Never miss a full moon, eclipse, or meteor shower with reminders from the Almanac Daily newsletter.
This Week's Amazing Sky
July 6, 2015
The New Horizons spacecraft is now just a few days from reaching Pluto. After traveling for 9 years, it is already sending back amazing close-ups.
It will zoom past that tiny Dwarf Planet on Tuesday morning, July 14, with its closest approach a mere one Earth width above the freezing surface. But it will be so frantically busy taking pictures, it won’t get around to sending us the…
June 21, 2015
It's humidity season. And there ARE those among us who find humidity exciting, whose bodies seem to revel in tropical air.
Most of us are not of that school; we use that divine invention, the air conditioner, as much for its drying as for its cooling talents. But, while it's upon us, let's discover humidity's scientific side.
How does humidity affect temperature…
June 11, 2015
Got Binoculars? Then you've got it made! Get started sky watching with some tips on how to choose binoculars.
June offers natural treasures by day and the starry universe by night. Both can be greatly enhanced with a simple pair of binoculars. Odds are, you've already got a pair, gathering dust somewhere. This moonless week is an ideal time to put them to use.
With lenses…
June 3, 2015
Did Most of the Universe Go Missing?
Seventy-one years ago, most of the universe went missing. According to many astronomers, it's still missing.
The problem started with the famous Swiss physicist Fritz Zwicky. It was he who coined the word supernova. He was such a heavy hitter, everyone paid attention when his gigantic brain went Boing.
It did exactly…
May 19, 2015
“What Is the Universe Expanding Into?” A reader recently asked that question. So here's the inside scoop.
But first, what exactly is expanding?
Not our solar system with its planets orbiting the sun
Not our Milky Way galaxy of 400 billion stars. It never gets any bigger.
Not the galaxies right around us. Indeed, the nearest spiral, Andromeda, is…
May 11, 2015
This week offers dark moonless skies. Perfect for meteors! We've all seen them streak across the heavens. But did you know that….
You always see more after midnight, when you're on the forward-facing part of Earth
You see more from August through early January than any other month
You never see the meteoroid itself—just the glowing air surrounding…
April 28, 2015
Welcome to our night sky exploration. Let's have fun! I know you've already spotted the Evening Star after sunset.
It generates more UFO reports than any other object. It's simply the brightest thing in the sky, after the Moon. It's Venus, the closest planet to us.
Right now, Venus is about as high up as it can get. As evening twilight deepens, it's…
June 23, 2014
The Whirlpool Galaxy, or M51, is a massive spiral type galaxy that is positioned beautifully face-on near The Big Dipper in the constellation Canes Venatici.
It is about 24 million light years away and part of a cluster of gravitationally bound galaxies called … wait for it … the M51 group.
Messier 51 was discovered on October 13, 1773 by Charles Messier. Charles was a…
November 15, 2013
Enjoy this guest post by David Rankin, astrophotographer, and discover more about the constellation Orion—including a floating horse!
One of the many amazing features inside the great constellation Orion is the “Horse Head Nebula,” which is seen in the below photograph as the red area near the star Alnitak in the center of the photo.
Not far from the Horse Head Nebula is the…
October 30, 2013
Enjoy this guest post about the constellation Orion by astrophotographer David Rankin. This week, Orion harbors an awesome secret … a witch!
By now, hopefully, you should be able to spot Orion in the winter sky.
When you walk out just after dark, Orion’s bright figure towers over you to the south … It’s the Witch Head Nebula.
See…
October 26, 2013
This week, we have a guest astrophotographer from Southern Utah, David Rankin, with a special interest in exploring the night sky via long-exposure digital photography …
The camera is able to capture space in a way that our eyes can not. Let’s explore what objects lie just beyond the reach of the naked eye during any given season.
As the colder months rush in, the…