The incoming thunderstorms and warm daytime temperatures this week are very indicative of the approaching midpoint of summer. Don’t let the storms scare you away from keeping an eye on the sky though because there might be some partially clear night skies through the weekend and into next week. The nighttime temperatures will swing from around 70°F at sunset to the low 60s by 5 AM. Sunset this week will be passing 8:50 PM and will only continue getting earlier as the season progresses. During the upcoming partially clear nights, try looking for Antares on the meridian, the Pipe Nebula, Stephan’s Quintet (imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope), and Saturn rising.

Roughly 50 minutes after sunset most of the brightest and “medium bright” stars will be naked-eye visible. One of these stars (likely initially visible just 30 minutes after sunset) is Antares. This red supergiant star can be found 25° above the southern horizon on the celestial meridian. Recall that your fist held at arm’s length is around 10° and the meridian is an imaginary line that runs from north to south in your sky. Antares has about 12x the mass of our sun and is so large that if you replaced the sun with Antares, all the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) would be inside the star!

The bright, orange Antares is due south within a short time after sunset this week.

Most stargazers would love dark enough skies to see a beautiful and colorful emission nebula, but how about a dark nebula? The Pipe Nebula sits near the core region of the Milky Way (somewhat near to Antares) and is a region filled with interstellar gas and dust. This makes the nebula a “dark nebula” because it emits no light – it only absorbs/blocks light so we can only see it silhouetted against the stars beyond. The Pipe Nebula is naked-eye visible under dark skies and occupies roughly a whopping 10°x10° area in the sky. Being so near the core, the dense and bright collection of background stars helps to add lots of contrast to this object making it easier to see than most dark nebulae and more fun to image. (IMAGE: https://science.nasa.gov/pipe-nebula)

The Pipe nebula makes a great target for those with a DSLR and a telephoto lens.

A few weeks ago, the team behind the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) released the first set of full color images from that scope. One of these images shows a collection of five interacting galaxies, NGC 7320, 7319, 7318a, 7318b, and 7317, or more compactly, Stephan’s Quintet. Despite the JWST having a focal length of 131 meters, most amateur telescopes with focal lengths of only < 1 meter can also see the quintet. These objects are not naked eye visible and do require darker skies to see since the brightness of each galaxy is magnitude 13 or more (even fainter). Try attaching a DSLR to your telescope and using long exposure to bring out more details of these faint and distant galaxies. (IMAGE: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-sheds-light-on-galaxy-evolution-black-holes)

This image, taken using the James Webb Space Telescope, was made from infrared light. The galaxy cluster, Stephan’s Quintet, can be photographed (not nearly as sharply, mind you) with amateur telescopes.

Around 9:45 PM most of this week, Saturn will be rising in the southeast. It is best to wait at least another hour or more before viewing Saturn through a telescope. This is because when it is close to the horizon, there is a lot more air that its light has to pass through to get to our eyes than when it is higher up in the sky. When its light passes through lots of air there is reduced contrast, Saturn may appear redder, and it may look shaky/wavy from all the turbulence. A telescope with a longer focal length (> 600mm) is the best way to get a close-up look at Saturn and to see the Cassini Division in the rings.

We are entering “Saturn Season” when the Ringed Planet will be up most of the night.

Get outside and enjoy the warm and hopefully partially clear night skies. If there are thunderstorms that pass by and you can see clear sky above the clouds, try looking for sprites, a red discharge caused by the lightning below! Bring a lawn chair or lay out a blanket and stare up into the endless cosmos. Among the infinite stars, try looking for Antares, the Pipe Nebula, Stephan’s Quintet, and Saturn peeking its head out.

Clear Skies!

Ohio is not only welcoming the official start of summer with many clear and partially clear nights in the near future. This is the perfect way to kick off the warm season – with some good ol’ stargazing.

The daytime temperatures are going to be in the toasty upper 80s and low 90s. The nighttime temperatures will also be on the warmer side hovering around the mid-sixties for most of the week. Sunset will occur around 9:05 PM, so be ready with all your stargazing gear by 10:30 PM when the skies are “astronomically” dark.

Be on the lookout this week for the moon passing by several planets, the North America Nebula, and the Wild Duck Cluster.

If you are an early-riser and wake up between 5 AM and 6 AM, you have a good chance at seeing the moon be neighbors with a new solar system body almost every day this week. On Monday, June 21st, the moon was just next to Jupiter. The morning of June 21st, the moon was neighbors with the red planet, Mars. On Sunday, June 26th, the moon will be passing within a few degrees of our sister planet, Venus. And lastly, on Monday June 27th, the moon will pass next to the inner-most planet of the solar system, Mercury. Binoculars or a telescope with a wide field of view will be perfect for observing these celestial meetups.

The moon was next to Mars this week (in the morning sky….)

Then the moon will be next to Venus…

… and finally, in heavy morning twilight, Mercury.

If you have plans to visit a dark sky park (like the John Glenn Astronomy Park, hint hint) or are just getting into astrophotography, there is a bright emission nebula that is perfect for you. The North America Nebula, more formally known as NGC 7000, is a region of ionized hydrogen that shines red from the absorbed energy of a nearby hot star. A telescope or binoculars will reveal a fuzzy patch in the sky, but a DSLR using long-exposure settings will reveal the nebula’s red color. This emission region sits 2,500 light-years away and occupies an area roughly ten times larger than the full moon so try using a wider field-of-view telescope or camera.

The North America gets its name from its shape. Can you see the “America” shape?

Globular clusters are collections of upwards of 100,000 stars that live outside of the plane of their host galaxy. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is known to have around 150 globular clusters circling in the galactic halo. Try searching for the Wild Duck Cluster (Messier Object 11). This particular globular cluster sits just south of the bright start Altair and can be spotted as a faint patch of fuzz using binoculars. M11 sits 6,200 light-years away and is home to only 2,900 stars with an average age of around 220 million years.

M11, the wild Duck Cluster is either a very sparse globular cluster, or a very dense “Galactic” cluster. Either way, it is a great target in small scopes.

Did you know that the night sky would look extremely different if our eyes could see in other wavelengths outside of the visible part of the spectrum? My personal favorite is microwave astronomy. If our eyes could see in microwaves (about 5,000x lower frequency), we would see a faint but mostly uniform light across the entire sky – weird. Why don’t we see this in the optical spectrum? Well, around 200,000 years after the Big Bang (when the universe came into being) the universe cooled enough to let light travel through it (this light was in the visible part of the spectrum). Over the last 13.75 billion years the universe has been expanding very quickly, causing a doppler shift in that original light light. This results in the short-wavelength optical light from the early universe “stretching” into much longer microwave light – which appears as a weird signal all over the sky.

So that’s right, if we could see microwaves, we would be able to see a signal in the sky from the earliest moments in the universe – pretty cool! (Imaged: This is a microwave map of that light from the early universe, more technically called the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from the Planck space telescope. The different colors are deviations in this all-sky signal by roughly 0.13% - IMAGE: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/planck/multimedia/pia17449.html#.YrKprOzMJTM)

A map of the Cosmic Background Radiation, the “stretched out” light that was released when the universe first became transparent.

Get outside this week and kick off summer with some warm-night stargazing under multiple clear and partially clear skies. Grab a blanket or lawn chairs and invite some friends out to the John Glenn Astronomy Park (JGAP) to enjoy a nighttime tour of the sky surrounded by the many friendly and familiar faces willing to share their astronomy expertise and guidance. In addition to gazing up at the Milky Way at JGAP, try looking for the lunar conjunction with multiple planets, the North America Nebula, the Wild Duck Cluster, and imagine seeing the CMB from the early universe.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Second Week of June

We are a mere weeks away from the official start of astronomical summer but the weather is trying to get a head start. This week will bring daytime temperatures up in the 90s and even break 100°F with the humidity. After the sun has set, the temperature will drop into the more comfortable low 70s with clear and partially clear skies for the next several days.

Be aware that when the temperature drops, dew may form on your astro gear so use a dew heater or bring a small towel or, better, a portable hair dryer. Be on the lookout this week for a full supermoon, Mercury high in the sky, early-morning planets, and a space lagoon.

Try catching the full moon either late Monday night (June 13th) or early Tuesday morning (June 14th). It will be impossible to miss since it will be shining at a blazing magnitude -12, over 16,000x brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Even when the full moon is hidden below the horizon, a white glow becomes visible over an hour before it rises. If you observe the bright moon using a telescope or binoculars, consider buying and equipping a lunar filter. This special filter is cheap and it acts like sunglasses to protect your eyes from the blinding glow of reflected light from the lunar surface.

The supermoon appears bigger, but not a lot bigger.

This full moon will also be a supermoon. What makes it so super? Well, not too much except that the moon will be about 15,000 miles closer to the earth than averan as it approaches its perigee! That sounds like a lot but this distance is small relative to the moon’s average distance of 240,000 miles from the earth, so it’s hard to see the change.

If you find yourself up early Thursday, June 16th, look low in the eastern horizon between 5 and 5:45 AM (yes, you will have to be quite an “early bird” to see this). Just above the horizon and below Venus should be Mercury. It may seem like there is a really small window to see Mercury, but this is as good as it gets. On that morning, Mercury will be at its greatest western elongation, in other words, at its apparent furthest point in its orbit from the sun.

Mercury will be at its greatest western elongation in the morning skies on the 16th. This makes it the easiest time to spot it until the next, eastern, elongation.

If you are up early enough to see Mercury, or perhaps up stargazing past midnight, you will be greeted by a chain of solar system bodies. From east to west there will be Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon. The moon will be blocking the core region of the Milky Way so I hope you don’t plan on observing or imaging Rho Ophiuchi around Jun 15th.  

A solar system lineup, dominated by the bright, nearly full, moon

Past June 15th, the moon will have moved past the core region of the Milky Way (although the moon’s light will still make observing this region difficult). Try peering into the core region in the southern sky using binoculars and hunting for a hazy object that isn’t a star cluster. You have likely found Messier Object 8, the Lagoon Nebula. This emission nebula shines magnitude 6, sits roughly 5,000 light-years away, and is a stellar nursery. Try taking a long-exposure photograph of this object to reveal its iconic red color.

Where to find the Lagoon nebula (best when the moon is not shining nearby.

On nights when the moon is not nearby, M8 is an easy target in binoculars.

Get outside this week and enjoy the warm and mostly clear Ohio skies – for it to be both warm and clear for multiple nights is quite a rarity. Lay down a blanket or grab a lawn chair to more easily gaze upwards into the infinite sky. In addition to spotting the supermoon, Mercury, a chain of solar-system bodies, and the Lagoon Nebula, try looking for satellites silently tracking across the sky or rogue dust grains that make themselves known as meteorites.

Clear Skies!

We are inching closer and closer to summer and the daytime temperatures reflect that – sitting in the 80s and 90s this week. After the sun sets, the air begins to cool but still hangs on to some of the daytime heat. The lowest nighttime temperatures will be in the mid-60s, which is the perfect temperature for stargazing. On top of that, despite Ohio weather being highly unpredictable (but generally cloudy), most of this week will yield clear nights!

Sunset this week is around 8:50 PM. Be ready with all your stargazing gear about an hour later for when the skies are truly dark. Be on the lookout this week for a Mars-Jupiter conjunction, some solar eclipses on Jupiter, the new moon and young crescent, and twins in the sky.

All throughout the week if you are awake between the hours of 3:30 AM and 6 AM, you have a good chance of seeing Jupiter. This gas giant is the third brightest object in the night sky (behind the moon and Venus) so it should be easy to spot in the eastern skies before sunrise. A careful eye will reveal a red star very near to Jupiter – this is Mars. A pair of binoculars or a low-power telescope will likely show both planets within the same field of view. These two objects will be around 0.75° apart.

Jupiter and Mars pass close by one another in the morning sky.

Speaking of Jupiter, did you know that we can see solar eclipses happen on that planet as well as earth? Okay, that isn’t an entirely fair question, because while we can experience the blackout of the sun here on earth during a solar eclipse, we can only see the shadow cast by the eclipsing body on Jupiter. If you’re up watching the Mars-Jupiter conjunction, grab a higher-power telescope on May 29th and watch Jupiter between 3:20 AM and 5:50 AM. You will see the diffuse shadow of Ganymede (one of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter) passing over Jupiter’s southern hemisphere. If you have a camera attached to a telescope this can make an interesting timelapse!

At certain times, we can regularly spot, well… spots on Jupiter. These are the shadows of Jupiter’s four large moons which frequently are cast upon the planet.

An almost solar eclipse on Monday morning (not visible, but cool nonetheless.)

Monday, May 30th, marks the day of the new moon. If you somehow could look at the sun and moon simultaneously at 7:30 AM on Monday, without damaging your eyes, this is what you would see.



Notice how close the moon is to the sun. This is due to its slightly tiled orbit relative to the earth-sun orbital plane by 5°. Solar eclipses on earth happen when the moon during its new moon phase crosses that 0° point in the plane (image of off-axis moon and earth from:

https://moon.nasa.gov/moon-in-motion/overview/ ). As the week goes on, you will notice an extremely thin crescent poking up over the western skies only visible for an hour or so before setting.

A diagram showing why there’s not a solar eclipse every month. Sometimes the moon appears “above” or “below” the sun in the sky..

While spotting this crescent moon shortly after sunset, also be on the lookout for twins in the sunset sky. More specifically, try spotting the bright starts of Pollux and Castor. According to Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux were twin half-brothers (more technically caused by heteropaternal superfecundation) and their neighboring constellations (in Gemini) look almost identical. Castor the star is actually a collection of a whopping six stars that sit 50 light-years away that are so close they appear as one. Pollux the star is a colder (cold in terms of stellar temperatures – its surface temperature is still 7650°F) orange giant that sits 34 light-years away and is the nearest giant star to earth.

The Gemini Twins, Castor and Pollux are setting int the west.

Get outside and enjoy the plethora of warm and clear nights coming up. Invite friends over or enjoy the solitude of your backyard to explore the cosmos at varying depths. Your naked eye will reveal all but two planets and thousands of stars or a telescope will reveal all the planets, clusters, galaxies, and upward of a million stars. With your eyes, binoculars, and telescopes, try spotting a planetary conjunction, eclipses on Jupiter, a thin crescent moon, and Castor and Pollux.

Clear Skies!  

We are about one month away from the start of astronomical summer, and the weather is reflecting that. The daytime temperatures this week will be between 90°F and the upper 60s. The nighttime temperatures follow closely, fluctuating between 70°F and 50°F. The forecast calls for some clear nights near Friday, May 20th, and partially clear skies for the remainder of the week. Hopefully, these partially clear skies have enough gaps between the clouds for stargazing.

Sunset this week is around 8:45 PM so be ready with your stargazing eyes, binoculars, and telescopes by 9:45 PM to begin peering into the cosmos. During these partially clear skies, be on the lookout this week for the rising Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, Cygnus the Swan, a chain of solar-system bodies, and some sunspots.

Around 10 PM, look low in the southeastern sky and try spotting the visibly orange star, Antares. If you use binoculars to peer deeper into this region of the sky (and if you are under darker skies), you will see a more interesting structure than just a collection of stars around Antares. At just 460 light-years away and holding the title of “nearest star nursery”, this is the Rho Ophiuchi region. It is arguably an astrophotographer’s dream since most types of deep-sky objects can be found here. With binoculars or a 50mm camera lens on a DSLR capable of taking long exposures try identifying the emission nebulae, reflection nebulae, dark nebulae, globular clusters, and colorful young stars near Antares.

With a camera, you can photograph the faint, but colorful, nebulae around the bright orange star Antares. This is the Rho Ophiuchi complex

Shortly after sunset look near the eastern horizon to spot most of the Cygnus the Swan constellation. The entirety of this constellation will be above the horizon around 11:45 PM. It can be enjoyable trying to identify all the stars that form this constellation, but with a telescope you will be able to spot numerous deep-sky objects in this region. Since this constellation runs parallel with the plane of the Milky Way you are looking through lots of stars and gas (and deep-sky objects) along your line of sight. Some of these deep-sky objects include numerous star clusters, the North America Nebula, the Veil Nebulae, and the famous Dumbbell Nebula.

Cygnus rises above the eastern horizon in the hour before midnight. After midnight, it rises higher in the sky.

A map of some of the more well known “deep sky” objects in Cygnus- best viewed this week after midnight.

If you are a morning riser, check out the eastern sky between 5 AM and 6 AM. You will be greeted with a chain of five solar-system objects. From east to west there will be Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. The fifth object, the moon, will be drifting through this belt as the week goes on. Try spotting the moon neighboring Saturn on May 22nd and then neighboring both Jupiter and Mars on May 25th. These objects can all be spotted with the naked eye, but binoculars will certainly help bring out some details.

The visible planets continue to be mostly in the pre-dawn sky this week.

The sun undergoes 11-year cycles where it has a period of relative dormancy followed by a period of lots of activity and sunspots. Currently, the sun is ramping up to the solar cycle 25 peak in 2025. During the peak periods, there are around 120 sunspots seen per month. During May and June, we should be seeing around 50 sunspots. These spots will appear as dark features on the solar surface due to some complicated physics involving the sun’s strong magnetic field and the charged plasma of the sun’s photosphere.

Check to see if there are any visible spots on the space weather website:(https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/en/solar-activity/sunspot-regions.html) then use a solar filter on your binoculars or telescope (these are relatively cheap to buy!) to safely view the sun. A solar filter MUST be used when observing the sun since it only allows 1/100,000th of the light to pass through leaving your eyes undamaged. (image from : https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/sunspotssolar-cycle)

The number of sunspots is ramping up as the solar cycle progresses towards the peak of its 11 year cycle.

The daytime temperatures may be on the warmer side but that leads to comfortable stargazing temperatures at night. Lay out on a blanket or lawn chair and gaze upwards into the infinite night sky filled with stars, planets, galaxies, gas, and more. Try hunting for the Rho Ophiuchi complex, Cygnus the Swan and all its deep-sky objects, a belt of solar-system objects, and sunspots this week under the partially clear Ohio skies.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This First Week of May

We have finally made it to May, the doorstep of summer. The saying goes “April showers bring May flowers”, but it seems like it is not done raining yet. The middle of the week will be filled with rainy days and nights. There is hope for some clear nights over the weekend and perhaps early next week.

Sunset occurs around 8:30 PM. Have your stargazing equipment ready by 9:30 PM. Bring a light jacket with you since the temperature will drop into the low 50s as the nighttime air cools off.

During the clear nights this week be on the lookout for Eta-Aquariid meteors, the moon passing some star clusters, the first quarter moon, and another galaxy.

Friday, May 6, is the peak of the Eta-Aquariids meteor shower. This meteor shower is not a “common name” like the Perseid or the Leonid meteor showers, but the source of all the Eta-Aquariids meteors is pretty famous. All meteor showers are the result of earth passing through left over debris from a comet passing through the inner solar system. The comet debris responsible for the Et-Aquariids is Halley’s Comet – one of the most famous comets in history. This shower runs from late April to late May and has a peak rate of around 50 meteors per hour on the morning of Sunday the 8th.

The Eta Aquarids are best when the radiant, that is the place in the sky that from which they seem to is up. This occurs in the pre-dawn hours.

As the week goes by the moon will creep eastward, advancing through its phases. During this time it will be passing by some popular deep-sky objects that are great for binocular and telescope viewing. Wednesday (May 4th) the moon will be passing close to the Shoe-Buckle Cluster (Messier 35). Then on Saturday (May 7th) the moon will pass near the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44). Both of these objects are open cluster which contain a little over one thousand young and bright stars. How many of these stars can you spot through your binoculars vs your telescope?

The beehive will be difficult to see against the bright, almost-first quarter moon, but it may make a good photograph.

Sunday, May 8, marks the first quarter moon. This is bad news for deep-sky astrophotographers since most of the sky will be washed out from the moon’s glow. This is good news for most other stargazers since the naked eye, binoculars, and a telescope are all great tools for viewing and enjoying the surface features of our moon. Try spotting the different Apollo landing sites using binoculars – disclaimer: you will not be able to see the descent stages of the lunar landers nor the iconic American flags that are still standing, since they are so too small and far too far away. Imagine trying to spot a single car from 250,000 miles away. That’s what it’s like.

The “galaxy of the week” this time is the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 83). This face-on spiral galaxy sits 15 million light-years away and is located in the very southern skies, only 20° above the horizon at its highest point. M83 shines at magnitude 7.5, so it can be spotted with binoculars or a telescope, although a telescope will make the job a lot easier. From edge-to-edge this galaxy is just 10 arcminutes across (remember there are 60 arcminutes per 1°), so it appears to be pretty small in the sky despite actually being 56,000 light-years across. Using a camera attached to your telescope and long-exposure techniques will reveal the spiral arms in more detail.

Where to find M83.

M83 seen close up.

Hopefully the rainy nights will be over quick so we can move into clear skies. And finally, the nighttime temperatures are starting to get comfortably warm which will make stargazing more enjoyable. From a lawn chair or blanket in your backyard stare upwards into the depths of space.

It is a humbling thought that we are just a “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” among all the other planets, stars, and galaxies in our universe. Try observing the moon and open star clusters, meteors, and M83 this week with that mindset to enhance your stargazing experience – and to perhaps have an existential crisis.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Fourth Week of April

We have made it to the heart of spring and this week will be split between the tail-end of April and the start of May. The old saying goes “April showers bring May flowers”, but surprisingly, the last few days of April this week may give some clear days and nights instead of showers!

While the daytime temperatures will be in the 50s, the nighttime temperatures will drop down into the mid-30s – pretty cold for a spring night, so dress warmly. Sunset this week is around 8:25 PM. Be ready with your telescopes, binoculars, and lawn chairs for stargazing no later than 9:25 PM.

During the clear and partially clear nights ahead be on the lookout for a five-way celestial object meetup, a Venus-Jupiter conjunction, Mercury in the evening, the rising core of the Milky Way, and a triplet of galaxies.

If you are awake in the mornings between 5:30 AM and 6:30 AM, take a peek near the eastern horizon. Tuesday and Wednesday (4/26 and 4/27) you will see five solar-system objects neighboring each other. From east to west there is the waning crescent moon, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn. Past Wednesday the moon will be too close to the sun to see, but you can still catch the other four objects. A pair of binoculars is a great choice for viewing these celestial bodies. You may even be able to catch some earthshine appearing on the darkened side of the moon.

The planets as seen Wednesday, April 27, just before sunrise.

Saturday, April 30, in the same early-morning hours, try spotting Jupiter and Venus once again. You will see they are hardly distinguishable by eye. Despite being physically separated by over 430 million miles, these planets will appear to be separated by a mere 0.5° in the sky, so you may be able to fit them both in a single field of view with binoculars. This will make for a potentially interesting planetary imaging opportunity.

Jupiter and Venus are going to get really close on Saturday Morning.

Any time this week between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM, try looking low in the western skies. As the sunset colors fade and the sky darkens, Mercury’s shine will stand out. This inner-most planet is at the “peak” of its orbit relative to earth. By that I mean it is near its distant-most point from the sun as viewed from earth, so we get about one hour of observation before Mercury sets. If you wait until closer to 9:30 to spot Mercury, a pair of binoculars and a careful set of eyes will also find the Pleiades cluster nearby.

This is your last chance to spot the Pleiades before they set into the evening twilight. This week, they point out the position of the elusive Merucry.

The summer is the best time to observe the bright and dense core-region of the Milky Way. And since warm weather has been teasing most of the Midwest recently, why not try and experience an “early summer” by observing the Milky Way core. If you are still stargazing at midnight, look in the southern and eastern skies to spot the long and bright arms and core of the Milky Way stretching across the entire horizon. Any cosmic object low to the horizon is difficult to spot because its light has to pass through much more air (or “airmass”, as astronomers call it) as compared to a cosmic object that is nearly overhead, so be aware of that when scoping out the rising stars and dust lanes of our own galaxy.  

The Milky-Way rises over the eastern horizon at around 1:00 AM. It should be high enough to view easily by about about 3:00 AM.

In the spirit of galaxy season, this week’s galactic focus is the Leo Triplet which consists of three galaxies: M65, M66, and NGC 3628. This small group of interacting galaxies sits 35 million light-years away, shines at an average magnitude of 9.3, and occupies a somewhat small angular footprint in the sky. A telescope is best suited for observing these distant spiral galaxies. Try attaching a camera to your telescope and imaging this “triplet” to resolve the dusty spiral structure of each galaxy – can you spot which of the three is completely edge-on?

M65, M66 and NGC 3628, the Leo Triplet are along the “back leg” Leo, which is high in the sky after sundown. They can be seen in a good pair of binoculars under dark skies.

This week the nighttime temperatures will be quite low, but don’t let that discourage you from sitting under the stars and exploring the springtime night skies. Bring a lawn chair or a towel to lay down on and gaze upwards to see things just a few hundred miles away (a satellite) to things millions of light-years away (galaxies). Under the upcoming clear skies try looking for the early-morning planetary belt, a planetary conjunction, Mercury high in the sky, the rising arms of the Milky Way, and the Leo Triplet.

Clear Skies!

This week will be a warm welcome to spring. Hopefully, the days and nights will only get warmer from here on out. The daytime temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s while the nighttime temperatures will be in the 40s and 50s.

As the humidity in the air increases in the warm months, there is a higher chance for dew to form at night, so bring your telescope dew heaters to protect them from the moisture. Ohio clouds will be forgiving, bringing some clear skies during the later sections of the week.

Sunset is right around 8:10 PM so be ready to stargaze by around 9:10 PM. During any of the upcoming clear nights be on the lookout for a belt of five planets, a conjunction of Neptune and Jupiter, a full moon, and the Sombrero Galaxy. I would also like to talk about a strange concept – gravitational lensing and how we can use entire galaxy clusters as giant telescopes.

Any time this week between 6 and 6:30 AM, try looking over in the eastern skies with either your naked eyes or a pair of binoculars. By eye, you will spot a chain of four planets all spaced out. From east to west you will see Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn. If you have a pair of binoculars you will be able to see the faint details that each of these planets harbor. Like Jupiter’s striped atmosphere, the phase of Venus (much like the phase of the moon), the Martian polar ice caps, and Saturn’s rings. If you have a more powerful telescope and look near Jupiter, you may also spot Neptune (although this outer-most planet will be very faint and difficult to spot).

The naked eye planets continue (all but Mercury) continue their dance in the morning sky.

Neptune will be roughly 0.5° further west than Jupiter. Keep in mind that Jupiter shines a very bright magnitude -2 whereas Neptune shines a meager magnitude 8. Spotting Neptune will be a real challenge since it is already faint but will also be extincted by the atmosphere. Because Neptune will be low to the horizon when you can spot it, the light from this gas giant has to pass through a lot of the earth’s atmosphere to get to your eyes. This causes it to appear even fainter and to have an effective magnitude of 9.1. (That’s far too faint to see with the unaided eye.)

Jupiter will make finding Neptune easier to spot this week in small telescopes.

Unfortunately for us stargazers and astrophotographers, the moon is maturing into its full moon phase. This means the dark sky will actually be filled with the white haze of the moon’s reflected light. If you like observing the moon, try using a lunar filter. This reduces the brightness of the moon through the eyepiece of your telescope or binoculars. Saturday night, April 16, the moon will rise in the east with 99.8% illumination. 

The moon is full on the night April 16. It will be pretty, but its brilliance will wash out the stars.

With spring being “galaxy season” to most stargazers and astrophotographers, try hunting for the famous Sombrero Galaxy (Messier Object 104) found just south of the Virgo constellation. This spiral galaxy shines at magnitude 8 and is relatively small in the sky, so it’s best to observe it using a telescope. This galaxy sits 28 million light-years away and is home to 100 billion stars and a supermassive black hole at its center (like all spiral galaxies). (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-104-the-sombrero-galaxy)

One of the most striking galaxies in the sky is M104, the “Sombrero” in the southern part of the constellation Virgo.

We are all generally familiar with how a basic refracting telescope works – it uses a lens, possibly multiple lenses (or a mirror) to converge light like a magnifying glass into our eyes to produce a magnified image. Well, the same effect has been observed in space on the scale of a few million light-years! This effect is called gravitational lensing. Read last week’s blog to learn about a recent discovery using gravitational lensing. It works by having a galaxy cluster with a total mass of around 1015 (1 million billion) suns. This warps space-time so much that light passing by these clusters from an even more distant and background galaxy will actually bend around this foreground cluster and focus – much like a lens on a telescope. This allows us to see very faint and distant objects. Sometimes we can even see four of the same image because the light is bent in a particular way. (imaged is a quasar that has been gravitationally lensed into four individual images) (http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1990/20/image/a/)

The Einstein cross is an image of a single quasar seen four times, lensed by a massive galaxy (the fuzzy patch at the middle of the “cross”).

Try getting outside on these warmer clear nights and enjoy all that the sky has to offer. Make sure to bring a jacket and your dew heater to keep your telescope/binoculars protected against moisture. Lay out a chair and stare upwards into the beautiful abyss of the cosmos. Try looking for the planetary alignment and conjunction, the full moon, M104, and perhaps a galaxy cluster that could be gravitationally lensing objects behind it.

Clear Skies!

We have finally made it to April and the warm spring weather is at our doorsteps. This week the daytime temperatures fluctuate between the 40s and 60s, while the nighttime temperatures will stick between the 30s and 40s. The pesky clouds will be lingering around for most of the next seven days or so, but there is a chance for some partially clear skies closer to Saturday and Sunday. Sunset will be just after 8 PM, so be ready with your telescopes, binoculars, and lawn chairs by 9 PM when the sky gets really dark to maximize your stargazing time.

This week be on the lookout for the growing waxing moon, a planetary conjunction, two interacting galaxies, and a famous open cluster of stars. I will also include a short section on a recent Hubble Space Telescope (HST) discovery – the most distant star yet observed.

If you enjoy watching sunsets, you have probably noticed the thin waxing crescent moon hanging low in the western sky around 6 or 7 PM. As the week progresses, this young crescent will change from being only 13% illuminated all the way to 50% illuminated by the weekend. Saturday around 2 AM will officially mark the first-quarter moon for April. Observing the moon with a telescope or binoculars during its “younger” phases is ideal since the illumination is low enough not to completely ruin your night vision or hurt your eyes.

The moon begins the week as a deep crescent.

If you find yourself “up and at ‘em” before sunrise, I suggest stepping outside around 6:30 AM to witness a beautiful string of planets. From east to west there will be Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn. If you have some binoculars, you can likely fit both Saturn and Mars into a single field of view since they will be separated by only about a degree in the sky. It isn’t just every week that we get to see a planetary grouping like this.

The planets dance in the pre dawn sky. To see it, go out at around 6:30 AM, find place with a clear eastern horizon, and look. They should be visible without optical aid if the weather is clear.

If you are interested in taking advantage of “galaxy season”, a great starting point is the pair of galaxies, M81 and M82 more commonly called “Bode’s Galaxy” and “The Cigar Galaxy” respectively. These galaxies both shine around magnitude 7 and 8 and span about 15’ (“15 arcminutes” – there are 60 arcminutes per degree) so a telescope will be best for observing them. You may notice a red color to M82, and this is caused by a strong hydrogen emission which indicates this galaxy is a starburst galaxy. This starburst event is a rapid formation of stars caused by the gravitational interaction of M82 with M81. These galaxies can be found shortly after sunset above the North Star. Hop equidistant from the horizon to Polaris then to the galaxy pair.

Two of the closest galaxies to our local group are M81 and M82, visible in small telescopes near the “bowl” of the Big Dipper.

If galaxies aren’t quite your thing, or are too challenging, try looking for a famous star cluster. The Beehive Cluster is a collection of young stars only 690 light-years from earth (relatively close in terms of cosmic scale). It contains around 1000 stars and spans roughly 1.5° making this an ideal binocular target. Try hunting for this object in the SSW sky roughly 20° above Sirius.

The Beehive cluster appears as a fuzzy blob in the heart of the constellation Cancer, the crab, high in the east in the early evening.

Hubble has recently observed the most distant star to date. This star, called “Earendel”, and it sits a whopping 28 billion light-years away! This is so incredible because even galaxies that contain over one hundred BILLION stars at this distance appear as no more than pinpoints. So how did Earendel stand out? There is a large cluster of galaxies in front of Earendel’s host galaxy that has gravitationally bent the light coming from Earendel (like a giant magnifying glass) in such a particular way that it has amplified Earendel’s brightness over 1000x. The James Webb Telescope will do follow-up measurements on this star. It may even be an elusive population III star, the first generation of stars in the universe from which all “later” stars (including our sun) have formed, which are predicted to exist but have never been directly observed. (IMAGE: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/record-broken-hubble-spots-farthest-star-ever-seen)

The most distant single star ever imaged has been named Earendel. The magnifying effect of a massive galaxy cluster is what allowed the Hubble Space Telescope to image what would otherwise be far too faint to detect.

This week may bring mostly clouds and cooler temperatures, but we can have some hope for partially clear skies with above-freezing temperatures for weekend stargazing. When you step outside to stare up into the cosmos, you are looking at things ranging from 250,000 miles away (the moon) all the way to 68,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away (M81 and M81). Many of these objects are too large and far away for the human mind to comprehend. But even without the awe of the scale of the cosmos, stargazing in essence is the enjoyment of the simple beauties of the heavens. This week try enjoying the crescent moon, a planetary alignment, interacting galaxies, and a large star cluster.

Clear Skies!

We have officially entered astronomical spring and have been promptly greeted with spring showers. Most of this week will be clouded over with the possible exception of Saturday and Sunday night where it may only be partially cloudy. The daytime temperatures this week swing between the 50s and 30s (with windchill) and the nighttime temperatures follow closely with temperatures ranging from the mid-40s to upper teens.

Sunset is right around 7:45 P.M. Be ready to stargaze around an hour later. In the event of some clear skies be on the lookout this week for the third-quarter moon, a moon-Antares meetup, a bright face-on spiral galaxy, and a four-way celestial conjunction. I will also include a brief update on the first sharp image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Friday, March 25th, marks March’s third-quarter moon. Since the moon is now in its later phases, it rises later in the night and has less and less of its surface illuminated as the week goes on. This is great news for stargazers and astrophotographers since its pesky bright glow will be minimized, revealing the faint stars, galaxies, and nebulae. If you do enjoy observing the moon but you are not a night owl, then just wait until early morning. Scan the western skies and spot the half-lit moon contrasting with the blue sky backdrop. The third quarter, much like the first quarter, is a great time to observe the moon for craters since the near perpendicular sun rays hitting these craters near the moon’s non-illuminated side causes stretched shadows leading to lots of contrast.

The third quarter moon rises after midnight and presents a different face than the first quarter moon. It can be seen setting in the west well after sunrise on clear mornings.

On Wednesday, March 23rd, between 2 AM (for the true night owls) and before sunrise, try spotting the near-third-quarter moon. It should be just a few degrees away from a noticeably red star. This is Antares, a red supergiant that is 12 times more massive than the sun and is part of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Antares is mostly a “summer star” since it hangs out in the southern skies during the late summer near the galactic core from our point of view.

Early in the morning on March 23, the third quarter moon slides by the red giant star, Antares.

In the spirit of spring (a.k.a. “galaxy season” for astrophotographers and telescopists), there is a bright galaxy that can be easily spotted which somewhat resembles looking down into a blooming rose. Messier object 101 (M101) is a face-on galaxy (meaning we can see the entire spiral structure) that sits 21 million light-years from the earth. This galaxy is home to around one trillion stars and shines at magnitude 7.9 making it an ideal target for a telescope. The best way to find M101 is to make an equilateral triangle with the last two stars in the Big Dipper’s handle. The “missing point” of this triangle is where M101 resides. Can you spot anything interesting about its shape compared to the Andromeda galaxy, for example?

How to find the galaxy M101, near the tail of the Big Dipper.

On Monday, March 28th, look in the eastern skies in the hour before sunrise to spot four familiar objects all just a few degrees apart from each other. Venus, Saturn, the moon, and Mars will all be clustered together in the sky. Grab a pair of binoculars and observe each of these objects independently because each of them has unique features that can only be revealed through some magnification.

The best planet show right now is in the morning sky.

The JWST is a new space telescope that will produce cutting-edge scientific results and will be looking at the earliest stars and galaxies in the universe. Before all of that, it needs to get itself aligned and get its mirrors calibrated (similar to amateur telescopes in some ways). Recently it went through a multi-step process to align all 18 of its mirrors and got them acting as a single large mirror. Initially, each of the 18 mirrors produced its own image of the target star (used for calibration) thus acting as 18 independent telescopes. After they shaped the mirrors to rid the images of optical aberration, the JWST team aligned these 18 images together – but there is a catch. Since each mirror is not phase-matched, they are still behaving as 18 independent telescopes, so they carefully adjusted the height of each mirror (relative to the mirror plane) and analyzed the calibration star’s image using Fourier analysis and other clever tricks to get all the mirrors to act as a single large mirror. Just this past week the JWST team released the image of this sharp and phase-matched image. (IMAGE: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/03/Webb_reaches_alignment_milestone_image_of_focused_star)

The first fully focused image from the JWST. This is a test image of the star 2MASS J17554042+6551277, a star of no particular interest except that it is the right color and brightness, and is in a sparsely populated part of the sky. This makes it suitable for calibration of JWST’s instruments.

Spring is a notoriously rainy time for Ohio (as are most seasons, honestly) but we may be lucky and catch a break this weekend with some clear or partially clear skies. You will likely need a winter coat but get outside on those nights and explore the spectacles of the entire universe from red supergiants to distant galaxies all from the comfort of your own backyard. Try spotting the third-quarter moon, Antares, a four-way conjunction, and M101.

Clear Skies! (Maybe?)

We are knocking on warm weather’s door, although all Ohioans know that it always snows at least once in April. This week the daytime temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s while the nighttime temperatures will dip into the 30s and 40s. Sunset is right around 7:40 PM (mostly thanks to daylight saving time effectively making the sunset an hour later). All of the astronomical objects should be visible no more than an hour later. The forecast indicates some clear nights as well as partially clear and rainy nights – the full spectrum of cloud coverage. During those clear nights be on the lookout for the full moon, an early-morning planetary triangle, some pre-spring galaxies, and during the day watch the sun during the spring equinox.

Friday, March 18, marks the full moon for the month of March. Both Thursday and Friday the moon will appear “full”. Thursday night the moon will be 99.8% illuminated and Friday night the moon will be 99.1% illuminated. So anything in the eastern sky after sunset will be washed out from the moon’s glow. Catching the full or nearly-full moon just after sunset is a great time to try out some landscape/astrophotography. Imaging the moon next to common objects (like houses) will make the moon seem gigantic! You can even experiment with using a telephoto lens to produce the optical illusion of having an even larger moon.

A rising, nearly full, moon at JGAP.

If you are an early riser and find yourself up before sunrise peer low in the eastern skies between 6:20 AM and 7:20 AM. You will spot a planetary trio. Venus and Mars will be next to each other, separated by only 5° . Then, closer to the horizon will be Saturn. Despite appearing to be neighbors in the sky, there is a physical separation between these planets of tens, or (in the case of Saturn) hundreds, of millions of miles. All three of these objects are incredible targets through binoculars or a telescope. The grand ring system of Saturn, the phase of Venus, and the red color of Mars can all be easily spotted.

Mars, Venus and Saturn still form a trio in the morning sky.

Spring is typically referred to as “galaxy season” by many amateur astronomers and astrophotographers. This is because at this time of year we are looking up and out of the galactic plane. If we were looking through the galactic plane (like in the summer), our line of sight would be clouded with nebulae and dusty regions of our Milky Way galaxy (which still make for incredible observing targets). By looking out of our galaxy, we can see thousands of distant galaxies spanning from a few million light-years away to over 50 million light-years away. The image shown is just an example of all the galaxies in the eastern sky that can be seen with a decently powerful telescope – it is way too crowded to read in some spots! Using a camera attached to your telescope to take long exposures will certainly help you spot fainter and more distant galaxies.

Some of the very many galaxies visible in the spring sky as plotted in the astronomical software, Stellarium. There are many, many more.

Sunday, March 20, marks the spring equinox. Not only does this officially start astronomical spring, but it has some interesting implications about the path the sun takes through the sky. If you follow the sun through the day on Sunday, it will trace out the celestial equator. The celestial equator is just a projection of the earth’s equator onto the sky. So the sun will be directly over the earth’s equator and will give an equally long day and night.

The equinox marks the point in time that the center of the sun crosses the celestial equator.

Despite the warm daytime temperatures, the nighttime temperatures are still on the cold side. Be prepared to do some astronomical observing this week during the completely or partially cloudy nights. Get outside and explore the cosmos with a telescope or binoculars and discover the thousands of stars, nebulae, and galaxies that are “frozen” in time in our night sky. Be on the lookout specifically this week for the full moon, a planetary meetup, thousands of galaxies, and trace earth’s equator by following the sun on the day of the equinox.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This First Week of March

We finally made it to March and the weather is trying to push us toward spring. Some days this week will have daytime temperatures in the 50s. Once the sun has set temperatures will drop. Two hours after sunset temperatures are expected to be in the mid-40s (during the mid-section of the week). There will be mostly partially cloudy skies (to put it more optimistically, partially clear skies) during prime stargazing hours. Sunset this week is around 6:25 PM so all the faintest objects will be viewable just one hour after that.

Be on the lookout this week for the new moon, an inner and outer planet meetup, a springtime constellation home to a scary object, galaxy M87 (also home to a scary object), and the North Star – which might not be Polaris.

Wednesday, March 2nd, marks the new moon. This is great news for stargazers and astrophotographers because the night sky will not be washed out with the moon’s bright light. On Thursday and Friday, the moon will be very “aesthetic”. The one- and two-day-old crescent will be hanging low in the orange sunset skies with less than 6% of its surface illuminated. This is a great time to see earthshine. An effect that faintly lightens the darker side of the moon facing the earth.

The very thin crescent moon as seen on Thursday evening.

If you are awake early Wednesday morning, you have a good chance of seeing a planetary conjunction. Look low in the southeast skies at 6:30 AM to spot two bright objects very near each other. The top-most object is the outer planet Saturn and the bottom object is the inner-most planet, Mercury. Both of these objects can comfortably fit in a wide-field telescope’s or binocular’s field of view. Since Mercury is so small it will be featureless through binoculars and even a higher-power telescope. Saturn, however, will present its grand ring system. Try spotting the Cassini division within the rings. It may be challenging with Saturn so low in the sky.

Saturn and Mercury will be seen very close together on Wednesday morning.

Spring is not quite here yet, but you can catch some springtime constellations rising shortly after sunset. One such constellation is Boötes, which fully rises by 9:45 PM. Boötes can be relatively easy to spot since one of its stars is Arcturus, a bright star found by tracing the Big Dipper’s handle. The constellation itself is a herdsman but resembles a giant kite. Just off the north end of this constellation is perhaps the scariest place in the universe – Boötes Void. This is a region of space roughly 330 million light-years in diameter that is almost entirely empty. The giant region contains only 60 galaxies (a space this size would normally contain around 2,000 galaxies), so it is perhaps the loneliest place in the universe too.

One of the most empty places in intergalactic space is the Bootes Void. You can see it (or, not see it, that is) just off the spring constellation Bootes.

Rising around 9:30 PM and also near the Boötes region is galaxy M87. This galaxy can be observed with a telescope under dark skies as it is relatively small in our sky and shines at magnitude 8.6. Like most galaxies, this object can also be considered a “springtime object”. M87 is no normal galaxy, however, it is home to a supermassive black hole (M87*) billions of times the mass of our sun. This black hole’s image was released in 2019 and it broke physics and astronomy news. Due to some whacky physics with spinning black holes and magnetic fields, M87* spews some of its accreted material through something called relativistic jets. These jets look like beams of light extending from the spin axis of the black hole caused by the material being accelerated to near the speed of light! (IMAGE: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-87)

A closeup view of the enormous galaxy M87 with its jet, created by the supermassive black hole at its core.

Any time of the year in the northern hemisphere stargazers should be able to spot the North Star. It is a great starting point for star hopping when navigating the night sky and for polar aligning your German-equatorial telescope mount. Did you know that Polaris has not always been the North Star? Due to the motion of stars through the galaxy but mostly the precession of the earth’s rotation the “north star” will change over time. In 3000 BC the “North Star” title was given to Thuban (a star in Draco). By the year 4200 AD the north star will become Errai.

Due to “precession of the Equinoxes”, a new north star will have rolled into view in two millennia.

Get outside and enjoy the warmer nights this week. Grab a chair, a warm coat, and a good set of binoculars or a telescope and enjoy the vastness of the cosmos from our small “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” we call earth. During the partially clear nights, be on the lookout for the new moon and young crescents, a planetary conjunction, a constellation with a lonely part of the universe, a galaxy with a very active supermassive black hole, and ponder about the precession of the earth and how it will change our night skies over several generations.

Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Fourth Week of February

As we approach the month that marks the start of Spring, the weather does not reflect that at all. Ohio will be giving us mostly cloudy skies and extremely low nighttime temperatures. There may only be some partially clear skies this weekend, but beware the temperatures after sunset will be in the single digits!. We can keep our hopes up.

Sunset this week is just after 6:15 PM so be ready with all your stargazing and cold-weather gear by 7:15 PM. In the event of clear skies, be on the lookout this week for the third-quarter moon, the outer arms of the Milky Way, a “belt” of celestial objects, and an early-morning Saturn.

Wednesday, February 23rd, marks the official third-quarter moon. This mostly means for us stargazers that the moon’s bright glow will not be washing out faint stars and deep-sky objects. For the night owls (or early-morning risers), you can see the moon creep above the horizon around 2:30 AM. It can also be found high in the southern skies right at sunrise. If you manage to spot the third-quarter moon at 2:30 AM, it will be leading the core region of the Milky Way, so try hunting for some dusty Milky Way structures stretched across the sky too.

The moon rises well after midnight this week. If it were not so bright, you might be able to spot it against the “summer” Milky-way in the pre-dawn skies.

Speaking of the Milky Way, the bulk of the stars and dust in our galaxy are hidden this time of year. This region is best seen in the around August. Do not be too disappointed though. The outer regions of the Milky Way are visible this time of year. Since we are facing outward from the galactic center, away from the busy center, we see fewer stars and dust along our line of sight. So, while it may appear faint, the Milky Way is still up in the sky. Try looking for a thin and wispy cloud-like structure stretching from the Winter Triangle (Betelgeuse, Sirius, and Procyon) all the way through Cassiopeia – this is the outer-edge region of our galaxy.

While not as bright as the Summer milky-way, the winter Milky-Way can still be see quite well under dark, moonless skies.

While you are looking in the Cassiopeia and northern regions of the sky, try also looking for double stars with binoculars or a telescope (hint: there is a bright and easy double star in the handle of the Big Dipper). Or for an added challenge, reference the American Association of Variable Star Observer’s (AAVSO) database and try looking for variable stars!

In the early-morning hours on Sunday, February 27th, look low in the eastern skies to find an arrangement of celestial bodies that resembles a giant Orion’s Belt on its side. Venus, Mars, and the crescent moon will all be stacked on top of each other. Try observing each of these objects with binoculars or a telescope to see the faint details of their surface (or atmosphere in the case of Venus). Not only will these objects be easy to spot due to their brightness, but it will be easy to hop from one object to the next.

Three solar system bodies make a kind of “Orion’s Belt” in the pre-dawn skies.

Perhaps the same morning as the “giant Orion’s Belt”, look a little lower and further north to spot Mercury. Nearby will be Saturn trying hard to make itself seen against the sunrise sky. Over the next several months, Saturn will be getting higher and higher in the early-morning skies. If we had really powerful telescopes as stargazers (which, alas we do not), we could witness the hexagonal polar storm happening on Saturn. Luckily, some satellites sent to study Saturn have returned great images of said storm. (IMAGE: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/13037/a-vexing-hexagon/)

How to find Saturn. It will be challenging in twilight, but will get easier as the year progresses and it rises earlier.

Saturn’s great, and odd, hexagonal storm, as seen by the now defunct Cassini spacecraft.

Forecasts always have some uncertainty to them, so hopefully the night skies this week are not entirely cloudy every night. Regardless of the exact cloud coverage predictions, the temperatures will be extremely low so dress warmly and prepare your gear so it can thermally adjust to such cold temperatures. Sit outside under the vastness of the night sky and observe the many wonders of the cosmos from your backyard and try spotting the third-quarter moon, specially aligned celestial bodies, Saturn trying to shine, double and variable stars, as well as the outer arms of the Milky Way.

Clear Skies!

This is the week of Valentine’s day and we stargazers may be getting some love from the skies. Some clear nights are forecast, possibly Tuesday as well as more over the weekend! The only downside to this is the temperature – once the sun has set the windchill will drop into the teens.

Sunset this week is right around 6:10 PM so have all your gear thermally equilibrated and be ready to stargaze no later than 7:10 PM.

During the clear nights this week, be on the lookout for an early-morning planetary trio, the full moon, the “first star” of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and some stars of varying brightness.

If you are awake between 6:30 and 7:30 AM (whether you are getting ready for work or packing up from the previous night’s long astrophotography session), peer low in the eastern skies. You will notice three bright stars. Careful observation through a telescope or binoculars will reveal that these “stars” are actually Mercury, Venus, and Mars. A longer focal length telescope may show the polar ice caps on Mars, but just a set of binoculars will let the Red Planet’s color really stand out. This Wednesday, February 16, Mercury will be at its greatest western elongation. This is a fancy way of saying that Mercury will appear to be at its furthest point from the sun in our sky. Unfortunately, Mercury is very small and will not look too special with either telescope or binoculars.

Mercury, Venus and Mars on the morning of February 16.

Also on Wednesday, February 16, is the full moon. This means that most faint stars and deep-sky objects will be hidden by the moon’s glow. But a full moon provides an excellent time to use binoculars to view the total nearside of the lunar surface. Craters and ancient lava seas provide dark, contrasty, and colorful sights. If you have a telephoto lens and a DSLR, try taking a photo of the moon that is properly exposed (with these approximate settings: ISO 200, aperture f/4, shutter speed 1/500). Next, edit the photo by bringing down the highlights and boosting the saturation gradually. This will result in a true-color image of the moon. There will be more blues and yellows than what you probably expect to see.

The full moon washes out the stars, but is a worthwhile target for observation itself.

The JWST has been in space since Christmas morning of 2021, almost two whole months, and we just got the first images from this multi-billion-dollar space telescope! As part of its optics calibration process, the JWST took an image of star HD84406. With the help of binoculars or a telescope, you too can find this star. It is located right off the “bucket” of the Big Dipper. The JWST took a single photo that has 18 separate instances of this star due to each of its 18 mirrors acting as independent telescopes. Over the next few weeks, the mirrors will be carefully aligned so that we see just a single sharp HD84406 star instead of 18.

How to find the star that the JWST is using for its calibration. You’ll need binoculars to bring it into view, as it is just out of reach of the unaided eye.

When you look into the night sky you will see a wide variety of star brightness (many are too faint for the human eye to see) – every wonder why all stars aren’t the same? One obvious answer is that some stars are simply closer to earth than others, causing them to appear brighter than others (called “apparent magnitude”). A not-so-obvious answer is that there is a whole spectrum of types of stars, each with their own size, brightness, color, and age. The Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram plots star brightness as a function of temperature. The sun is pretty average and sits near the middle of the largest collection of them on the H-R diagram, and hence is called a “main-sequence star”. Try spotting bright and dim stars and noting their color then compare with the HR diagram.

[Image from : https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/h/hertzsprung-russell+diagram]

The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is, perhaps, the most useful graph in Astronomy.

Feel the cold-hearted love this week of some clear skies both early in the week and late in the week accompanied by extremely frigid temperatures. Break out your telescope and your binoculars to stare up into the never-ending cosmos from the comfort of your own backyard. Enjoying desolate nights under the stars and darkness of night almost makes one feel like they are in space among the stars, nebulae, and galaxies. Try spotting some early-morning planets, the full moon and its true colors, the “JWST star”, and some bright and dim stars on the HR diagram.

Clear Skies!  

What’s Up This First Week of February

The forecast calls for it to be a cloudy and cold week with some snow and freezing rain. If we are lucky, there might be a clear night sometime this upcoming weekend. The nighttime temperatures are still unrelenting and are only a few degrees above zero with windchill.

If you are becoming more serious about stargazing, consider buying a cheap “dew heater” for your telescope to prevent frost from building up on the lenses. Kendrick dew removal systems is a good option.

https://www.kendrickastro.com/

Sunset this week is around 5:50 PM so wait one more hour to be able to see the fainter night-sky objects. If we are fortunate with more clear nights this week be on the lookout for the “young” moon passing a gas giant, the moon neighboring another outer planet, a small open cluster surrounded by glowing gas, and an eruptive variable star.

On Wednesday, February 2nd, look low in the western skies just after sunset to spot the two-day-old crescent moon. Only 4% of the lunar surface facing the earth will be illuminated that night, but it may make for an interesting sight through binoculars. You may also see the un-lightened side of the moon appear to faintly glow just after sunset. This is called earthshine. Somewhat above the moon will be the most famous gas giant – Jupiter. You may be fighting against the sunset-lit skies, but a telescope may be able to reveal the red and white stripes through Jupiter’s atmosphere and the planet’s four Galilean moons.

Jupiter and the moon, Wednesday right after sunset.

In about a week the moon will be passing through its first-quarter phase. On Monday, February 7th, the moon will be 44% illuminated and just a few degrees to the east of Uranus. This second-most outer planet only shines at magnitude 5.8 so the moon’s bright glow will likely wash it out. But since the moon will move out of the way in a few days you can revisit that spot in the sky with a telescope and try spotting the blue gas giant.

The moon will appear close to Uranus in the evening skies on the night of February 7. This makes the challenging planet a bit easier to find.

The Orion Constellation region of the sky is home to many famous deep-sky objects. One that is interesting to both amateur stargazers and veteran astrophotographers is NGC 2244, the Rosette Nebula. It is is in the faint constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn. If you’re trying to find it in the sky, it is off Orion’s “Betelgeuse shoulder” and nearly forms an equilateral triangle with Betelgeuse and the left-most belt star, Alnitak. Binoculars or a telescope will reveal a beautiful and bright blue open star cluster. These hot stars ionize the surrounding hydrogen gas which in turn emits light. Astrophotographers are able to carefully image the emitted light, typically using narrowband filters to help isolate the light’s specific wavelengths. This surrounding nebulosity resembles a pink rose.

Here is how to “star hop” to the Rosette Nebula.

And here is a photographic view of the nebula up cloase.

The stars that fill our night sky are usually very interesting – some of them have multiple partners and some of them change in brightness. The ones that noticeably change in brightness are called “variable stars”. One easy variable star to find is called Gamma Cassiopeiae and it is the middle star in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia (it’s the one that looks like a giant “W”). This star fluctuates from magnitude 1.6 to 3.0 due to its rapid rotation and consequent ejection of bright fusing hydrogen.

Frequent skywatchers should take note of how bright Gamma Cassiopeia relative to other stars. If you watch it for many months, you’ll notice it varies in brightness.

Hopefully, we get more than just one clear night this week so we can see all the spectacles of the cosmos without getting frostbite. In addition to finding Jupiter, the 4% crescent moon, Uranus, the Rosette Nebula and open cluster, and variable stars, there is a whole sky full of stargazing wonders.

Stay warm out there… and Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Fourth Week of January

The first month of the new year is just about over and the cold weather is unrelenting. On a positive note, there may be a few clear nights toward the middle and the end of the week. Temperatures during these clear nights, with windchill, will be in the single digits. So as always, be sure to dress warmly to prevent frostbite and limit your stargazing sessions to a few minutes at a time.

Sunset this week is right around 5:45 PM so be ready to stargaze an hour later. During some of the clear nights this week be on the lookout for some early-morning planets and a reminder of the summer skies, the third-quarter moon, and the Winter Triangle. I will also include a short section on the status of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

If you are awake anytime this week before sunrise, look over in the east and southeast skies between 6:15 AM and 7:15 AM to find two neighboring planets. Closest to the sun and the brightest of the two is Venus., which only recently was an evening object. Look just 15° further south to find a fainter but noticeably red planet. You guessed it – Mars. Using a pair of binoculars or a telescope should reveal the phase of Venus and perhaps the polar ice caps on Mars! If you find Mars closer to 6:15 AM, you may notice that it is nestled in between two popular summer deep-sky objects – the Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid Nebula.

Mars passes through the same field of view as the great Lagoon Nebula (M8) and the smaller, blue and red, “Trifid” nebula (M20.) A great photographic opportunity for those observing the morning.

Venus and Mars are striking in the morning sky. Look east an hour before dawn.

If you follow the line made with Venus and Mars further south, you will come right below a bright red star that is shining about as bright as Mars. This is Antares, a red supergiant that usually hangs in the southern skies mid-summer. This region of the sky is home to the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex which is a very large and colorful collection of nebulae that make for a great astrophotography opportunity.

Most often thought of as a “Summer” star, Antares is now peeking up over the morning horizon.

Tuesday, January 25th, marked the third-quarter moon. This is good news for stargazers because the moon and its blinding glow will stay below the horizon until around 1 AM. As the moon progresses towards its new-moon phase, it will rise later and later. To keep with the theme of early-morning objects, the third-quarter moon through the new moon are best seen just before or just after sunrise since it is in the same region of the sky as the sun.

The position of the moon in the early morning sky.

After the sun has set and the stars have all come out, a “Summer Triangle” of the winter (appropriately named, “Winter Triangle”) can be easily spotted. This triangle is comprised of Betelgeuse, Procyon, and Sirius. Betelgeuse and Sirius are easy to spot because one is the red “shoulder star” of Orion and the other is the brightest star in the night sky (respectively). Seeing the Winter Triangle may make you nostalgic for the warm summer nights under the Sumer Triangle of Altair, Deneb, and Vega.  

Back in the evening, is the “Winter Triangle” with Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Procyon at its corners.

The JWST made worldwide headlines when it launched nearly a month ago, so what is it up to now? On January 24th, the 10-billion-dollar space telescope will arrive at its parking spot for the rest of its life, Lagrange point 2. This is a special semi-stable orbital point about a million miles away from the earth. Just because it has arrived, does not mean it is ready to start doing science. It still must precisely align its 18 hexagonal mirror segments and its secondary mirror using 132 actuators that make tiny adjustments. This process will likely take around three months. The JWST should be imaging and doing science this summer.

Dress in several layers and set your telescopes and binoculars outside around sunset for an hour to let them thermally equilibrate with the outside temperature. Once all the stars are out, sit outside and explore the cosmos. Your naked eyes will allow you to see around 4,000 stars while a telescope or binoculars will allow you to see 25x more stars and deep-sky objects. From those 100,000 objects, try picking out the early-morning planets, Antares, and the Winter Triangle all while safe from the moon’s glow.

Clear Skies!

We are only two weeks away from the halfway point of winter, and it certainly feels that way. Most of this week will be cold, cloudy, and may bring a little bit of snow. There is, however, a chance for clear nights closer to Thursday and the weekend. The nighttime temperature for some of these clear nights will be as low as 3° with wind chill.

If you are brave enough to go stargazing on a cold night like that, dress warmly to protect yourself from frostbite and limit your star-gazing sessions to a few minutes at a time.

Sunset this week is around 5:35 PM so most of the faintest night-sky objects will be visible just an hour later. This week be on the lookout for the full moon (and a few methods to combat the bright moon while stargazing), a big Big Dipper, Uranus overhead, and a faint ring around the Orion constellation.

Monday, January 17, is the full moon. You will notice that as the sun sets in the west, the eastern horizons become brighter as the moon rises. Unfortunately for us stargazers, a full moon means that much of the night sky is washed out from the blinding light reflected off the lunar surface. If you observe the full moon (or even the gibbous moon) with binoculars or a telescope it helps to have a moon filter. These are very cheap and reduce the brightness of the moon. Observing the full moon with binoculars or a telescope is a sure way to ruin your night vision. Do not worry though, it will return in several minutes.

The full moon may be lovely, but it makes viewing other celestial objects, especially galaxies and nebulae, difficult.

The best solution to stargazing under a full moon is simply to wait until it is no longer a full moon. If, however, you are desperate to do some stargazing, it may help to use binoculars and a telescope for celestial objects relatively far away from the moon’s glow. So anything low in the northern sky is perfect.

If you are an astrophotographer, fighting the moon’s glow becomes an interesting game. The best solution is to use narrowband filters. These are unfortunately expensive, but will block out light pollution, make your colors “pop”, and will even help block out some of the moon’s light.

When you look at things in the night sky, you generally see them in the sea of stars and far above the horizon. If you have ever seen the moon low to the horizon, it appears very large. This is because the horizon has objects like trees and houses whose sizes are familiar. By adding these frames of size reference, you can get a true sense of how large some stargazing targets are. A perfect example this time of year is the Big Dipper. Around 8:30 PM most of this constellation is above the northeastern horizon. Find the Big Dipper around this time and compare it with the trees and houses on the horizon and see how BIG it really is.

The “moon illusion” makes the Big Dipper appear even bigger than normal this month.

Any time this week, look direct above then 30° south and scan the skies with binoculars. If you come across a blue/green magnitude 5.8 star, then you have found Uranus. Even a more powerful telescope will struggle to resolve many details of this outer planet since it is so far away (roughly 20x the distance from the sun as the earth).

Uranus was the first planet to be discovered since antiquity. It can be seen with the naked eye, just barely, under superb conditions and dark skies. Generally it is easier to use binoculars or a small telescope.

If you are in a very dark location or enjoy astrophotography, then you should try hunting for a faint red region of nebulosity that surrounds much of the Orion constellation. This red ring is called Barnard’s Loop. This region of gas is ionized by the hot stars found inside of the Orion Nebula and is thought to have originated from a stellar explosion over 2 million years ago. (Image : https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050420.html)

Barnard’s loop is, most likely, impossible to see with the unaided eye. However, photography can bring out its faint glow.

Prepare for the cold and step outside for a few moments on a clear night this week and enjoy the twinkling stars and winter constellations. The cold temperatures help stabilize the atmosphere and reduce turbulence so the stars may appear to twinkle a little less than in the summer. During the one or two clear nights this week try hunting for the full moon, observing constellations near the horizon, scanning for Uranus, and finding the faint Barnard’s Loop. Clear Skies!

What’s Up This Second Week of January

2022 has been giving us some pretty cloudy night skies and some bone-chilling temperatures. There are a few clear nights that may come this week so be sure to take full advantage of these rare opportunities. On these nights, dress extremely warm and maybe even have a car nearby so you can intermittently warm up inside. With windchill, the nighttime temperatures will be dropping to around 15°. Sunset this week is right around 5:30 PM. Already the sunsets are getting noticeably later. Be ready to start stargazing by 6:30 PM. During the few clear nights, be on the lookout for craters on the moon, neighboring Saturn and Mercury, the outer arms of the Milky Way, and the brightest star in the night sky.

The first-quarter moon occurred Sunday, January 9th, and the full moon is set to occur this upcoming Monday, January 17th. As the moon continues to brighten through this cycle in its orbit, it will wash out many stars and deep-sky objects. So instead of hunting for those, try hunting for craters and ancient lava seas on the moon.

The moon on 1/14.

Around 45 minutes after sunset anytime this week, look low near the western horizon to spot Mercury and Saturn sitting near each other. They may look just a few degrees apart in the sky, but Mercury is 83 million miles from the earth while Saturn is a whopping one billion miles from the earth! A pair of binoculars or a telescope will reveal more details about these two planets. But most impressive are Saturn’s rings – Mercury will still appear just to be a bright “dot”.

Mercury and Saturn will dance in the evening twilight this week.

The late summer is usually the ideal time to observe the Milky Way since the core (the brightest and most dense region) is high in the southern skies. But the Milky Way never fully sets (since we are in the middle of it). During the winter we are facing a different direction than in the summer, so we are only able to see the outer regions of our galaxy. If you make it to a dark-sky location (say, the John Glenn Astronomy Park), you will see the faint outer arms stretching from east to west through the constellations of Cassiopeia and Orion (just above Orion’s head).

Next week, when the moon has not yet risen, see if you can spot the faint fall and winter Milky-Way.

Around 7:30 PM look near the east-southeast horizon (just below the Orion constellation) to find the brightest star in the night sky – Sirius. This star shines at magnitude -1.42 which is twice as bright as any other star in the night sky. If you were to travel just 8.5 light-years to get to Sirus (it is the fifth-closest star to us), you will find it actually shines 23 times brighter than our sun and is roughly twice as big!

Sirius is the >second< brightest star in the sky. You’re familiar with the brightest. .

Hopefully, there are more clear skies this week so we can all enjoy the winter skies for a little longer before spring arrives. Make sure to dress warm and let your telescopes and binoculars cool down to the outside temperature to help prevent frost from forming on the lens and ruining your night of stargazing. Explore the cosmos and get lost in the sea of stars all while looking for geographical features on the moon, some planetary neighbors, the outer arms of our home galaxy, and the brightest star in the sky.

Clear Skies!

2022 is finally here! The new year, unfortunately, is greeting us with mostly cloudy skies over the next week. The forecast does look promising for the night of January 3rd and some nights near the weekend. The nighttime temperatures will be dropping into the low 20s and mid-teens – dress very warm for comfort and to avoid frostbite. Since the winter solstice was roughly a week ago, the nights will only become shorter (and the days will get longer) leading up to the summer solstice on June 21. Sunset is right around 5:20 PM so be ready to stargaze by 6:00 PM.

This week be on the lookout for a string of planets, a very young crescent moon, Comet Leonard, and a meteor shower. I will also include a brief section on the recently-launched James Webb Space Telescope.

Just 25 minutes after sunset, look towards the western skies. You will not only see a beautiful palette of colors transitioning from the orange of the sun to the black of night, but you will see a string of four planets. Going from west to east, the four dots you see in the sky are Venus, Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter. A set of binoculars will be plenty to do these objects justice. You will be able to make out the apparent phase of Venus, the massive rings of Saturn, and the gaseous stripes in Jupiter’s atmosphere along with four of its moons.

A “String of Planets” in the evening twilight all this week.

Speaking of Jupiter’s moons, here is a fun history fact: the speed of light was first measured by timing when Jupiter’s innermost moon, Io, transited the planet and cast its shadow. Logically, it makes sense that the moon will orbit with a fixed period (which turns out to be about 42 hours). Astronomer Ole Roemer in 1676 noticed Io was late to start its transit when Jupiter was further away from the earth and early when Jupiter was near the earth. He hypothesized that light had a finite speed and by knowing Io’s orbital period, the distance to Jupiter and some other information, he (and mostly Huygens) calculated the speed of light to be 131,000 miles per second (the real speed is 186,000 miles per second – pretty good for the pre-electronic age!).

The new moon occurs officially on Sunday, January 2nd at 1:33 PM. This is great news for stargazers and astrophotographers since the moon will not be very bright in its crescent phase and it sets below the horizon relatively shortly after sunset. In the coming nights, try tracking the moon and watch it progress through its waxing crescent phase all the way to its first-quarter phase sometime early next week. Binoculars or a telescope are perfect for observing the moon in its early phases since the details of the lunar surface are very contrasty and dramatic.

The thin crescent moon as seen at sunset on January 4.

There has been lots of talk about Comet C/2021 A1 (a.k.a. Comet Leonard) in the astronomy community. It is a bright comet that is visible for viewers in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Currently, this comet shines at magnitude 6.2 which puts it just below the naked-eye visibility limit. A pair of binoculars or a telescope are required to see the object. Just a few minutes after sunset, find Mercury and Venus then look 30° to the left and scan the sky in the region. The comet will look like a fuzzy star. This is due to the dust tail that is extending from the core of C/2021 A1. Using a DSLR with long exposures and a tripod may be able to reveal some color and more details of the tail.

Comet Leonard is a challenging object, close to the southwestern horizon and seen against twilight. A good pair of binoculars and very clear skies will be needed to spot its “fuzzy star” appearance.

Monday, January 3rd, marks the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower. Under dark skies, a person should be able to count about 120 meteors every hour! The meteors will appear to originate from a region near the Big Dipper constellation, although, these meteors can be seen across the entire sky.

If the weather is favorable, the Quadrantids are amongst the most reliable meteor showers.

An event making headlines around the world and greatly affecting the astronomy community was the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Over the next few weeks, the space telescope will be making its way towards its parking spot (Lagrange point 2) where it will image the cosmos for over 10 years. Most of our telescopes and cameras here on earth are optimized for viewing things in the visible part of the spectrum. JWST, on the other hand, is optimized for viewing things in the infrared (IR) part of the spectrum, which lies just below the visible spectrum.

IR is important in astronomy and cosmology because it will let us see the earliest galaxies formed in the universe. Their light has been physically stretched by the expansion of the universe from visible light down into the IR part of the spectrum. The JWST will also be able to see through thick clouds of gas and dust (like nebulae that are so beautiful to us astrophotographers) to see the star formation occurring inside this region. This telescope will produce some incredible images, on par with the Hubble Space Telescope over the next decade (IMAGE FROM https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2013/08/16/maggies-blog-why-infrared/).

IR allows astronomers to see through gas and dust to spot newborn stars.

While it is exciting to make it to a new year, its weather is not as exciting. Grab a chair, your warmest winter clothes, and your favorite pair of binoculars or that new telescope you just got for Christmas and start 2022 off strong by exploring the vastness of space from your backyard or from the John Glenn Astronomy Park. This week look out for the several planets in the west, a faint crescent moon, Comet Leonard, and some meteors.

Clear Skies!

We are getting into the middle of December now, but the temperature is still fighting to stay above 32°. Winter is notorious for bringing lots of cloudy skies, but this week seems to be an exception to that. It looks like there might be a few clear nights in the middle of the week. During these clear nights, the temperature will be dropping into the low 30s and high 20s with windchill. So make sure to dress warmly for stargazing and astrophotographers bring your dew heaters. Sunset is hovering around 5 PM this week so be ready to stargaze by 6 PM.

Be on the lookout this week for the first-quarter moon, more of comet Leonard, meteors, the moon passing the Pleiades, and some deep-sky winter nebulae perfect for beginner astrophotographers.

This Friday, December 10, will be the first-quarter moon. Knowing what phase the moon will give you a decent idea of where the moon will be in the sky that night. For the first quarter, we can figure that the moon forms a right triangle with the earth and the sun. For stargazers, this means the moon will be at its highest point in the sky right at sunset (at roughly 90° from the sun). The waxing crescent and first-quarter phases are perfect for observing the moon – it has not gotten too bright that it is blinding to look at through binoculars or a telescope, and the surface is very contrasty since the sunlight is hitting the deep craters and mountains at a steeper angle than if the moon were near full.

The first quarter is often the best time to view the moon because the lunar terminator, the line between night and day where the shadows are most distinct, is right down the middle.

It’s also a good time to view the moon in the early evening, because it is at its highest point in the sky right at sunset.

Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) is starting to make more news as it brightens. This week will be the best time to view this comet since it will not be getting any brighter or higher in the sky. It shines at magnitude 5, so a pair of binoculars or a telescope is best to get a good view. To find this bright ice ball, head outside roughly 90 minutes before sunrise and look about 10° above the eastern horizon (On Friday). It will likely appear to be no more than a diffuse star with a hint of green color to it.

Comet Leonard will look a lot like comet Atlas did in early 2020 in this image taken by Joe Renzetti. Be sure to catch it as soon as possible.

This week will be the peak of a famous meteor shower – the Geminids. The true peak is Tuesday, but the moon will be bright and wash out most of the meteors unfortunately. The Geminids is no stranger to producing up to 120 meteors per hour in dark-sky locations. If you can not manage to spot any fireballs this week, do not worry. This meteor shower lasts from mid-November to the end of December.

One of the best meteor showers of the year, the Geminids, peak on the morning of December 13.

On Thursday, December 16, the moon will be accompanying one of the most famous objects in the night sky – the Pleiades cluster. By this point the moon will be deep into its waxing gibbous phase, so don’t expect to see more than a few of the brightest stars in this cluster like Maia or Electra which both shine a bright magnitude 3.8 or so (even when using a telescope or binoculars). Give the moon a few days to clear this part of the skies and find this cluster again and see how many more stars you can make out this time.

Like last month’s eclipse night, the moon will again be in the same region of the sky as the Pleiades on the night of December 16.

Many people will be gifting or will be gifted new telescopes or maybe a new camera. And these are great gateways into the wonderful world of astrophotography. It can be an intimidating hobby but it is extremely rewarding and there is a fantastic community of astrophotographers. Once all your equipment is ready, the next logical question is “what should I image first?”. With so many fantastic images from Hubble and others of brilliant deep-sky nebulae and galaxies, it may be tempting to go for these objects, but many of these are difficult to image. Some of the best winter-sky objects to begin imaging include the Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, Pleiades Cluster, M37 (globular cluster), and if you are feeling ambitious, the Horsehead and Flame Nebulae. All these objects listed (with the exception of the Horsehead and Flame Nebula) can be spotted using binoculars and can be enjoyed without astrophotography equipment too.

Objects of the late fall and early winter to point new telescopes at. All but the Horsehead are easily seen with both the naked eye and small telescopes. The Horsehead will require extremely dark skies and, most likely, a nebula filter.

The daytime temperatures are struggling to stay above freezing, but once the sun has set the temperatures will drop 10° or more with windchill. Enjoy the upcoming clear nights as they are not commonplace during the winter months in Ohio. The colder temperatures will help stabilize the atmosphere leading to more clear viewing of celestial objects. Be on the lookout this week for the first-quarter moon, comet Leonard, Geminids meteors, the moon and Pleiades meeting up, and prepare yourself for some wonderful nights of astrophotography or enjoying deep-sky objects with binoculars.

Clear Skies!