Tag: stargazing
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A Close Conjunction in Early June: Venus and Jupiter
Today we are looking ahead to the month of June. We’re not looking very far into the future, just to the 7th, still just at the beginning of the month. Most of the interesting events in June are happening later in the month, for example the summer solstice and Mercury’s greatest elongation. There are some…
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Conjunction of the Moon, Mars and Saturn: From Europe, Africa, the Americas, Australia and More!
Today we are going to take a look at something that I am fairly confident we will not be able to see here in Ireland. Some people might just barely see it from the countryside. Recently, I saw a newspaper headline, or really the headline of an online journal, saying that there would be a…
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Moonless May Night and Uranus Behind the Sun
Today we are going to be looking at the sky for mid and late May. Looking at the daytime sky on the 12th, the Moon is up and already getting close to new, we will have our New Moon on the 16th. With the Moon out of the sky for most of the night, viewing…
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How Dark (or not) my Sky is Really
Today, we are going to talk about light pollution and dark skies, our view of the sky and my view of the sky in particular. We’re going to start with a little bit of a correction. I generally discuss the night sky as if it was around Bortle Class 5, that’s the level of light…
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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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