• Night Sky Guide for March 2019

    March 1 – Close approach of the Moon and Saturn – 18:28 UTC. The Moon, 25 days old, and Saturn will make a close approach, passing within 0°18' of each other. The Moon will be at mag -10.8, and Saturn at mag 0.4, both in the constellation Sagittarius. The…

  • Night Sky Guide for February 2019

    February 2 – Close approach of the Moon and Saturn – 07:05 UTC. The Moon and Saturn will make a close approach, passing within 0°37' of each other. The Moon will be 27 days old. The Moon will be at mag -9.5, and Saturn at mag 0.5, both in the constellation…

  • Total lunar eclipse of January 21, 2019

    A total lunar eclipse will take place early Monday, January 21, 2019 (UTC) as the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow. The totality will last 62 minutes. The next total lunar eclipse will be on May 26, 2021. The eclipse will be visible from Africa, the…

  • Partial solar eclipse of January 6, 2019

    A partial solar eclipse will take place early January 6, 2019 (UTC) and be visible from northeast Asia and north Pacific. The eclipse starts 22:39 UTC, January 5 and ends 04:37 UTC, January 6. The Moon will pass in front of the Sun, creating a partial eclipse of…

  • Night sky guide for December 2018

    December 2 – 69P/Taylor reaches its brightest. Comet 69P/Taylor is forecast to reach its brightest, at around mag 11.9. It will lie at a distance of 2.40 AU from the Sun, and at a distance of 1.53 AU from the Earth. December 3 – C/2018 L2 (ATLAS) at perihelion….

  • Night sky guide for November 2018

    November 4 – 64P/Swift-Gehrels at perihelion. Comet 64P/Swift-Gehrels will make its closest approach to the Sun, at a distance of 1.39 AU. November 5, 6 – Taurid meteor shower. This is a long-running minor meteor shower producing only about 5 – 10 meteors per…

  • Night sky guide for October 2018

    October 1 – M110 well placed for observation. M110, the brightest satellite galaxy of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) will be well placed for observation. It will reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time. At a declination of +41°41', it…

  • Night sky guide for September 2018

    The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky on September 9. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere. The…

  • Partial solar eclipse of August 11, 2018

    A partial solar eclipse will take place from 06:40 to 12:38 UTC on August 11, 2018. While it will be visible in parts of northeast Canada, Greenland, extreme northern Europe, and northern and eastern Asia, the best place to see it will be northern Russia with 68%…