A spectacular display of noctilucent cloud mingles with darker cirrus clouds over Rice Lake, Minn., around 10:15 p.m. June 19. Right now, it's high season for these unique, high clouds that form on meteor soot. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 11:28 am, Jun. 22, 2021

Astro Bob: Mars enters a beehive, bright noctilucent clouds and the moon shines near Antares

A look at current events in the night sky during the first days of summer.

People surround the floodlit stones of Stonehenge in England the night before the summer solstice on June 21, 2005. On the solstice, the sun rises over the Heel Stone outside the entrance to the monument and illuminates its center. You can watch the sunset show live from 10:07 to 11:37 p.m. CDT on June 20 at https://bit.ly/3wJdHrk (Andrew Dunn / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Astro Bob 4:16 pm, Jun. 20, 2021

Astro Bob: Shortest night, longest day — summer solstice arrives Sunday night

Fireflies glide, dip and rise in a field along a forest edge in Lakewood Township, Minn., around midnight June 17, 2021. Details: ISO 400, 150mm lens at f/3.2, 150-second exposure. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 1:50 pm, Jun. 18, 2021

Astro Bob: Fireflies flash, stars twinkle, we connect

A camera placed on the Martian surface by the Chinese rover (left) took this group selfie of the rover and its landing platform. (CNSA)

Astro Bob 2:00 pm, Jun. 16, 2021

Astro Bob: Down in front on China's Mars

A spectacular coronal mass ejection (CME) on Feb. 27, 2000 blasts a billion tons of heated, ionized gas called plasma into space. Plasma is a mix of electrons and protons, two of the key particles that make up atoms. An opaque disk blocks the sun from view. The circle marks the sun's position. NASA / ESA / SOHO white circle indicates the sun’s surface.

Astro Bob 12:06 pm, Jun. 14, 2021

Astro Bob: Surfing electrons electrify northern lights

The moon appeared directly in front of the sun during Thursday's solar eclipse. Friday, June 11, it returns to the western evening sky, looking pretty not far from Venus about 45 minutes after sunset. (Stellarium)

Astro Bob 1:40 pm, Jun. 11, 2021

Astro Bob: The moon throws out more candy

This is how the sun first appeared when it cleared the clouds over Canada Thursday, June 10 shortly after sunrise. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 9:39 pm, Jun. 10, 2021

Astro Bob: Cosmic communion at 39,000 feet

The full band of the summer Milky Way tilts upward from the southern horizon around midnight in early June. The Milky Way is also the name of our galaxy, home to the sun and all the nighttime stars. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 2:01 pm, Jun. 6, 2021

Astro Bob: Silent as stone, the Milky Way sets the night aglow

A "ring of fire" surrounds the moon during the May 20, 2012, annular solar eclipse. The name comes from the Latin annulus for "little ring." During an annular eclipse the moon passes directly over the sun but doesn't completely cover it because it's farther away and appears smaller than normal. (Kevin Baird / https://bit.ly/2SUJeay)

Astro Bob 12:44 pm, Jun. 4, 2021

Astro Bob: Ring of Fire eclipse blazes at sunrise June 10

Feathery, blue noctilucent clouds streak the northwestern sky in deep dusk from the shore of Lake Superior near Ironwood, Mich. last July. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 8:12 am, Jun. 2, 2021

Astro Bob: Noctilucent clouds return as the summer solstice approaches

This illustration depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft which is expected to launch in 2024. The probe will investigate whether Jupiter’s moon Europa and its internal ocean have conditions suitable for life (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Astro Bob 3:10 pm, May 30, 2021

Astro Bob: Jupiter's moon Europa may rumble with seafloor volcanoes

Tom Ruen of Minneapolis took these photos of the moon during the penumbral (left) and partial eclipse early Wednesday morning, May 26. He had to fight occasional clouds, wind and cold but came through with the goods. (Tom Ruen)

Astro Bob 2:02 pm, May 26, 2021

Astro Bob: Eclipse recap and Mercury and Venus meet again

In this ultraviolet (UV) photo taken with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a bright solar flare detonates in sunspot group 2824 around 4:45 p.m. CDT on May 22nd. (NASA / SDO)

Astro Bob 7:03 pm, May 24, 2021

Astro Bob: Solar explosions could spark northern lights May 25-26

I captured several scenes of the partial phases and totality from the last total lunar eclipse on January 20, 2019. The sunlit part of the moon is overexposed to better show the colorful shading of the shadowed part. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 3:52 pm, May 23, 2021

Astro Bob: Wake up for Wednesday's dawn supermoon eclipse

An artist's conception of the Tianwen-1 lander on Mars with the rover on top and ramp extended. (CNSA)

Astro Bob 2:38 pm, May 20, 2021

Astro Bob: Traffic jam on Mars? Zhurong rover sends back first photos

A train of Starlink satellites marches across the W of Cassiopeia on May 8, 2021. As satellite numbers rapidly rise, it may soon become impossible to gaze at a starry sky uninterrupted by artificial "stars." (Bob King)

Astro Bob 12:25 pm, May 18, 2021

Astro Bob: Take a deep breath, thousands more satellites are on the way

During this time exposure made around 10:55 p.m. on May 15, the space station cuts through the band of the Milky Way as it heads toward the eastern horizon. Multiple passes are visible each night for about the next two weeks. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 1:33 pm, May 16, 2021

Astro Bob: Join the marathon and see the space station all night long

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this photo of Jupiter in visible light on Jan. 11, 2017. The Great Red Spot stands out prominently in the lower left, while the smaller feature nicknamed Red Spot Jr. (known to Jovian scientists as Oval BA) appears to its lower right. The two most prominent cloud belts, riddled with snaking cloud forms, are the North and South Equatorial Belts. (NASA/ESA/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M.H. Wong and I. de Pater et al. Acknowledgments: M. Zamani)

Astro Bob 9:21 pm, May 13, 2021

Astro Bob: Meet Jupiter, a planet with plenty of atmosphere

Venus and the crescent moon appear 1° apart at dusk on July 15, 2018. They'll be just as close on May 12 at dusk. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 11:39 am, May 11, 2021

Astro Bob: See Venus and the moon in their closest conjunction of the year

A nova that first appeared in Cassiopeia in March has recently become bright enough to easily spot in binoculars. It's located to the right of the "W" and visible all night long from mid-northern latitudes. (Stellarium)

Astro Bob 2:21 pm, May 9, 2021

Astro Bob: See a nova explosion in Cassiopeia

Venus is that little dot shining all by itself above center. Given a clear or partially clear sky, the planet is easy to see during early dusk in May. I took this photo on May 4 about 40 minutes after sunset around 9 p.m. local time. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 1:38 pm, May 5, 2021

Astro Bob: Ah, so good to have Venus back

A bright Eta Aquariid meteor shoots across the northern lights on May 6, 2013. Both the meteor and the aurora lie at approximately the same altitude of 70 miles (113 km). (Bob King)

Astro Bob 1:31 pm, May 3, 2021

Astro Bob: Bits of Halley's Comet to etch the predawn sky May 4-6

In this simulation, an astronaut reaches 9 feet (2.7 meters) from a standing jump on the moon. (Still frame from Engineering and Architecture group on YouTube)

Astro Bob 11:22 am, May 2, 2021

Astro Bob: How high could you jump on other planets?

Several complete and broken chondrules glow in technicolor in this thin slice of meteorite viewed under a 30x microscope. Chondrules are 4.56 billion years old and may represent the first solid material that formed in the solar system. (Bob King)

Astro Bob 1:58 pm, Apr. 28, 2021

Astro Bob: Chondrules — stained glass of the solar system

Mars begins its crawl up Castor's leg in the constellation Gemini the Twins in the final week of April. On its way it passes very close the the star cluster M35. (Stellarium)

Astro Bob 2:48 pm, Apr. 26, 2021

Astro Bob: Mars crawls up Castor's leg

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