2026 will be year full of sky events: two solar eclipses will be followed by two lunar eclipses. We’ll have two supermoons, two micromoons and one blue moon. All the planetary oppositions will happen in the seasons when the nights are longer and planetary conjunctions are sprinkled throughout the year.
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The year 2025 seems to be breezing by. But the sky still holds promises for eclipse, moons, and conjunctions!
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By the 1970s amateur astronomers realized that the Sun it located right in a “Messier object gap” around the dates of Vernal Equinox (Spring) in late March. This means all 110 Messier objects are on “either side” or “north” of the Sun and available for observation throughout the night — if an observer worked fast enough. Hence, the phrase “Messier Marathon” was invented to describe the all-night attempt.
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PUNCH was successfully launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California! The Mission Operations Center [MOC] at SwRI-Boulder successfully contacted all four spacecraft after launch. Initial indications are that all are healthy and are in Safe-Sun Point mode with the solar arrays deployed! The MOC team will be doing further health and performance assessments via additional passes …
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The NASA payload will include the PUNCH mission that contains three Tele Vue Optical Lens Assemblies.
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2024 Oct 2nd Eclipse Livestream!
The clock is winding down on 2024 with just three months left. But our clockwork universe has many astronomical events in store for us stargazers.
Increased solar activity around “solar max” can contribute to more frequent and intense sunspots, flares, coronal mass ejections, and intensified auroras at lower latitudes, offering stunning visual displays. All “good news” for amateur observers!
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This August, my wife Judi and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Stellafane convention in Vermont, a tradition we’ve kept alive since the 1950s
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In the days before the April 8, 2024 North American Eclipse, eclipsophiles panicked when Texas skies were predicted to be
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Solar events dominate the year with a major total solar eclipse over the Americas coinciding with the peak of Solar Cycle 25. On the other side of Earth’s terminator the nighttime sky features a brightening spring comet with hopes that other comets will brighten in summer and fall.
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