Skywatching
Astro-Challenge: Splitting 44 Boötis
How good are your optics? Nothing can challenge the resolution of a large light bucket telescope, like attempting to split…
Cassini’s Farewell Look at Dione
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft paid a visit to Saturn’s moon Dione this week, one final time. Cassini passed just 474 kilometers…
Watch HTV-5 Chase the International Space Station From Your Backyard
It’s away… and the hunt is on. The Japanese Space Agency’s H-II Transfer Vehicle Kounotori automated cargo spacecraft rocketed out…
Late Summer Tales of Tanabata
One of the surest signs that late summer is here in the northern hemisphere is the arrival of the Milky…
Revealed: Mars to Appear Larger Than a Full Moon!
We can finally reveal the truth. A massive conspiracy, spanning over a decade, has been revealed at last by basement…
The Journey of Light, From the Stars to Your Eyes
This week, millions of people will turn their eyes to the skies in anticipation of the 2015 Perseid meteor shower. But what happens on less…
A Thrift Store Find Yields an Astronomical Mystery
A good mystery is often where you find it. Photographer Meagan Abell recently made a discovery during a thrift store…
The 2015 Perseids: Weather Prospects, Prognostications and More
The venerable ‘old faithful of meteor showers’ is on tap for this week, as the August Perseids gear up for their…
See Venus at Her Most Ravishing
Venus is HUGE right now but oh-so-skinny as it approaches inferior conjunction on August 15. Like crescents? You'll never see a…
Kick Back, Look Up, We’re In For a GREAT Perseid Meteor Shower
Every year in mid-August, Earth plows headlong into the debris left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Slamming into our atmosphere at 130,000…