The big news this month is something you can appreciate during daylight hours – a partial eclipse of the Sun which takes place on Saturday, October 14th. The eclipse starts at 11:44 am. See here for more details on timing and what you can expect to see in Virginia: Eclipse Timing A nice place to…
September is a great month for planets with Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Uranus, and Neptune all visible at various times. Venus, visible in the evening sky for so long, is now lighting up the dawn sky. Because of this behavior, it was originally thought by the ancient Greeks that Venus was two separate planets. The…
This month Saturn and Jupiter are easy to see, especially Saturn which rises at 9:30 pm at the start of the month and before 8 pm at the end. Jupiter requires a bit more waiting not rising until 12:24 am early this month and around 10:30 pm at the end of August. Mars is now…
M53 lies just about 1 degree northeast of Alpha Comae Berenices. It can be seen with binoculars or a small telescope. NGC 5053 is a challenge even in large telescopes. Its It lies almost a degree southeast of M53. M3 is found 1/3 of the way from Arcturus and Cor Caroli. It’s obvious in binoculars….
I have mentioned the lengthening days multiple times, but the longest is yet to come. The good news (for astronomers anyway) is that after the Summer Solstice on June 21st, the days will start to shorten. Interestingly, at our latitude here in Northern Virginia, the sunset times will remain constant and even increase by a…
It is already May, hopefully we have seen the last of those April showers and can look forward to some more clear nights. Speaking of which, here is a great resource for astronomical weather that the author finds useful: Astrospheric There are lots of other sites with similar levels of detail, but not…
Another month has passed, the clocks changed and the nights are getting shorter. We might have less observing time, but at least the temperatures are improving! Venus will continue to shine brightly in the evening sky this month and can be used to draw a line to the horizon which will pass through Mercury near…
February came and went quickly as it normally does. The days are getting longer and several interesting objects are beginning to compete with sunset for visibility before setting themselves. Venus and Jupiter are in conjunction on March 1st. If you missed it, they will still be close together on the 2nd with them drifting further…
The much talked about Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) came closest to Earth on February 1st and is still very close for the next few days, though it will become harder to see as the moon gets fuller. Speaking of the Moon, it is full early this month on February 5th and the new moon is…
Introduction What is Omega Centauri? It is a globular cluster located in the southern constellation Centaurus. It is the brightest globular , but not easy to see in Virginia due to its low elevation. With proper timing Omega can be viewed given good transparency. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Centauri Observation This morning the skies were finally clear again. It was…