Articles & Newsletters

This is the first of a series of weekly Sky Reports that will alert people to what they can see in the night sky by simply stepping outdoors and looking up, perhaps with a pair of binoculars. The sky is always changing and a lot is happening if you know what to look for. The […]

The first “star” to appear after sunset tonight is the poetically named “Evening Star” – the planet Venus. Venus appears high in the southwest as the sky grows dark, and it outshines every other object in the sky (except the moon) until it sets in the west sometime before midnight. The planet Venus is about […]

This is the second of a series of weekly Sky Reports that alert people to what they can see in the night sky by simply stepping outdoors and looking up, perhaps with a pair of binoculars. The sky is always changing and a lot is happening if you know what to look for. As the […]

Venus dominates this month’s Sky Reports just as it dominates the evening sky. You’ll find it in the southwest as the sky grows dark. Venus, aka “The Evening Star”, has graced our evening sky since October, but this month it makes a plunge; it’s noticeably lower night by night and it disappears from view by […]

Venus has been the “Evening Star” star since October, and regular star-gazers have gotten used to seeing it high in the west after sunset, but enjoy it while you can – this month it disappears, and in June it reappears in the morning sky where we’ll call it the “Morning Star”. To early people this […]

This week there are two planets in the evening sky: Venus, which has been brilliant all winter and which is leaving us, and Mercury, much fainter, which is making a brief appearance. Venus will guide you to Mercury. To find Venus, look a bit to the right of due west as the sky is growing […]

The sole planet in the evening sky is little Mercury – an elusive planet that most people have never seen. It’s hard to see because it orbits close to the sun, so it never strays far from the sun and it can be seen only shortly after sunset in the evening sky or shortly before […]

Last month we watched Venus disappear from the evening sky, to be replaced briefly by little Mercury. Mercury is a poor substitute, being both fainter and closer to the horizon, and whereas Venus dominated the early evening sky it’s a challenge to even see Mercury and most people never have. This is your chance. Mercury […]

This week three planets are visible, all in the morning sky. The best time to look is in the hour or so before dawn, and then you’ll see, from west to east, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. They are all low in the south and southeast where they’re less than a third of the way up […]