Heads UP! for May 2021

You’ll need to find some clear horizons to see the brighter planets this month. It’ll be worth your time – including the best time this year for us northerners to find Mercury. Low Evening Planets (feat. Mercury and Venus) How early in May can you find Venus and Mercury low in the west-northwestern sky after …

Young Moon April 2021

Ramadan began Monday evening, after the sighting of the new moon. Here's some photos from Tuesday evening, 46 hours after new moon. I was surprised how thin the Moon was when I saw it while driving. So I scooped up the Canon XS and Manfrotto tripod and headed out to my favorite location when I …

Heads UP! for April 2021

Planet Summary Mars is still the only planet getting lots of love in April by visual observers. Jupiter and Saturn are getting further out from the Sun, but still not very high in the morning sky. Venus and Mercury head into the solar glare. Tech stuff: Times in the illustrations are in Eastern Daylight Time. …

Happy Equinox – both hemispheres!

I love Sandra Boynton's equal take on the equinox for both hemispheres.

Wonderful Weekend for Astronomy

A big high pressure system covering the northeastern United States gives us a wonderful weekend for astronomy! Here's what to look for: [Links to star chart for March here and make-your-own star charts and satellite predictions here. Aurora predictions here. Scott's thoughts and always useful directions are here and his talk about bunches of stars …

Early Morning Down Low

What's the low down on the morning planets? Down Low just about describes it. I don't have a very clear eastern horizon near my house. I'd have to travel across the County to Long Island Sound to get a low horizon. Even the ridge at my local Middle School, where I took this photo is …

Orion, Trees and Shiny Red Objects

I wanted to find the asteroid in Leo's rump, but the light pollution (and my own garage light) made it impossible. So, plan B. Take a shot at Orion the hunter. If you could see the photo of Orion through the trees at full size, you would see why I might say the number of …

Near and Far Moons

I got the second shot! Not the vaccine. My shot of the Moon near Apogee (farthest from Earth) to go with the earlier shot of the Moon near Perigee (nearest the Earth) for February. Lined them up and and are different sizes, as expected! Near. Far. Just like Grover on Sesame Street, or someone on …

Heads UP! for March 2021

Two Clusters and a Planet Mars will be the active party in a series of interesting encounters with the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters this month. They are well up in the southwestern sky after sunset. Mars is nearest the Pleiades in the first week of March and crosses an imaginary line between the Pleiades …

Second Shot – a day late

An extended storm blocked my view of the Moon on Thursday and Friday. Saturday evening, the clouds started to break up. Now, I'll need to get the photo from earlier this month and tonight's photo to the same number of pixels to compare their sizes. Photoshop Elements not giving me the number of pixels in …