Tag: Stargazing

Aurora activity is just getting started. Here’s why the best northern lights are yet to come.

NeRD

There’s no doubt we’ve been treated to some remarkable aurora shows this year (the May superstorms and the recent strong activity in October spring to mind) but what if I told you this was only the beginning of some incredible northern lights activity? In October 2024, scientists announced that the sun has reached solar maximum, a period of heightened solar activity and sunspot frequency that occurs during the sun‘s approximately 11-year solar cycle. During the solar maximum period, the sun emits more energized particles as it erupts with coronal mass…

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Saturn and the moon put on a celestial show Sunday night. Here’s how to see it

NeRD

Saturn gets close to the moon tonight, and skywatchers in Florida, northwestern South America, the Caribbean and Central America will see the ringed planet briefly disappear behind our lunar companion. When a celestial body, such as a moon, planet or an asteroid passes in front of another celestial body, blocking its view, we call that an occultation. The word is derived from the Latin occultäre, to conceal or hide.  Occultations of planets by the moon are fairly rare events for any given location on Earth, but when they do occur,…

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Milky Way swirls over famous Easter Island statutes in stunning photo

NeRD

Sometimes a photo can captivate so powerfully that you are transported to another place and time. When photographer Josh Dury traveled to Easter Island for last month’s annular solar eclipse, he wasn’t going to let a single moment go to waste. Although primarily there with a group of expert Astro Trails eclipse chasers for the day-time event, Dury also managed to capture some images overnight, with some of the island’s famous statues, known as Moai. Due to its remote location, Easter Island has one of the darkest skies on Earth.…

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Save $300 on the HTC VIVE Pro 2 VR headset, the best high-resolution option

NeRD

Save $300 on the HTC VIVE Pro 2 VR headset when you get it from Walmart. We rate it as the best high-resolution VR headset on the market in our best VR headsets guide and you can save big before Black Friday by grabbing it now. The HTC VIVE Pro 2 VR headset is now $300 off at Walmart ahead of Black Friday. This deal is also available on Vive’s website. In our review of the HTC VIVE Pro 2, we found a lot to like, especially now it’s heavily…

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‘Stunning was the word’: Astronauts snap amazing aurora photo from ISS during severe geomagnetic storm

NeRD

The auroras were pretty special on Thursday night (Oct. 10) — especially if you got to see them from orbit. NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Matthew Dominick are in that very exclusive club, getting a bird’s-eye view of the amazing auroral displays — which were supercharged by a recent solar storm — from the International Space Station (ISS). And the sight took the spaceflyers aback. “Stunning was the word,” Pettit wrote in a lengthy post on X on Friday (Oct. 11)  that shared a photo of the celestial light show. “The…

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Save 50% on your first month of Paramount Plus

NeRD

Paramount Plus is 50% off the first month when you get your subscription via Sling TV. While we’re struggling to find many Prime Day streaming deals this time round, and this offer isn’t strictly that, it does allow you to watch a variety of sci-fi favorites for less. Get 50% off your first month of Paramount Plus when you get it via Sling TV. If you’re a trekkie, this is the deal for you. Paramount Plus is the home to a Starship load of Star Trek content including The Original…

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What it was like to experience the ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse on Easter Island

NeRD

RAPA NUI (EASTER ISLAND), Chile — Eclipse-chasers from across the globe gathered on remote Rapa Nui — also known as Isla de Pascua and Easter Island — to witness a fabulous “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse for about six minutes. It was the island’s first in 236 years and last for 321 years.  I was there with eclipse-chaser experts Astro Trails, who I joined in Santiago, Chile to take a five-hour flight to the tiny Chilean island, 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) east of Pitcairn Island and 2,200 miles (3,540…

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See Venus rendezvous with the crescent moon in the night sky tonight (Oct. 5)

NeRD

On Saturday evening (Oct. 5) as darkness is falling, be sure to take a look low toward the west-southwest part of the sky for a beautiful celestial tableau formed by a lovely crescent moon and the brilliant planet Venus.  The moon will appear to hover about 4-degrees below and to the left of Venus. Your clenched fist held at arm’s length measures roughly 10-degrees. So, the moon and Venus will appear to be less than a “half a fist” apart. These Venus-moon rendezvous occur on roughly a monthly schedule. Indeed, if…

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This Celestron beginner telescope is 18% off before Prime Day

NeRD

The Celestron 70mm Travel Scope is 18% off on Amazon in this early Prime Day telescope deal. Amazon’s Big Deal Days sales event starts Oct. 8, and we have a roundup of all the best early Amazon Prime Day deals, which you can check out. Save 18% on the Celestron 70mm Travel Scope when you grab it on Amazon ahead of Big Deal Days. Celestron’s 70mm Travel Scope is ideal for beginners, and, at under $90, it’s a low-risk investment if you’re taking your first steps into astronomy. You get…

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When is the next solar eclipse?

NeRD

It’ll be about six months before skywatchers are treated to another solar eclipse — during which only part of the sun will again be obscured from view.  On Oct. 2, an annular solar eclipse was visible from areas in the Southern Hemisphere, including in remote parts of Chile and Argentina. This type of eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, but does not completely cover the sun’s disk because it is at its farthest point from Earth. Therefore, the moon appears smaller than the sun, creating…

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