Tag: 2026
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Vesta, Pallas and Ceres: Asteroids by the Sun
Today we are going to take a look at some of the larger asteroids that are in the asteroid belt. We’re starting with the sky during the day for the 1st of May. With the atmosphere turned off, we can see planets around the Sun, particularly Mercury, Mars and Saturn on the western side of…
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May Stargazing: A Blue Moon, Meteor Shower and the Milky Way!
Today we are going to be looking ahead to the month of May, starting on the 1st of May. This is May Day, or Lá Fhéile Bealtaine in Irish, Bealtaine being the month of May. We’re going to start with sunset on the 1st, because the 1st of May is a Full Moon. We can…
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Comet 141P-D/Machholz and 26P/Grig-Skjellerup: Their Orbits and Meteor Showers
Today we are finally going to take a look at Comet 141P/Machholz. I mentioned this comet a few pieces ago when we were taking a look at the conjunction of planets that is visible early in the morning if you are closer to the equator. This comet and the planets will be above the horizon…
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The April Lyrids and π-Puppids: Tricky Meteor Showers
Today we are going to take another look at the Lyrids meteor shower. I did mention it in the overview of April, but I do want to revisit it in a little bit more detail and also look at its parent body, comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher). The April Lyrids is the main upcoming meteor shower.…
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Earthshine: How to See it This Month!
Today we are going to quickly review what some of the planets are doing in April, now that we’re getting a little bit closer to their conjunctions, and we’re also going to discuss a phenomenon known as Earthshine. We’ll begin with the Sun setting into the west for the 18th. We’re just past the New…
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Stephan’s Quintet, the Carina Nebula, JWST and Lagrangian Points!
Today we are going to take a look at a variety of deep sky objects, starting with a group of galaxies. Stellarium, as I mentioned in the previous piece, it did recently have an update and that update included new listings for things and hopefully it may contain some new images as well. We’re looking…
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April Comets: Where and When to see C/2026 A1 MAPS and C/2025 R3 PANSTARRS
Today, as promised, we are going to take a look at a couple of comets. We’re beginning on the 3rd of April, which is just a little before Comet 2026 A1 MAPS reaches perihelion. MAPS is the name of the observation program, really the initials of the astronomers involved, that discovered this comet. This comet…
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The Night Sky for April 2026
Today we are going to take a look into the month of April to see what will be coming up in the sky. Taking a look firstly sunset on the 1st of April, Venus is nice and bright to the West, and also quite far from the Sun in the sky, so it will be…
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Oíche an Cónocht: Márta 2026!
For today’s piece, we are going to look ahead a couple of days to the equinox. The day of the equinox will be next week on the 20th of March, and on the date of the equinox, the night and the day are of equal length. That is the meaning of equinox, from the Latin…
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Multiple March Conjunctions, and Maybe an Occultation!
Today we are going to be looking at some conjunctions, some close conjunctions and even closer, that are happening over the course of the month of March. Just before we take a look ahead to those, we’re going to get rid of the atmosphere and the ground so we can take a look at the…
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