Last night, a fine crescent moon nestled between Mars and Gemini’s brightest star, Pollux, with Castor farther right. In this image, there is an interesting contrast in distances present. While these object appear close together, they are in fact separated by great distances. The moon, as earth’s natural satellite, orbits at a distance of less [...]

Tonight and tomorrow night (May 30th and 31st) will bring the Moon close to Mars and Saturn. The moon will sit between Mars and Gemini’s Pollux tonight as a 16% crescent, and will join Saturn and the Beehive Cluster tomorrow night (check out NASA’s Science Headline for more info). At less than 25% illuminated, the [...]

The orbiting Cassini Spacecraft recently captured this sweet edge-on shot of Saturns rings along with its tiny moon Janus. The planet Saturn is well into the western sky at sunset now, so best views of the ringed planet are behind us. You can still check it out though for another month or two as it [...]

Sunspot activity may have slacked recently, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening on the Sun. Checkout these sweet shots of solar prominences taken yesterday. Checkout Spaceweather.com for more details.

Early risers were treated to a sweet view of a tiny 4% illuminated waning crescent moon. This sweet shot was captured by John Stetson of Falmouth, Maine. Those of you with an unobstructed eastern horizon and sharp eyes (or binoculars) might be able to find tomorrow mornings 1% illuminated crescent… just about 15 hours before [...]

Conjunctions are simply beautiful, and when combined with the newness of the dawning day, they are wonderful. This morning saw a 9% moon and the planet Venus rising together, closely aligned. Of course the moon and Venus are not at all close physically (they’re separated by more than 90 million miles), but this morning they [...]

Early risers are in for a treat on Wednesday morning (5/24). Those with a clear view to the east will see a beautiful sight as a waning crescent Moon poses alongside the planet Venus. The event, known as a conjunction, should be a wonderful scene that requires no optical aids to be enjoyed. Image: [...]

The 2006 Summer Star Party Series kicks off this Saturday night (5/20) out at Trailside Park. Co-hosted by Utah Skies and Basin Recreation, the
event will run from dusk (8:30pm) until around 1:00am. Admission as always, is free. If you have a telescope, by all means, please bring it. If not, just
bring your imagination. [...]

According to the New York Times, “A team of European astronomers said today that they had found one of the closest analogues yet to our solar system: three planets and an asteroid belt circling a pale Sunlike star…” The journal Nature will be publishing findings on Thursday, May 18th. Image credit: David Hardy

Whether you grew up with you grew up with the Jetsons or Buzz Lightyear, space travel has always been a thing for the tv. That might not be true for much longer though. A number of states are have put forth proposals that are being reviewed by the Federal Avaiation Administration to allow them to [...]