Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Wednesday nights is your last chance to see the Comet Pan-STARRS as it passes around dusk.
Mostly clear skies Wednesday evening will give Greenbelt skywatchers a pretty good shot at seeing the Comet Pan-STARRS. Comet Pan-STARRS (also known as Comet Panstarrs), a glob of ice and dust from the heavens, was closest to Earth last Tuesday, but clouds from the snowstorm-that-wasn't prevented most people in our area from seeing it. Wednesday evening, March 13, is your last best chance to see it. Space.com recommends looking toward the west to find the Comet Pan-STARRS, near where the moon normally rises. Its bright dust tail might be visible to the naked eye, though some have suggested using binoculars (but only after sunset so not to injure the eyes) to see it. Unlike most meteor showers, the comet should be most visible not in the …
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The first meteor shower of 2013 begins Tuesday over the skies.
Want to start off the new year by gazing at the stars? The Quadrantid meteor shower is named for an extinct constellation, but the shooting stars that seem to sprout from it still arrive yearly, and the opening of the 2013 show will begin overnight Jan. 1 into Jan. 2. The Quadrantids is one of the lesser-known meteor showers of the year, but that doesn't mean it's anything less than spectacular. Take a look at this Quadrantids meteor shower video or these pictures of the Quadrantids. While the shower begins overnight on the first day of the new year, NASA tells us Quadrantid meteor shower peaks in the wee morning hours of Jan. 4: "[T]he Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 100 per hour, varying between 60-200. The waxing gibbous moon …
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
NASA Goddard extends its registration deadline through Tuesday for Reaching for the Stars: Space Exploration and Humanity's Quest to Understand Everything program.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Shooting stars will be flying early in the morning, but it promises to be a show worth watching.
The offspring of Halley's Comet are about to put on quite a show over the skies of Montgomery and Prince George's counties. Earth passes through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet beginning Oct. 15, which gives us the benefit of the annual Orionid meteor shower, though you probably won't see much until a bit later. The shower should be at its best the night of Saturday, Oct. 20, until just before dawn on Oct. 21. This year, the moon will be setting at about midnight, which will keep the sky dark enough that—barring cloud cover—you should be able to see up to 15 meteors per hour. Francis Reddy, science writer for NASA Goddard's Astrophysics Science Division, and author of the book Celestial Delights: The Best Astronomical Events Through…
Thursday, August 9, 2012
It could display up to 40 meteors per hour on Sunday before dawn, and there's a great spot in Greenbelt to watch it.
With the weather forecast to be clear before dawn on Sunday, you may have the opportunity to witness the Perseid meteor shower. If you’re in the Greenbelt area, you may view the shower at the Astronomical Society of Greenbelt’s star party on Aug. 11 at 9 p.m. at Northway Field and Observatory. Or, you can head to an open location, such as a park or open field, as far from artificial light as possible in order to see the Perseid meteor shower at its peak. Liz Zubritsky, a science writer at NASA Goddard, says the best viewing spots will be away from a lot of light pollution and in an open space so that the view is not blocked by trees or buildings. The Perseid are a meteor shower visible when the Earth passes through the tail of the Swift-…
Saturday, May 5, 2012
"Super Moon" to make an appearance on Saturday, but what will area weather do?
Astronomers are saying that we're in for a "Super Moon" Saturday night that will be even more super than usual. “The last full moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C. told USA Today. This Super Moon (a phrase coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979) will appear especially large because the moment of perigee—when the moon is closest to the Earth in its monthly rotation—will coincide with the appearance of a perfectly full moon, Smithsonian points out. During last year’s Super Moon on March 19, 2011, for comparison, the perigee and full moon were 50 minutes apart. On Saturday at 11:34 p.m. ET, the moon reaches full moon status—when the earth, moon and sun …
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
You can also observe the bright stars in Aries.
Francis Reddy, a science writer on contract to NASA Goddard, shared his images with Patch of the two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter, at their closest approach to one another on Tuesday (about 3 degrees apart). You can also observe several bright stars in Aries, as seen from Bowie, Md., said Reddy, who works at NASA Goddard's Astrophysics Science Division and who has authored a book that includes information on naked-eye astronomy. "It's a great opportunity to get people interested in astronomy," Reddy said. "And it doesn't happen that often." Reddy's image includes an inset showing a closeup of Jupiter on the same evening, revealing its retinue of four bright moons. Reddy said it made him think of it as "conjunction with a…
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The Astronomical Society of Greenbelt explains the differences between astrology and astronomy to the public.
At a public lecture at the Community Center, the Astronomical Society of Greenbelt invited the public to explore the differences between astronomy and astrology — two radically different ways of seeing the sky that people often confuse. Society member and Prince Georges County elementary school teacher Elizabeth Levin led the event, and emphasized — if you want to understand why you are the way you are, look to your parents, not the night sky. The gathering was a mix of lecture and hands-on activities exploring both the science and superstition of the night sky and their common roots. Levin explained that the most fundamental thing that astronomy and astrology have in common is that "both involve looking up." Astronomers and astrologers …
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Jeffrey R. Cohen
11:48 am on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
The moon, like the sun, rises in the east, not the west. I think the third paragraph should say "...where the moon normally sets." I'm not being a jerk here, I am planning to go out tonight and I would have looked east if I hadn't read the linked article. more ›