Never miss a full moon, eclipse, or meteor shower with reminders from the Almanac Daily newsletter.
This Week's Amazing Sky
As autumn begins, we have a few more weeks to look at the most amazing part of the night sky. Let us easily locate the most photogenic telescopic targets, the planets Jupiter and Saturn.
On the next clear evening, look around the sky as soon as darkness falls.
Jupiter
These nights that’s as early as 7 P.M. and certainly by 7:30. Just look rather low in…
You can seriously damage your eyes by watching a solar eclipse without proper protection (NOT sunglasses!). Here is information on how to watch an eclipse safely and what kind of eye protection you need—from eclipse glasses to welder’s googles.
First, if you are watching a “total solar eclipse,” do you realize that you can only see totality from a very limited area—the narrow…
Few seem to realize that the Sun in April is as strong as it is in August, especially once we hit the middle of the month. Solar fear and confusion still abound. The marketing of ultrablocking sunscreens and special sun-protective clothing plays into these fears. I certainly got repeatedly surprised when I researched the Sun’s health effects.
Sunlight Lifts Your Mood…
The Big Dipper is an old friend to most of us. Poetically, it is spring itself, the season of renewal. Just go outside in early evening, and you’ll see stars shaped in a dipper pattern high in the northeastern sky.Looming large in the night sky, the Big Dipper’s shape is mutating and will appear different in just a few thousand years, but it hasn’t changed a bit since we were kids.What…
Let’s do something different, and mix sky-stuff with weird science! Ready? Here are seven strange science facts—about everything under the Sun from rainbows to our reflection in mirrors!
Number 1. A rainbow has no independent reality. Sunlight and raindrops are not enough to create one. An observer is necessary for its existence, by standing exactly where the 42-degree refraction…
We’ve long had a fascination with going to Mars. The manned trip back to the Moon in late 2024 is the first step in getting humans to the Red Planet. But as planning for manned visits to Mars continues, researchers keep studying risk. Interestingly, it may not be technology that limits our exploration, but our own human physiology.When Will Humans Go to Mars?Since the 1960s,…
The Sun is setting earlier and earlier: It’s really dark. The leaves are dropping quickly now, so barren branches now tremble in the wind. And yes, even that wind is generally stronger during the cold months.
Gather round the campfire. It’s the perfect time to tell blood curdling tales of the sky’s sinister side. Ramping up the scare-factor is that backyard sky-gazers are usually…
Would you like to find not one, but two black holes? You’ve come to the right place. That place is your own backyard. All you have to do is look up at around 7:30 p.m. any time during the next week.
What is a Black Hole?
A black hole in space is an object that has so much material packed into a small region that not even light can escape its gravitational pull! Nothing can…
Sunspots are disappearing more rapidly than usual as the Sun prepares to enter the solar minimum. The last time the absence of sunspots was so prolonged was the “Little Ice Age,” which happened back in the 1600s. Will Earth experience another cold snap?
First, understand that the Sun normally follows sunspot cycles of roughly 11 years. Think of sunspots as storms…
What is the most distant object humans have ever seen in the known Universe? The latest record-holder is a galaxy that is about 13.4 billion light-years away! Or, is it? Something screwy is going on when we talk about distances in an our ever-expanding Universe.
The Universe itself is roughly 13.8 billion years old, so this distant galaxy (MACS0647-D) is indeed…
Space is famous for zippy activity, like streaking meteors that sail through the night sky. But space has another face—a slow-and-easy side. In reality, Venus, the Moon, and many of our most beloved sky objects are as slow as molasses. What’s the slowest-moving planet? Slowest-spinning star? Read on for some fun space facts.What is the Slowest PlanetVenus, which is floating…
In some rural areas, folks heat their homes with oil. Some buy kerosene, especially in the coldest months because it doesn’t gel in the lines. The rest of us fondly remember kerosene for all the times we used a Coleman lantern when camping. It was easy to love. Believe it or not, all this connects with astronomy—and rockets in space.
When America first blasted astronauts…
