‘Earth & Sky’ Archives
Earthsky Tonight—July 2: Watch for the moon near
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Tonight the moon rises around midnight (daylight saving time). It is slightly gibbous, just a day before first-quarter phase. Brilliant Jupiter soon joins it above the eastern horizon. From mid-northern latitudes, by the time the short, summer night brightens into morning twilight the King of Planets climbs about halfway up the sky in the southeast. Observers in the southern hemisphere, who are enjoying their long, winter nights, ... Full Story
Earthsky Tonight—July 1: Big Dipper points to
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Today our star-hopping adventure begins at the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major. Draw a line through the Big Dipper’s pointer stars – Duhbe and Merak – to locate Polaris the North Star. Polaris isn’t the brightest star in the sky, as is commonly supposed. It is only the 50th brightest or so. Still, Polaris is bright enough to be seen with relative ease on a dark, clear night. This star is famous not for its ... Full Story
Earthsky Tonight—June 30:When is the next meteor
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org We get lots of questions about meteor showers. Kathlen in the Bronx wrote, “When is the next meteor shower going to happen?” Gayatri in Oceanside, California wrote, “I have never seen a shooting star. I want to see one. Is there any event happening? How should I find one?” Kathlen, Gayatri, and everyone else who longs to see a “shooting star” or meteor streaking across a clear night sky . . . it is possible to see a ... Full Story
Earthsky Tonight—June 29: Find the Libra stars
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Before moonlight floods the nighttime at late night tonight, see if you can spot the constellation Libra’s two visible yet modestly bright stars: Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali. If you live at mid-northern latitudes – like in North America, Europe and Asia – you will see these Libra stars rather low in your southern sky at nightfall and early evening. As seen from middle latitudes in the southern hemisphere – like in ... Full Story
Earthsky Tonight—June 28:Look for daytime moon each
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Full moon was two days ago. That means the moon is now in a waning gibbous phase, rising late at night and setting in a westward direction after sunrise. That means you can look in the southwest sky after sunrise tomorrow to see the moon in a clear blue daytime sky. Each day this week you can see the daytime moon in the morning sky. If you look for the moon at the same time every morning, you will see that the moon climbs higher ... Full Story
Earthsky Tonight—June 27: Latest sunsets of the year
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org For people living around 40 degrees north latitude, the latest sunsets of the year happen around now. However, in the southern hemisphere, at 40 degrees south latitude, it is the year’s latest sunrises that are happening around now. That is in spite of the fact that the longest (or shortest) day was about a week ago, on the June 21 solstice. To celebrate the late June sunsets, today’s sky chart shows the bright stars and ... Full Story
EarthSky Tonight-June 27: Latest sunsets of the year
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org For people living around 40 degrees north latitude, the latest sunset of the year happens around now. In the southern hemisphere, at 40 degrees south latitude, it is the year’s latest sunrise that is happening around now. That is in spite of the fact that the longest or shortest day of the year (in terms of daylight) took place about a week ago, on the June 21 solstice. To celebrate these late June sunsets, our sky chart shows ... Full Story
EarthSky Tonight-June 26: See Earth’s orbital plane
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org It is early evening, and our chart covers a much larger section of sky than we usually display. We are showing the sky’s southeast quadrant – from east-southeast (where the moon lies) to south-southwest (where the star Spica resides). As seen from mid-northern latitudes, this evening’s line-up of lights – the moon, the stars Antares, Zubenelgenubi and Spica – arcs rather low across the southern sky. The farther north ... Full Story
EarthSky Tonight-June 24: Earth passes between sun and
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Pluto – the former planet – comes to opposition on June 25, at 19:00 Universal Time. That is when we on Earth pass more or less between the sun and Pluto, so that this distant world is now opposite the sun in our sky. Of course, in Pluto’s case, it is not exactly opposite since the orbit of Pluto is inclined to the plane of the solar system by 17 degrees. That is a greater inclination than the orbits of Mercury, Venus, ... Full Story
EarthSky Tonight-June 23: Waxing gibbous moon passes
Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Tonight the moon returns to the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. The brightest star in the immediate vicinity is Antares, whose name means “like Mars,” because of its similar reddish hue. If you remember your Greek mythology, or perhaps episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, Ares is the god of war, the counterpart to the Roman god Mars. You can perform the color comparison yourself, because the planet Mars lies in the ... Full Story
