August 30th, 2011
Skywatchers’ Guide for September 2011
Bright Jupiter nears its maximum brightness and apparent size at the end of this month. Saturn is sinking into the glare of the Sun in the western evening twilight with the bright star Spica. Brilliant Venus might be visible in very bright twilight in the west on Sept. 30 when grouped with Saturn. Elusive Mercury is best visible 45 minutes to one hour before sunrise Sept. 1-12. September is a great month for sporadic or chance meteors (shooting stars) and the Milky Way is prominently visible after sunset in reasonably dark skies away from city lights. The fall or autumnal equinox occurs for the Desert Southwest at 2:02 a.m. MST on Sept. 23.
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July 29th, 2011
Skywatchers’ Guide for August 2011
Three planets are easily visible and widely spaced in our sky this month. Saturn is sinking toward the horizon in the western evening sky and sets early, by 8:30 p.m. by the end of the month. About 100 minutes after Saturn sets, bright Jupiter will rise in the east. Mars, the dimmest of the three, is a morning object, best visible around 2 hours before sunrise. The bright summer Milky Way is best visible on clear August nights starting around 90 minutes after sunset and into the late night hours. The annual Perseid meteor shower, one of the best meteor showers of the year, peaks on the nights of August 11-12, 12-13 and 13-14, but is washed out by the Full Moon on August 13.
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March 31st, 2011
Saturday, May 7 is Astronomy Day
Flandrau Science Center will celebrate Astronomy Day with the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA), and The National Sharing the Sky Foundation (NSSF) with free viewing through telescopes, an astronomy raffle, handouts and more!
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October 29th, 2010
Skywatchers’ Guide for November 2010
The peak of the Leonid Meteor Shower may have a better than average display in the pre-dawn hours of Nov. 17-18. Bright Jupiter continues to dominate the evening sky, while Venus emerges in the dawn twilight.
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October 12th, 2010
Comet Hartley 2’s ‘close’ encounter with Earth – update Oct. 29
Comet Hartley 2 (designation 103P, ‘P’ for periodic comet) is slowly brightening in its periodic trek around the Sun, and moving closer to Earth as it does so. By October 20 the comet will be 11 million miles from Earth, much closer than most comets come to Earth. However the comet has not lived up [...]
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