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As we try to cope with the Covid-19 crisis, we must find ways to reduce stress levels and anxiety. Aside from listening to online music and reading books, try stepping outside on a clear night and drink in the night sky. The celestial landscape had been the entertainment of civilizations for thousands of years before the invention of the telescope ...

Throughout history, keen skywatchers would follow the weekly and monthly movement of bright objects against the background sky. The early Greeks referred to the planets of our solar system as the “wanderers” and there are five which can be seen and followed with the unaided eye. The planet Venus is now seen high in the western sky shortly after sunset. ...

  The stars we see on a clear night have been burning for millions or billions of years. But how did they come to be? Stars, like our sun, are created from vast interstellar clouds of gas and dust called a nebula. These stellar objects can measure more than a hundred light-years in length. Over time smaller clouds in the ...

Nov 13, 2019 @ 08:01 A wonderful video of Mercury transiting the sun on November 11th was shared to Vimeo. The video was shot from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and shows the transit more than 22,000 miles above Earth.   Nov 6, 2019 @ 08:03   Mercury is the closest planet from the sun and orbits once every 88 days. ...

Seeing double is never a good thing and a sign to seek medical attention; however, double stars can be a thing of beauty. Some stars that appear as a single point of light to the unaided eye are in fact, double when magnified with binoculars or a telescope. Optical doubles are two stars that appear close together only by line ...

The annual Perseid meteor shower is currently underway and will peak on the night of August 12 into the morning of the 13th. The Perseids is the result of earth ploughing through the debris field of Comet Swift-Tuttle when this 26-kilometre wide mountain of rock and ice last rounded the sun in 1992. At its peak, the shower can produce up ...

  You are taking a late-night stroll or sitting on your deck staring at the starry sky and whoosh, a quick streak of light catches your attention. You have just witnessed the fiery re-entry of space debris called a meteor. In a few cases, they can be nuts, bolts and wires from damaged satellites orbiting high above the earth. However, ...

On any clear night, look to the southern portion of the sky after sunset and you will come across a bright object. This is not a star but the planet Jupiter. Of the eight major planets in our solar system, Jupiter is literally the “king”. This fifth planet from the sun is so large; eleven earths can line up across ...

Telescopes have come a long way since its invention in 1608. The simple refracting telescope consisted of two small lenses located at each end of a long tube. This `spyglass` was a great tool to magnify approaching enemy ships from a distance.   Galileo Galilei heard of this new instrument and in 1609 constructed his own without seeing the original. ...

  Stargazing is a wonderful and peaceful past time that anyone can enjoy. From planets to star clusters, galaxies to nebulae, the night sky is a treasure chest of celestial delights. Although astronomy and star gazing are traditionally done in the dark countryside, our glorious moon can be enjoyed from the city as well. The moon was created about 50,000 ...

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 ...

Most of us have by now taken down our Christmas trees, packed away the decorations and polished off any remaining Christmas baking left in the cookie tins. Hopefully, too, you have stored away a host of wonderful memories of time spent with family and friends. And now, it is up to all of us to fan the embers of warmth ...

  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 ...