Tag: stars
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The Basics of Stellarium and How to Use It
Today, we are going to have a quick look at Stellarium. Stellarium is the software that I use for these videos, and it’s free. It’s available online and regularly updated. I just updated it, so I am currently using the latest stable version of the software, Stellarium 24.2. You can download it from stellarium.org. The…
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A Look Ahead to September: 6 Planets and a Supermoon!
As usual, now that we’re coming to the end of the month, we’re going to take a look ahead to the next one. September is going to be a jam packed month, so this overview will skip over some of the details, but I will return to them as they occur. We will begin as…
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Planetary Nebulae, Nothing to do with Planets!
Today we will begin by revisiting an object that I have mentioned a few times before, the Ring Nebula in Lyra. The Ring Nebula in Lyra is a fantastic object to try and take a look at, as well as being a fantastic example of a planetary nebula. Medium to large telescopes will give you…
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Dwarf Planets and other Small Distant Objects
In today’s piece we are going to be taking a look at a different class of objects, the dwarf planets. Almost every month I briefly highlight a given planet, you can go back through the archives if you’d like to see some examples. Later this month we will be talking about Neptune, so I will…
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Venus in the Evening at Different Latitudes
I’ve mentioned the planets quite a lot recently, and with good reason. Over the course of the month of August, particularly in the morning, there are going to be a lot of planets in the sky. Even early in the month we have Jupiter, Mars and Saturn all together in the sky. If you caught…
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A Look Ahead to the Sky in August: the Perseids, the Planets and More!
As usual, as we draw to the end of one month, this piece is going to be an overview of what we can expect next month. We’re going to look ahead into August. Of course, not much is going to change between late July early August, but over the course of the month we will…
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The Early Morning Sky in Late July: Planets, The Pleiades and More!
With so many interesting things up in the morning as we come to the end of July, that is where we are going to focus today. This especially includes the planets, with three visible to the naked eye, and two more with a sufficient telescope. We don’t even have to wait until early in the…
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Astronomy: Misconceptions, Exceptions and Tricky Questions
Today, I’m going to try and take a look at misconceptions about space. In the attached video, I talk through a couple of the common misconceptions. However, to continue my tendency toward being a bit clearer and more explicit in these articles, I’m really trying to take a look at the reasons these things are…
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The Moon and Constellations in July: No Telescope Needed
Given that the past couple of videos heavily featured objects that at least require a telescope to see, I decided that in this piece I’d go through some of the things visible to just your eyes in later July. Telescopes and binoculars are, of course, wonderfully useful tools for astronomy and reveal a lot that…
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Meteor Showers in July: How and When to Observe, and What to Expect
I only recently put up a piece providing a look ahead to the month of July, but it was just an overview, so I’m going to cover one thing that I left out, the upcoming meteor showers. Meteors, of course, can be tricky to see. Looking at the sky from a city, especially if the…
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