Editor’s Note: Look to the skies as HMNS Astronomer James Wooten explains the sky happenings for the month of December, including the science behind our winter solstice. Jupiter is still in the evening sky; look for it in the south at nightfall. Jupiter is brighter than any star we ever see at night. Saturn remains […]
Venus remains in the evening sky this month. Venus outshines everything except the Sun and the Moon, so it is unmistakably low in the southwest at dusk. Jupiter and Saturn remain well placed for evening observing this fall. Look for Jupiter and Saturn in the south as night falls. Jupiter is brighter than all the stars we […]
Mars is still low in the west—visible right as night falls. Venus remains in the evening sky this month. It overtakes Mars on July 12; the two planets appear about one half degree (the size of the Full Moon) apart that night. Venus outshines everything except the Sun and the Moon, so it is unmistakable low in […]
Mars remains almost as bright as the stars around it in May 2021. And Mars is low in the west—still visible right as night falls. Jupiter and Saturn are the morning sky this month, low in the south. Venus also slowly emerges into the evening sky this month. Venus outshines everything except the Sun and the Moon, so […]
On December 21, 2020, the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn appear only one tenth of one degree apart in our sky. They have not appeared that close since July 10, 1623. Of course, Jupiter is not really next to Saturn. Saturn is in fact about 4.3 astronomical units (AU)–about 400 million miles–behind Jupiter. (One AU […]
Constellations in the November southern sky are almost entirely devoid of bright stars. They represent beasts and gods related to water, indicating that they are part of the ‘Celestial Sea’. Examples are Aquarius, the Water Bearer and Pisces, the Fish. Even Capricornus, the Goat, has a fish tail because he’s originally Ea, Babylonian god […]
Autumn represents sort of an ‘intermission’ in the sky, with bright summer stars setting at dusk, while bright winter patterns such as Orion have not yet risen. The ‘teapot’ of Sagittarius sets in the southwest early in the evening. The Summer Triangle is high in the west. Meanwhile, the Great Square […]
The Summer Triangle is high overhead at dusk. This consists of the brightest stars in Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila. Scorpius, the Scorpion, is in the south, with the ‘teapot’ of Sagittarius to his left. From the Big Dipper’s handle, ‘arc to Arcturus’ and ‘speed on to Spica’ in the southwest. The Great Square of […]
The Summer Triangle is high overhead at dusk. This consists of the brightest stars in Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila. Scorpius, the Scorpion, is in the south, with the ‘teapot’ of Sagittarius to his left. From the Big Dipper’s handle, ‘arc to Arcturus’ and ‘speed on to Spica’ in the southwest. Saturn is between Scorpius and […]
The Big Dipper is above the North Star, with its handle pointing up. From that handle, you can ‘arc to Arcturus’ and then ‘speed on to Spica’; those stars are in the west at dusk. Leo, the Lion, is also in the west at dusk. Jupiter is to the left of Spica in […]
