Bob King
Two Comets Pass in the Night Bound for Your Telescope
Remember comets Lovejoy and C/2012 X1 LINEAR? We dropped in on them in late January. On Feb. 6 the two cruised…
Giant sunspot convulses but all quiet on the aurora front … for now
What a crazy sunspot cycle. Weeks go by with only a few tiny spots freckling the sun, then all at…
Will Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Turn into a Wee Red Dot?
Watch out! One day it may just go away. Jupiter's most celebrated atmospheric beauty mark, the Great Red Spot (GRS),…
A Secret Solar Eclipse from Outer Space
Call it the eclipse nobody saw. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) got its own private solar eclipse showing from its…
How to Not Die While Stargazing in the Cold
Bitter cold lies ahead for many skywatchers in the U.S. and Canada in the coming week as the polar vortex…
Lovejoy and X1 LINEAR: How to See Comets That Will Warm Up Your Mid-Winter Mornings
My hands are still cold from the experience, but there's no denying the pleasure I felt at seeing C/2013 R1…
Bright New Supernova Blows Up in Nearby M82, the Cigar Galaxy
Wow! Now here's a supernova bright enough for even small telescope observers to see. And it's in a bright galaxy…
Chang’e 3 Lander Beams Back New Lunar Panorama Photos
Little by little we're getting sharper, clearer pictures from the Chinese Chang'e 3 moon mission. Yesterday the lander beamed back…
John Dobson, Inventor of the Popular Dobsonian Telescope, Dead at 98
The cosmos lost a good soul Wednesday. John Dobson, famous as the creator of the simple, low-cost Dobsonian telescope, passed…
LEDs: Light Pollution Solution or Night Sky Nemesis?
You may have noticed a change underway in your city lighting. High pressure sodium lights, with their familiar orange glow,…