StarDate

Morning vs. Evening

The planet Venus is climbing higher into the morning sky day by day. It’ll reign as the “morning star” until summer, when it passes behind the Sun. It’ll return to view a

Mars and Jupiter

Two planetary siblings are headed for a family reunion. They’re moving toward one another, and will be at their closest in a little more than a week. And they’re both bri

Dawn Trio

Early risers are in for a treat tomorrow – a tight triangle formed by the Moon, the planet Venus, and the star Spica. It’s in the east-southeast as dawn twilight paints t

Moon and Venus

Two crescents hang out in the twilight the next couple of mornings: the Moon and the planet Venus. They’re quite low in the east at dawn. Venus is the “morning star.” It’

Launch Window

Two Mars-bound spacecraft have been just loitering about. They were launched a year ago. But the timing wasn’t right for them to reach Mars. So they were sent to a point

Lagrange Points

The solar system provides some handy “parking spots” for spacecraft. They’re steady locations for watching Earth, the Sun, or the rest of the universe. They’re called Lag

More Moon and Companions

The waning Moon anchors a beautiful lineup in tomorrow’s early-morning sky. At dawn, the star Regulus – the heart of the lion – is close above the Moon. The brilliant pla

Moon and Companions

There’s a spectacular lineup in the wee hours of the morning the next couple of days: the Moon, the planets Mars and Jupiter, and the star Regulus. The entire lineup clim

Halloween

Ghosts and demons roam the Halloween night. Vampires and zombies are there, too. So are black widows and Gorgons, witches and snakes and dragons – enough scary creatures

Moon and Gemini

Several of the brightest stars in the night sky are really systems of at least two stars. But only one of those systems is known to contain six stars: Castor, the fainter

Mystery Moons

The tiny moons of Mars are hard to explain. Scientists aren’t sure how they formed and how they wound up in their current orbits. But a Japanese mission that launched thi

Phobos and Deimos

In Gulliver’s Travels, which was published 300 years ago today, Jonathan Swift wrote that the people of Laputa had made an important discovery: “two lesser stars, or sate

Moon and Taurus

The Moon is crossing the constellation Taurus. Tonight, it’s quite close to the bull’s shoulder – the Pleiades star cluster. The bull’s bright eye, the star Aldebaran, is

Time Dilation

If you overlook the fact that you’d be instantly vaporized, there’d be one small advantage to standing at the surface of the Sun: You’d age more slowly than your friends

Hunter’s Moon

Few of us have to hunt wild game to survive the long, cold winter these days. But that hasn’t always been the case. Native tribes and European settlers alike had to stock

25 Years at Mars

Twenty-five years ago, NASA needed a hit. Its previous two missions to Mars had failed – both of them as they were arriving at the Red Planet. So it prepared the next mis

Moon and Saturn

If you ignore the dark orange sky and the extreme cold, Saturn’s moon Titan might remind you of Earth. River channels empty into lakes and seas. Giant fields of dunes rip

First in Darkness

The night sky is disappearing. Growing cities and towns pump more artificial light into the sky all the time. That creates a glowing dome that blots out the view of the M

Ariel and Umbriel

William Lassell made a fortune selling beer to factory workers in Liverpool. He used that money to set up his own astronomical observatory, called Starfield, outside Live

Moon and Sea-Goat

The modern constellations offer a convenient way to appreciate the beauty of the night sky. Using the outline of a scorpion or a lion as a landmark makes it easier to fin