Tag: Stargazing

It is rare when we highlight a celestial event (or events) that involves the zodiacal constellation of Cancer the Crab. In Greek mythology, Cancer was summoned to distract Hercules when he was battling the multiheaded Hydra the Serpent. The crab was crushed by Hercules’ foot, but to reward his effort Hera placed it among the stars. One of my astronomy mentors, the late Dr. Ken Franklin of New York’s Hayden Planetarium, used to refer to Cancer as “the empty space” in the sky. Indeed, it’s the least conspicuous and second…

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With the constellation Ursa Major high in the sky, late April presents an ideal opportunity to spot the ‘Three Leaps of the Gazelle’ asterism – a set of three stellar pairings hanging below the Great Bear‘s most famous feature: the seven stars of the Big Dipper. The first mention of the Three Leaps of the Gazelle asterism was seemingly penned by the 13th century Arabic astronomer and mathematician Ulugh Beg, according to a 2021 post from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The three star pairings – an asterism…

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The delicate form of the crescent moon is set to draw close to the planet Jupiter in the post-sunset sky on April 29, before later making its closest approach to the gas giant from the perspective of Earth on April 30. Earth’s moon is currently emerging from its April 27 new moon phase, during which it passed between the sun and Earth, causing its shadow-drenched disk to be temporarily lost from sight in the sun‘s glare. In the coming days the moon will form a waxing crescent, which will grow…

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The predawn hours of April 28 will see a planetary triangle form in the night sky, as Venus makes a close approach to Saturn following a conjunction, while Neptune, invisible to the naked eye, will sit just a few degrees away towards the horizon. Saturn and Venus will be below the horizon for viewers in the U.S. when they reach the point of conjunction in the hours before their appearance on the morning of the 28th. A planetary conjunction occurs when two worlds share the same right ascension  —  a…

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April 21 – 28 is International Dark Sky Week, a global celebration of the night sky during which like-minded organizations and people take action to raise awareness of an inevitable aspect of modern-day life: the rising scourge of light pollution. Light pollution is a serious issue for night sky enthusiasts hoping to explore the cosmos from our vantage point on Earth, and is the primary reason why powerful observatories are built in remote locations, such as the Atacama Desert in Chile. Even so, a 2022 study from the Royal Astronomical…

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