All five visible planets are gathering in the morning skies this month. As March begins, look southeast where the sky is just beginning to brighten around 5am to see two pairings of planets. Venus will be the most brilliant and easiest to find rising more than...
I love how each season of stargazing has its own vibe. In August, I was lying out with friends waiting for Perseids to streak across the sky. Maybe I wore a hoodie to deter the mosquitoes and brought a fleece blanket in case it got a little chilly towards midnight....
One cool thing I am already loving about 2022 is that our months are aligning nicely with the phases of the moon. For winter and spring, each month begins with a new moon and cycles through all the phases of the moon. The lunar cycle of 29 ½ days is a day shorter than...
Venus has been an Evening Star this spring, summer, and fall shining brilliantly in the west after sunset. We have a final chance to enjoy it this month before it disappears for a few weeks and then becomes the Morning Star for winter, spring, and summer of 2022. As...
Night owls can be awed by a lunar eclipse on Friday, November 19th. That’s the one where the Full Moon passes through the shadow of the Earth and turns a rusty color. The Full Frost (or Beaver) Moon rises on Thursday the 18th around 4:20pm as the Sun is setting and...
On the first day of September, I had a wonderful time hiking the trails of Kickapoo Valley Reserve well beyond midnight. I was on a mission with my Unihedron Sky Quality Meter to measure just how dark it was at nine sites. And I was guiding and assisting an...
