Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).
The moon cycles through its phases every 29.5 days, allowing a phase to repeat if it first occurs early in a calendar month. For the second time in December, the moon will reach its new moon phase on Monday, December 30 at 5:27 p.m. EST, 2:27 p.m. PST, and 22:27 GMT. At that time our […]
In the evening during early January, the prominent open star cluster known as the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is climbing the southeastern sky. The stars of its home constellation Taurus, the Bull will be below the cluster. This year, the brilliant planet Jupiter will be shining about 1.3 fist diameters to the […]
After the sky fully darkens in early January, the Andromeda Galaxy is positioned near the zenith, which is ideal for viewing it through a minimum of Earth’s atmosphere. The galaxy will descend the western sky as the hours roll by, but you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy it. This large spiral galaxy, also designated […]
The southwestern sky will provide a beautiful photo opportunity on Friday evening, January 3 when the slender waxing crescent moon will shine near the brilliant planet Venus. They’ll be close enough to share the view in binoculars (orange circle) from sunset until they set at about 8:30 p.m. local time. Keep an eye out for […]
Named for a now-defunct constellation called the Mural Quadrant, the Quadrantids meteor shower runs from December 26 to January 16 every year. Quadrantids meteors always radiate from a point in the northeastern sky below the tip of the Big Dipper’s handle. This shower commonly produces bright fireballs because it is produced by particles dropped by […]