fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Coming up: an amazing year in the sky

by Bob Berman
February 26, 2020
in Columns, Nature
0

tumblr-mzyae-@We personally experience better years and worse years – and so does the sky. Some years bring no visible eclipses, while meteor showers get washed out by bright moonlight, planets hide behind the Sun and auroras are absent. The year 2014 was somewhat like that, but the New Year promises to make up for it.

Have you noticed that the evening star has been absent all year? That’s about to change. In the next couple of weeks, Venus will return: lowish in the southwest each evening in the fading twilight, hovering dramatically next to Mercury. Venus will get brighter and higher throughout this winter and spring. Don’t bother searching; one evening, it will pop out and find you.

The sky’s second-brightest star, Jupiter, is about to return, too. This week it rises at around 10 p.m. in Leo, and is nicely up by 11. It comes up half an hour earlier each week, and will dominate the sky this winter and spring.

Saturn will have a banner year. Its rings are angled in an “open” configuration, better displayed than at any time in the past eight years. Anyone with a small backyard telescope can feast on the ringed world this spring and summer. So the planets will be really great, with only Mars absent in 2015 – and that’s the least photogenic anyway.

The year will bring two notable eclipses. A total solar eclipse on March 20 unfortunately can only be viewed from the cloudy north Atlantic near Iceland and Scotland. But a gorgeous total lunar eclipse will unfold over our region on September 27. The Full Moon will turn coppery red during convenient pre-midnight hours.

Then there are the meteor showers – the best displays of the decade. Both the famous summer Perseid meteor shower on August 11 and the even-richer Geminid meteor shower on December 13 will unfold under dark, perfect moonless skies. Until then, the only worthy shower happens this Saturday night, January 3. These Quadrantids are usually pretty rich, with a bright meteor every three minutes if you keep your eyes glued upward. Unlike the other showers, though, bright moonlight will subdue all but the brightest shooting stars.

Various robotic spacecraft missions will keep our solar system in the news as well. The Rosetta spacecraft will send us gorgeous images of comet 67P as it increases its violent outgassing during its approach to the Sun, culminating in its August 13 perihelion. Even while that’s happening, attention will turn to the New Horizons spacecraft as it reaches Pluto in July. This will be the first-ever craft to reach that now-demoted body, a mere two-thirds the size of our Moon.

A bang-up year in the night sky. May your on-Earth version be healthy, peaceful and full of pleasant surprises.

 

Tags: members
Thank you for reading Hudson Valley One. We rely on your support to continue providing local, substantive news. Please check out our subscription options to keep local journalism alive in the Hudson Valley.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Burroughs Society leads Wallkill Valley Raptors outing

Next Post

Warren Schmahl show at KMoCA to help buy stone for artist’s grave

Bob Berman

Bob Berman, Ulster Publishing’s Night Sky columnist since 1974, is the world’s most widely read astronomer. Since the mid-1990s, his celebrated "Strange Universe" feature has appeared monthly in Astronomy magazine, the largest circulation periodical on the subject. Berman is also the long-time astronomy editor of the Old Farmer’s Almanac. He was Discover magazine’s monthly columnist from 1989-2006. He has authored more than a thousand published mass-market articles and been a guest on such TV shows as Today and Late Night with David Letterman. Berman is director of two Ulster County observatories and the Storm King Observatory at Cornwall. He was adjunct professor of astronomy and physics at Marymount college from 1995-2000.

Related Posts

Walkabout: All is definitely not lost
Columns

Walkabout: All is definitely not lost

May 20, 2022
Waghkonk Notes: Glorious day
Columns

Waghkonk Notes: Glorious day

May 12, 2022
What the newspapers said 100 years ago
Columns

What the newspapers said 100 years ago

May 10, 2022
Night Sky: This week’s total lunar eclipse
Columns

Night Sky: This week’s total lunar eclipse

May 10, 2022
Susan Slotnick: And they wound up here 
Columns

Susan Slotnick: And they wound up here 

May 9, 2022
Night Sky: A great eclipse coming up
Columns

Night Sky: A great eclipse coming up

May 6, 2022
Next Post

Warren Schmahl show at KMoCA to help buy stone for artist’s grave

Trending News

  • Local therapists provide uninterrupted free care to foster-care kids 2.6k views
  • Uproar in New Paltz over plan to abandon green electricity 836 views
  • Village of Saugerties planners hold public hearing for Dragon Inn 633 views
  • Hapag Kainan in Highland offers Filipino culinary delights 521 views
  • Saugerties welcomes Catskill Mountain Moonshine 507 views







Latest HV1 Podcast

Weather

Kingston
◉
61°
Partly Cloudy
5:28am8:17pm EDT
Feels like: 61°F
Wind: 6mph NNW
Humidity: 74%
Pressure: 30.09"Hg
UV index: 0
TueWedThu
72/48°F
73/50°F
70/61°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Ulster County COVID-19 Active Cases

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

×
You have free article(s) remaining. Subscribe for unlimited access.
View Subscription Offers Sign In
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In

© 2022 Ulster Publishing