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Watch the Skies

    New meteor shower? How many meteors will I see, really?

    This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the broken Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3.

    Astronomers are excited about the possibility of a new meteor shower May 30-31. And that excitement has sparked a lot of information about the tau Herculids. Some has been accurate, and some has not. We get excited about meteor showers, too! But sometimes events like this don’t live up to expectations – it happened with …

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    Mars-Jupiter Conjunction Visible May 29

    Sky chart showing how Jupiter and Mars will appear in the pre-sunrise sky on May 28-30.

    Most stargazers will have a prime viewing opportunity to see the planets Mars and Jupiter draw incredibly close in the predawn sky on the nights of May 27-30. The two planets will appear 20 degrees or so above the horizon in the eastern-southeastern sky, against the constellation Pisces, approximately 45 minutes before local sunrise. This …

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    Total Lunar Eclipse on View May 15-16

    A nearly total eclipse

    On the night of May 15, and into the early hours of May 16, skywatchers will be treated to a phenomenon which takes place every 1.5 years or so: a total lunar eclipse. Total lunar eclipses occur when the Moon and Sun are on opposite sides of Earth and the planet casts a complete shadow, …

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    Meteor Showers to Bookend Overnight Skywatching Opportunities in May

    A meteor mosaic comprised of 99 images, using a blue filter, of the Eta Aquariids observed during the early morning hours

    As the spring season continues, May could prove to be of great interest for stargazers and space enthusiasts – with a pair of potentially active meteor showers opening and closing the month. “Meteors aren’t uncommon,” Bill Cooke said, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Earth is …

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    Loud fireball spotted over southern Mississippi mostly heard, hardly seen

    GLM image from the GOES 16 satellite.

    A fiery meteor streaked across the morning skies in southern Mississippi yesterday on April 27, 2022. More than 30 eyewitnesses in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi reported seeing a bright fireball at 8:03 a.m. CDT. The sighting was soon followed by numerous reports of loud booms heard in Claiborne County, Mississippi, and surrounding …

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    Mars-Saturn, Jupiter-Venus Conjunctions Happening This Month!

    An illustration of the Mars-Saturn conjunction looking east in Huntsville, Alabama, at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 4, 2022.

    Skywatchers, you have the opportunity to see not just one, but two planetary conjunctions during the month of April 2022! A conjunction is a celestial event in which two planets, a planet and the Moon, or a planet and a star appear close together in Earth’s night sky. Conjunctions have no profound astronomical significance, but …

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    March Equinox Welcomes ‘Astronomical’ Spring

    by Lance D. Davis Did you know our planet has two types of seasons? They are meteorological and astronomical. What’s the difference? “Meteorological seasons” follow the changing of the calendar, month to month, and are based on the annual temperature cycle – seasonal temperature variations modified by fluctuations in the amount of solar radiation received …

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    December Solstice Brings Winter, Summer Seasons

    Summer solstice explanation

    In meteorology, Earth’s winter season for the Northern Hemisphere and summer season for the Southern Hemisphere began on Dec. 1, 2021. However, the December solstice brings in the astronomical winter and summer seasons, respectively, for the two hemispheres of our planet. This will happen on Dec. 21 at 15:59 UTC, which is 9:59 a.m. CST …

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    Experience NASA’s Journey to LCRD Launch

    Illustration of NASA’s Laser Communication Relay Demonstration

    LAUNCH UPDATE:  NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) is now scheduled to lift off Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 3:04 a.m. CST (4:04 a.m. EST) aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. Get more details here. Have you ever witnessed one of NASA’s launches? It’s definitely a sight to see when a rocket takes to the …

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