This image of the Messier 13 globular star cluster in Hercules was taken by Martin Pugh. The cluster is composed of thousands of old, blue and yellow stars collected into a spherical ball orbiting our galaxy’s core. It’s located about 25,000 light-years from our sun. This image spans about 30 by 40 arc-minutes, slightly larger…
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A photograph of the multiple star Asellus in Boötes, from Stellarium’s digital sky survey (DSS). Hello, June Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of Jue 7th, 2020 by Chris Vaughan. Feel free to pass this along to your friends and send me your comments, questions, and suggested topics. You can also follow…
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NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration visualization tool will generate hour-by-hour annotated views of the moon, such as this one for 10 pm EDT on May 31, 2020. You can find more at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4768. There is also an option to generate south up views for use at your telescope eyepiece. Hello, Moon Lovers! Here are your…
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On Monday, June 1 from 9:50 to 9:55 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high over the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the west-northwestern horizon near Mercury, and then disappearing into the Earth’s shadow over the southeastern horizon near Antares. Artificial satellites are visible because they are high enough to…
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This inverted picture of the crescent Venus was taken by holding my smartphone over the eyepiece of my telescope at 9 pm on Thursday, May 21, 2020. The crescent was also visible in binoculars. If you have clear skies after sunset in the next several days, have a go! Hello, Late-May Stargazers! Here are your…
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On Saturday, May 30 from 9:49 to 9:55 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high over the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the northwestern horizon, passing through the Little Dipper’s bowl, and then disappearing into the Earth’s shadow over the east-southeastern horizon. Artificial satellites are visible because they are high…
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This image of globular star cluster Messier 13 was captured by Martin Pugh of New South Wales, Australia. Left to right, it spans 40 arc-minutes, or 1.3 times the full moon’s diameter. The cluster, which could hold up to million yellow and blue stars, is approximately 23,000 light years away from our solar system. NASA…
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On Monday, May 18 from 9:40 to 9:46 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high over the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the west-southwestern horizon, passing through the Big Dipper, and then setting in the east-northeast. Artificial satellites are visible because they are high enough to be bathed in sunlight…
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This image of the LeoTrio of Galaxies was captured by Marcus Bauer. It was a NASA APOD for April 18, 2019. Top to bottom, the image spans one degree of the sky. The Hamburger Galaxy (NGC 3628) is at centre left. M65 is at top centre and M66 is at centre right. Happy Mother’s Day!…
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On Friday, May 15 from 10:26 to 10:33 pm EDT, the International Space Station will fly high over the GTA in an extremely bright pass, rising over the southwestern horizon, passing the bright stars Arcturus and Vega, and then setting in the east-northeast. Artificial satellites are visible because they are high enough to be bathed…
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