Astronomy Magazine

This week, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to find the Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra — a glowing shell of gas that offers a glimpse of our solar system’s distant future. When a Sun-like star exhausts its hydrogen, it blows off an illuminated cloud of gas that lingers for tens of Continue reading "Come full circle with the Ring Nebula" The post Come full circle w…

When President John F. Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, he spoke of many topics: the need for economic recovery, jobs training, and programs to address unemployment; reorganization and modernization of the military; and a proposed program to build fallout shelters nationwide. The most famous portion of his speech, however, Continue reading "May 25, 1961: JFK addresse…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 24: Egeria slides on by After reaching superior conjunction midmonth, Mercury is increasing in visibility and should be easily identifiable now in the evening sky. Just half an hour after sunset, step outside to see if you can spot the solar system’s Continue reading "The Sky Today on Monday, May 25: Three planets af…

Born Feb. 19, 1473, in Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus was raised by his uncle, Bishop Lucas Watzenrode, who ensured he was well educated as he grew up. The education continued at the University of Cracow, where he studied painting and math; the University of Bologna, where he studied canon law; the University of Padua, where he Continue reading "May 24, 1543: The death of Nicolaus Copernicus" The po…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 23: View Vallis Alpes Moving through vast Virgo, 11th-magnitude asteroid 13 Egeria is passing near some stationary background stars tonight, offering an excellent chance to chart its motion over the course of a few hours.  You can begin looking for the Continue reading "The Sky Today on Sunday, May 24: Egeria slides …

The shimmering curtains of the northern and southern lights — aurora borealis and aurora australis, respectively — loom large in our imaginations. These shifting apparitions provide a cosmic connection not only to beauty and mystery, but also to our physical world.  Unlike the rhythms of the Sun, Moon, and stars, aurorae appear to be capricious Continue reading "Uncovering the science of aurorae"…

On May 23, 1967, a highly active sunspot region, McMath Region 8818, produced a series of solar flares. The events were massive, including a rare white-light flare and one of the largest solar radio bursts ever recorded – so large, in fact, that they jammed the U.S.’s Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. The system was Continue reading "May 23, 1967: A solar flare jams missile detectors" The p…

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 22: Busy moons around Jupiter The Moon passes 0.08° south of Regulus at 3 A.M. EDT. A few hours later, First Quarter Moon occurs at 7:11 A.M. EDT. First Quarter Moon offers some great targets for lunar observers. Plus, the great Continue reading "The Sky Today on Saturday, May 23: View Vallis Alpes" The post The Sky …

The final mission before the landmark Apollo 11, Apollo 10 served as a dress rehearsal, testing every aspect of the Moon landing except for the actual landing itself. On May 18, the crew of Commander Tom Stafford, Command Module Pilot John Young, and Lunar Module Pilot Gene Cernan blasted off from Kennedy Space Center.  While Continue reading "May 22, 1969: Snoopy’s closest approach to the Moon" …

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column.  May 21: Check in on Saturn and Mars Tonight we’re focused on Jupiter, as two of its Galilean moons cross the planet’ disk this evening. East Coast observers can zoom in on the gas giant shortly after sunset to see Io alone Continue reading "The Sky Today on Friday, May 22: Busy moons around Jupiter" The post The Sky Toda…

Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, May 22Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun at 10 A.M. EDT, so it is not currently visible in our sky. It will return in June, when it will appear in the predawn hours.  The famous Summer Triangle asterism, bounded by the bright Continue reading "The Sky This Week from May 22 to 29: Mercury reappearing" The post The Sky This Week from …

Venus and Jupiter remain visible in the evening sky soon after sunset early in July, although Jupiter fairly quickly drops out of sight. In the morning sky there’s lots of planetary action: Saturn rises earlier now, placing it in a dark sky for a couple of hours. Neptune joins it in Pisces. There’s a wonderful Continue reading "July 2026: What’s in the sky this month? Venus and Jupiter are visibl…

The constellation Auriga (pronounced or-EYE-guh) the Charioteer, a star pattern known by this name for several thousand years, is easy to recognize primarily because of its brightest star, Capella (Alpha [α] Aurigae). This luminary is the sixth-brightest nighttime star and shines with an intense yellow light. The constellation’s Beta star, magnitude 1.9 Menkalinan, is 40th Continue reading "Spend…

Distance from Earth (logarithmic scale) — Moon 1 mi 10 mi 100 mi 1,000 mi 10,000 mi 100,000 mi Moon 1M mi 10M mi 100M mi 1B mi At the end of the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, after defeating the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy Gale squeezes her eyes tightly shut, Continue reading "No place like home" The post No place like home appeared first on Astronomy Magazine .

Sirius is a blue giant, which burns through its fuel quickly and lives only a relatively short period of time. Yet it has a white dwarf companion (Sirius B) and white dwarfs are the end result of stars like our Sun, which live for billions of years. How can a young blue giant have a Continue reading "How can a young blue giant have a white dwarf companion star that’s billions of years older?" The…

How and where are rocks tested to see if they’re meteorites? Can a member of the public get one tested? Kenneth TempletonNorth Augusta, South Carolina Numerous people collect rocks and suspect they’re meteorites, either because they look odd or because they believe they have seen a “fall” and have recovered an object. But it’s virtually Continue reading "How can I get a rock tested to see if it’s…

As July begins, three planets adorn the early evening sky. Look toward the northwest and you’ll see Venus. The planet shines brilliantly at magnitude –4.1 and shows up easily 30 minutes after sunset. It creeps slowly away from the Sun and into a darker sky as July progresses. Venus also becomes more attractive through a Continue reading "July 2026: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month…

The constellation Ophiuchus (pronounced off-ee-OO-cuss) the Serpent-bearer isn’t all that easy to pick out, primarily because of its large size and the relative dimness of its brightest star, Rasalhague (Alpha [α] Ophiuchi). This giant white star emits about 25 times the light of the Sun, but sits some 50 light-years away, so it glows at Continue reading "Discover deep-sky gems in Ophiuchus" The …

One night, out at the Miami Valley Astronomical Society’s observatory near Dayton, Ohio, I saw a bright light hovering in the sky to the southeast. It appeared stationary, just hanging there. Watching closely, I saw it drift to the side … and then came the sound of jet engines as it flew overhead, nothing more Continue reading "What’s that in the sky?" The post What’s that in the sky? appeared fi…

The constellation ARA (pronounced AIR-uh) the Altar was one of the “original” constellations of the Greeks. It appeared in Phaenomena, a 3rd-century-b.c. work by the Greek poet Aratus. He based it on a work written a century earlier by Eudoxus of Cnidus. The constellation’s position is easy to locate directly beneath the tail of Scorpius. Continue reading "Observe the deep sky in Ara" The post Ob…