Editor’s Note: The month of August brings the Perseid meteor shower. HMNS Astronomer James Wooten explains what to expect with upcoming sky happenings. Saturn is now a late evening object! It rises in the east-southeast by 10:11 pm on August 1 and by 8:15 (during twilight) on August 31. Saturn is up literally all night […]
Editor’s Note: We are looking up as HMNS Astronomer James Wooten explains the sky happenings for the month of August, including the approaching Perseid meteor shower. Mars is low in the west at dusk, and hard to notice because it is only as bright as an average star. Mercury appear below and to the right of […]
Can the stars tell you about your future? No. But our resident astronomer James Wooten can tell you what stars to look for in the future! This December is an action packed month, celestially speaking. First off, we have a comet approaching, followed by a whole lot of meteors. Not happy news for our […]
BTS – Knights Enjoy the Knights special exhibition in the evening when the museum is closed to the public. Your master docent will take you back to the very origins of knighthood, in the days after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Chivalry, feudalism and knighting will be introduced alongside a wide array […]
Of the many meteor showers that occur throughout the year, the Geminid Meteor Shower in December may be the most reliably active. This meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes near 3200 Phaethon, a Palladian Asteroid. The Geminids were first observed in 1862. The shower gets its name because they appear to originate in the […]
Bust out your planners, calendars, and PDAs (if you are throwback like that), it’s time to mark your calendars for the HMNS events of this week! Film Screening & Lecture Dinosaur 13 Tuesday, December 9 6:00 p.m.Join paleontologists Peter Larson and Dr. Robert T. Bakker for a candid discussion on the discovery of Sue—the largest, […]
Longtime observers of meteors are familiar with the annual Perseids in August and the Geminids in December. These showers reliably produce hundreds of “shooting stars” per hour every year. Beginning in 2014, however, we might add another annual treat — the May Camelopardalids, peaking on May 24! What are meteors?Meteors are streaks of light in the […]
Venus remains in the west at dusk. It outshines everything but the Sun and Moon, so you can begin observing it during deep twilight. As August ends, Venus begins to approach Saturn. Saturn is now shining in the south/southwest at dusk. Although not as bright as Venus, it does outshine the stars around it, so […]
