits in front of Leo, the Lion’s nose, just below the reddish star Alterf. The magnitude 9 spiral galaxy is visible in medium-sized telescope under dark sky conditions. End-to-end the galaxy spans 11 arc-minutes, or one-third of the full moon’s diameter! While it didn’t make Charles Messier’s List,…
Read more
As shown above, on Friday, March 17, 2023 from 8:36 to 8:41 pm EDT, the International Space Station will be visible flying high overhead of the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising from the southwestern horizon, and then flying closely past the bright stars Betelgeuse and Pollux before entering Earth’s shadow in the east-northeastern…
Read more