If you know any skeptics regarding carbon dioxide, or who are not freaked by the earth’s still-new milestone of hitting 400 parts per million, just point upward any night, and show them how it operates elsewhere in the universe.
Unlike this spring and most of the summer, all four of the classic bright planets are now hovering close to their maximum possible brilliance. But just to make things unnecessarily easy, the moon is about to highlight each one by hovering alongside it.
Jupiter came closest to our planet arth just a month ago, so it will continue to dominate the sky the rest of the summer and fall. Jove is in Sagittarius, but its brilliant presence really has the look of a dazzling star just above a teapot. We could tell you it’s low in the southeast, but such directions are overkill. Simply look around the sky any time after nightfall and find the very brightest star. It’s astronomy made simple.
When we reach the nights of August 11 and 12, we will see a meteor every two minutes or so, especially if we’re away from the lights of town. But there’s a secret sinister untold story behind these lovely shooting stars. It involves their origins.
It’s the best comet since Hale-Bopp graced our skies in 1996. And it’s easy to find. From any location with an unobstructed view toward the northwest – just right of where the sun set – look about a quarter of the way up the sky at 10 p.m..
This summer offers lots of Covid-safe entertainment in the night sky. And the price is right.
Click-bait articles try to get readers excited about non-events like lunar eclipse and unremarkable meteor showers. Don’t be fooled.
This worldwide ailment has many of us climbing the walls. There’s a general feeling of restlessness. My children watch me like a hawk, and I get daily warnings about the dangers that lurk beyond my property boundaries.
Illustrations from a nineteenth-century geology textbook show typical marine shellfish fossils of Devonian age, a time period running from 419 to 369 million years ago. That’s the age of almost all the rocks here in the Catskills. Those fossils speak to geologists of a time when all of our region lay beneath the waves of a shallow sea, sometimes called the Catskill Sea.
This week, Venus has reached its greatest separation from the sun while standing high above where the sun set. These are rare perfect conditions that make Venus appear as high up as is ever possible. But on top of that, Venus is also at its most brilliant.