This image of the Lunar Straight Wall or Rupes Recta in Mare Nubium was captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. While the feature can be seen through binoculars, a backyard telescope will reveal more detail. (Adapted from NASA LRO) Hello, Autumn Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of October 6th, 2024 by…
Read more
The Cygnus Loop, also known as the Eastern and Western Veil Nebulae, are a gigantic remnant of a supernova in the southern wing of the Swan that spans more than five full moon diameters. It is visible in binoculars under very dark skies every summer. The bright star at right named 52 Cygni that the…
Read more
The Astrospheric app forest fire smoke distribution map across North America for Sunday night, July 28, 2024. Purple and red indicate the most severe smoke loading in the sky overhead. Many weather forecasts will predict clear, cloudless skies – but observers and imagers will find the fainter celestial objects significantly dimmed. I highly recommend the…
Read more
This image of Messier 13, the Great Globular Star Cluster in Hercules was imaged by my friend Claudio Oriani in Richmond Hill, Ontario on May 30, 2023 using an 8″ SCT telescope. The cluster, also known as NGC 6205, is 24,000 light-years away from our sun. The cluster appears as a faint fuzzy patch in…
Read more
This Digital Sky survey image shows the Antenna Galaxies aka NGC 4038, 4039 in the constellation of Corvus, which shines brightly in the lower part of the southern sky on early June evenings. The bright segments are the cores of two galaxies in the process of merging by mutual gravitational attraction. Curved streams of stars…
Read more
This image of the Mice Galaxies (NGC 4676) obtained with the Hubble space Telescope. The two galaxies, 300 million light-years away from us, are in the process of merging, tugging on one another with gravity. Eventually, the stars will coalesce, likely into a far less interesting-looking elliptical galaxy. For now, the streams of stars extending…
Read more
Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn captured this amazing shot of the August, 2017 partial solar eclipse. Hello, Spring Stargazers! Here are your Astronomy Skylights for the week of April 7th, 2024 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 me…
Read more
This simulated view of the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse from the vantage point of the sun shows the spherical moon’s round shadow cast upon the Earth at 18:16 Greenwich Mean Time (or 2:16 pm EDT). The motion of the moon will cause the shadow to complete its passage in several hours. We never see…
Read more
Malcolm Park captured this terrific widefield image of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks on March 4 2024. The Andromeda Galaxy is prominent at the upper right, and the triangulum galaxy is fuzzy at top left. This week the comet will travel between the two widely separated bright stars Mirach (above centre) and bluish Alpheratz (below centre). Enjoy more…
Read more
This image by Martin Gembec of the Czech Republic shows the rich starfield of the Alpha-Persei Moving Group stars surrounding Mirfak (above centre), the brightest star in Perseus (the Hero). The photograph spans about 3.5 degrees of the sky, nearly filling the view in binoculars. Mirfak is the very bright star shining about halfway up…
Read more