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.
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 […]
Planets continue to put on a great show in the morning sky, and with Daylight Time moving the sunrise to an hour later than nature intended you don’t have to get up at an unreasonable hour to see them. So here’s what’s happening this week. Jupiter was behind the sun on March 6, but it […]
The parade of planets continues in the morning sky and is well-worth making the effort to see. There are a few highlights in the weeks ahead, but again, as I continue to belabor, the planets’ motions are a continuous series of day-by-day (or morning-by-morning) motions but not isolated, discreet events. When the planets appear close […]
There was a wonderful grouping of the planets in the morning sky on March 28, and it’s followed by two beautiful very close conjunctions in April. Don’t let the fact that they take place in the morning deter you – half of all astronomical events take place in the morning, and with Daylight Time the […]
As reported last week, there is a wonderful grouping of three planets and the moon on Monday morning, the 28th. Check the Sky Report archive at https://stellarvistaobservatory.org/category/sky-reports/ for a graphic. The best time to look is about 45 minutes before sunrise to see brilliant Venus while only a few degrees away are Mars, Saturn, and […]
The planets are going through interesting motions in the morning sky that you don’t want to miss. This is the best week and it culminates on the morning of Monday the 28th, which is included here. Then things quiet down. The best time is roughly 45 minutes before sunrise but you have a wide window […]
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