The Backyard Astronomer

My passion for the night sky began at the tender age of 8 with an elementary school library book entitled “Stars”. I learned from that fateful day that the Sun is a typical star in the night sky and one of 200 billion stars of our Milky Way Galaxy. But not all stars are the same. They come in an ...

  A total lunar eclipse is a magical event to witness and our next chance comes on the night of January 20/21 with all of North America having a ring side seat for the entire show. An eclipse is a result of the perfect lineup of the sun, earth and moon. This does not occur every month as our moon ...

Jun 22, 2018 @ 11:04   Hands down the biggest celestial event of the year will take place on the night of July 27 – the closest approach of Mars since 2003. The red planet is now seen rising in the south-east at midnight local time and will continue rising a bit earlier each night until the big night when ...

Dec 5, 2017 @ 08:08 Another great celestial event is poised to light up the night sky. The annual Geminid meteor shower will peak on the night of December 13 into the morning of the 14th. As Earth crosses the debris field of asteroid 3200 Phaethon we will enjoy a predicted rate of 120 meteors seen per hour or one ...

May 28, 2017 @ 13:36 On the night of May 27, sky watchers across Canada and as far south as Pennsylvania were treated to a beautiful light show – the aurora borealis.   Primarily seen as a greenish glow low in the north, the Aurora at times creates long spikes or columns of green, red, blue and violet that brighten ...