astronomy

So, I was doing a little star-gazing tonight and I noticed one body that looked like a star starting to move. I was waiting for it to "shoot," but instead it kept moving through the sky...rather quickly. It was roughly a south to north trajectory and I watched it until I lost sight of it...

Supermoon, tonight, the fifth of May! I read that it would be at its fullest at 11:35 p.m. EST, but I imagine that if you don't live on the east coast you can just convert that. I went out earlier to see what I could see but it was hidden by too many branches.

We’re expecting clear skies in Chicagoland this evening for a spectacular grouping of a relatively large Full Moon with Saturn and Spica. See my Full Moon diagram for comparison with other Full Moons: www.CurtRenz.com/moon The CDT timings given here are for Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, but...

Here is part one of the only substantial interview Burnham gave in his life. The link to part 2 can be found at the end of the page. The first half of the interview talks about the struggles his book created. From about the halfway mark the discussion becomes about astronomy becoming big...

A nice new supernova is brightening in the galaxy M95. The current magnitude is about 13.2 and the star should get into the high 11s. M95 is very easy to find in the night sky at the moment due to its proximity to Mars - The downside is the galaxy's light is getting a little done over by the...

I've got a question for all the astronomers out there (professional or amateur). It seem like recently our discovery of extra solar planets has been increasing at an ever increasing rate. At our current level of technology and with our current understanding of techniques used to locate extra...

An add for a telescope seen on Ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Celestron-C6N-reflector-optical-tube-/200731262697?pt=US_Telescopes&hash=item2ebc83fee9 Unbelievable! You've had me since I left the factory. A couple of years ago, I was the only thing you could think of. You couldn't wait for it to...

A very clear night tonight, and I live in a pretty dark place. On the way to the mailbox this evening I saw a glowing yellow-red globe in the eastern sky, which I identified as Mars - then I turned around and saw two brilliant white globes - Venus & Mercury? Turned out to be Venus & Jupiter...I...

Actually, it's quite interesting: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/03/01/3442569.htm

Today Saturn is at its station where it commences apparent retrograde motion in right ascension. Tonight it will be rising at 23:00 for Chicagoland observers, and about four minutes earlier each following evening. It will reach opposition from the Sun on April 15. I’ve written a more...