Stellar Vista Observatory Sky Report John Mosley March 6 – 12 The Sky Report is presented as a public service by the Stellar Vista Observatory, a nonprofit organization based in Kanab, Utah, which provides opportunities for people to observe, appreciate, and comprehend our starry night sky. Additional information is at www.stellarvistaobservatory.org. Send questions and comments […]
About: John Mosley
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.
Recent Posts by John Mosley
We’ve had a string of wonderful conjunctions recently, all in the evening sky, and you could be forgiven for thinking that nice conjunctions are common and no big deal. But we’ve had the three brightest planets in the evening sky plus Saturn, so conjunctions were inevitable. But that’s ending. There are two conjunctions this week […]
This week and next there is a lot of action between the moon and planets because the three brightest planets are all in the evening sky and the moon passes each in turn – plus a wonderful planetary conjunction is coming up. These two weeks have more great conjunctions than is reasonable to expect, so […]
This is the last time I’ll mention Comet C/2022 E3 which is still visible to binoculars and telescopes in the evening sky. This week it moves southward through Taurus, passing just 1½° from Aldebaran and the Hyades Star Cluster on Valentine’s Day. It’ll remain visible for weeks and months to come, depending on your equipment […]
I hope everybody got a good look at Comet C/2022 E3 while it was at its brightest – while it was visible to the naked eye under a dark sky – because now it has left the earth and sun behind and is heading back to the depths of space. If you haven’t see it, […]
Here’s more on the “green” comet presently in the evening sky. Comet C/2022 E3 passed closest to the sun (103 million miles) on January 12 and to the earth (26 million miles) on February 1, and then it begins to fade. At best it was *barely* visible to the naked eye under the darkest of […]
“Green” Comet C/2022 E3 continues to lead the astronomy news, and this is a good week to look for it before the moon becomes too bright around the 27th and remains bright for about 10 days. The good news is that the comet just moved from the morning sky to the evening sky and you […]
Comet C/2022 E3 should be bright enough to spot with binoculars and possibly even the unaided eye. It made its closest approach to the sun last week and it will be closest to the earth in two weeks, so now and for the next few weeks it’ll be as bright as it will get. Predictions […]
It’s notoriously hard to predict the brightness of a comet far in advance as each one has its own composition, orbit, and characteristics, but there’s an excellent chance that a comet discovered less than a year ago will become bright enough to see with binoculars, certainly with a small telescope, and possibly even to the […]
Venus is slowly returning to the evening sky after a long sojourn behind the sun. It passed Mercury last week, and this winter and spring it’ll pass, in turn, Saturn (January 22), Neptune (February 14 and 15), Jupiter (March 5), Uranus (March 29 and 30), and it will almost catch Mars in late June; plus […]
