John Mosley was Program Supervisor of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles for 27 years and is the author of “Stargazing for Beginners” and “Stargazing with Binoculars and Telescopes”. He and his wife live in St. George where he continues to stargaze from his retirement home while serving on the advisory committee for Stellar Vista Observatory.
How soon after sunset can you see stars with your eyes alone? Here’s a self-test to perform one evening: how soon can you see the star Arcturus after sunset? I picked Arcturus because it’s bright and nearly overhead. Find Arcturus one evening as the sky is growing dark approximately a half-hour after sunset and mentally […]
This is the best week to see all the planets, plus the moon, lined up in the morning sky. Astronomy blogs are making a big deal about it and I will too. The novelty is in seeing ALL planets at once, including Uranus and Neptune if you have at least binoculars, but additionally all the […]
How low is your southern horizon? At the latitude of southern Utah we can see far into the sky’s southern hemisphere, all the way down to the northern part of the constellation Centaurus. From the Southern Hemisphere this is a magnificent constellation with many bright stars, including Alpha Centauri, the closest star to our solar […]
All the planets are in the morning sky, leaving the evening sky full of stars and the moon. The two very bright stars that are in the south at around 10 p.m. are Spica, and above it, Arcturus. Spica is in Virgo and Arcturus is in Bootes. Notice their contrasting colors: Spica is pure white […]
In 2007 I was alerted to a brief meteor shower that *might* happen one night, so I went out to look – and was treated to a wonderful shower of many meteors that lasted only 20 minutes. There’s a possibility that something similar will happen again at about 11 p.m. on Monday the 30th. Again, […]
As has been true all spring, the action remains in the morning sky because that’s where the planets are, and this week the moon joins them. The sun has been rising earlier each day so now you have to get up fairly early to see a still-dark sky, but it’s worth it. Look 45 minutes […]
When the moon, which is one day past full, rises at roughly 10 pm. on the 16th it will be 2½° from the bright red star Antares, the heart of Scorpius, the Scorpion. This is the closest that the moon will come to so bright a star this year and you’ll see the two together […]
THE event this week is the total eclipse of the moon on the night of Sunday, May 15. For us in the western half of the country the eclipse is already underway when the moon rises in the east-southeast, just as the sun sets in the west-northwest. (People in the eastern half of the country […]
The planetary action continues to be in the morning sky where, from left to right (or east to west) strung in a line are Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn, although they’re no longer equally-spaced as they were last week. Brilliant Venus and Jupiter – the two brightest planets – are especially close on the morning […]
The planets have been putting on a great show in the morning sky, and the best of all comes this week. Next week the planets begin to disperse and less happens until the end of May. Daylight time is primarily intended to make it light later in the evening, but it necessarily keeps it dark […]
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