In this wide-angle view taken Sunday morning, October 17, the aurora (bottom) and early dawn light (right) pair up along the horizon. The Milky Way appears at far left. You might be able to make out the Big Dipper (above center) standing on its handle. Contributed / Bob King

Astro Bob 2:33 pm, Oct. 17, 2021

Astro Bob: Aurora meets aurora, goddess of dawn

A dash of the northern lights showed just before dawn Sunday morning, plus we have updates on Comet Leonard and the Orionid meteor shower.

The moon passes near Jupiter Friday night, Oct. 15, and points to bright Formalhaut in the constellation of the Southern Fish. Contributed / Stellarium

Astro Bob 3:59 pm, Oct. 15, 2021

Astro Bob: Friday night fish fry with Piscis Austrinus

This map features Pegasus the Flying Horse and the bright star pattern called the Great Square. Both are well placed high in the southeastern sky as soon as it gets dark this month. Contributed / Stellarium

Astro Bob 4:56 pm, Oct. 13, 2021

Astro Bob: Get square with Pegasus

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded this coronal mass ejection (CME) in the wake of the M-class flare around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, October 9. Because the material was launched straight toward the Earth it forms an expanding halo around the sun. Contributed/ NASA, ESA

Astro Bob 4:13 pm, Oct. 10, 2021

Astro Bob: There will be no aurora Sunday night

Three views of the rotating Earth photographed by NASA's DSCOVR satellite on October 3, 2021, show the seven continents. Clouds and water make the planet shine, but a decrease in cloud cover due to changes in Pacific climate have caused our planet to fade in recent years. Images are artificially dimmed for illustration purposes. Contributed / NASA

Astro Bob 3:27 pm, Oct. 7, 2021

Astro Bob: Earth is fading — Is climate change to blame?

Is it a cross or a swan? Both! Cygnus is one of the easiest fall constellations to spot. It stands nearly overhead as soon as it gets dark out. Contributed / Bob King

Astro Bob 5:39 pm, Oct. 5, 2021

Astro Bob: Meet Cygnus, the cross that would be a swan

NASA"s Mars Curiosity rover took this photo of the Earth at dusk on Mars on January 31, 2014. The pale blue planet shines nearly as bright as Sirius in the Martian sky. Contributed / NASA, JPL-Caltech

Astro Bob 4:38 pm, Oct. 3, 2021

Astro Bob: Where on Mars is Earth?

This illustration shows the Lucy spacecraft making a flyby of one of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. Contributed / Southwest Research Institute

Astro Bob 1:09 pm, Oct. 1, 2021

Astro Bob: Lucy mission will visit Jupiter's twin asteroid camps

The Seven Sisters star cluster rises in the northeastern sky, nudging above the trees around 9:30 p.m. local daylight time in late September. Resembling a tiny dipper, it's one of the brightest clusters in the sky. Contributed / Bob King

Astro Bob 12:55 pm, Sep. 29, 2021

Astro Bob: Come and greet the Pleiades

An off-center coronal mass ejection (CME) on Sept. 23, paired with a high-speed solar wind from an opening in the sun's atmosphere called a coronal hole, will arrive at the Earth this evening and possibly spark the northern lights. The orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) used a special mask to block the sun, center, to photograph the CME.
Contributed / NASA, ESA, SOHO

Astro Bob 11:36 am, Sep. 26, 2021

Astro Bob: Aurora alert Sunday night

Brazilian amateur José Luis Pereira captured this photo of the Jupiter impact with his 10.8-inch (275-mm) reflecting telescope and video camera on Monday evening (local time), Sept. 13. The inset at upper left is an enlargement of the flash. North is up in this photo, and the shadow of the moon Io is seen at right.
Contributed / José Luis Pereira of Brazil

Astro Bob 2:30 pm, Sep. 23, 2021

Astro Bob: Jupiter impact discovery proves amateurs have what it takes

Fall's lessening daylight stimulates trees to break down the green chlorophyll in their leaves, exposing orange pigments called carotinoids that have been there all along. A different pigment, anthrocyanin, colors these red maple leaves a brilliant shade of scarlet. Scientists aren't sure why trees produce the pigment in fall, but it may serve as an antioxidant, a bird attractor to help in the dispersal of seeds or simply to warm the leaf to protect it from the cold. Contributed / Bob King

Astro Bob 3:57 pm, Sep. 21, 2021

Astro Bob: Embrace the Equinox

The full Harvest Moon will rise nearly due east around sunset on Monday night, September 20th. Contributed / Bob King

Astro Bob 1:04 pm, Sep. 19, 2021

Astro Bob: Soak up the Harvest Moon's bountiful light

Have you ever seen Jupiter light up the clouds? The brilliant sun does this all the time but so can bright planets. On a recent night, I watched Jupiter "hollow out" a glowing aureole of light in a bank of incoming clouds. Saturn is at right. Later this week, the moon will be in conjunction with both planets.
Contributed / Bob King

Astro Bob 5:08 pm, Sep. 15, 2021

Astro Bob: Cozy conjunctions, ISS nights and laser Starlinks

Three overlapping craters form a Mickey Mouse outline on the waxing moon this evening and next, September 14-15, 2021. You'll need a small telescope to see it. Contributed / Virtual Moon Atlas

Astro Bob 4:02 pm, Sep. 14, 2021

Astro Bob: 'Aw, gee!' It's Mickey Mouse on the moon

Moons Ganymede and Europa cast shadows on Jupiter's cloud tops on March 25, 2019. Contributed / Damian Peach

Astro Bob 2:16 pm, Sep. 12, 2021

Astro Bob: Jupiter puts on a magic show Sunday night

NASA's Perseverance rover took this photo of the rock nicknamed "Rochette" on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. It shows two holes where the rover's drill obtained chalk-size samples. The hole on the left side is known as "Montagnac" (drilled on Sept. 7), and the hole on the right is named "Montdenier" (drilled on Sept. 1).
Contributed / NASA, JPL-Caltech

Astro Bob 2:59 pm, Sep. 10, 2021

Astro Bob: Mars Mambo #2 — a little bit of 'Rochette' makes the day

There's a lot going on on the sun right now. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this image earlier today of four sunspot groups. Region 2866 is just large enough to be visible without a telescope when viewed through a appropriate, safe solar filter or using a projection method described in the text. Contributed / NASA, SDO

Astro Bob 5:25 pm, Sep. 7, 2021

Astro Bob: Sun gets a bad case of the spots

The moon will be new Monday evening, Sept. 6, 2021, and completely invisible near the sun in the constellation Leo.
Contributed / Stellarium

Astro Bob 2:22 pm, Sep. 6, 2021

Astro Bob: Metamorphosis at dusk — A New Moon revelation

Find the Teapot of Sagittarius and the bright chunk of Milky Way called the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud (upper right) that makes the "steam" rising from the kettle. Contributed / Bob King

Astro Bob 3:05 pm, Sep. 2, 2021

Astro Bob: Sagittarius — a pot of tea at twilight's end

The enormous mass of two foreground galaxies (center) act as a lens to bend and distort the light of a distant, star-like quasar into four images in a ring surrounding the pair. Contributed / ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Treu; Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt

Astro Bob 7:54 pm, Sep. 1, 2021

Astro Bob: Gravitational magic creates cosmic quintuple

Active sunspot group 2860 unleashes a powerful M4.7 flare early on August 28th. We see it here up close in a photo taken in ultraviolet light by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Contributed / NASA, SDO

Astro Bob 1:03 pm, Aug. 29, 2021

Astro Bob: Aurora watch Sunday night, Aug. 29

The fastest asteroid in the solar system was recently discovered at NOIRLab’s CTIO. The orbit of the approximately 0.6-mile-wide asteroid takes it as close as 12 million miles from the sun every 113 days. This artist’s rendering shows the asteroid (above) and the planet Mercury (below).
Contributed / CTIO, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA, J. da Silva (Spaceengine)

Astro Bob 4:19 pm, Aug. 25, 2021

Astro Bob: Newly-discovered, fastest asteroid hotter than your oven

The bright asteroid Hebe is located just above the Teapot asterism that forms part of Sagittarius the Archer. It slowly tracks to the southeast now through fall. To get oriented, start at Saturn to point you to the general vicinity, then use the more detailed map below to star hop to the asteroid.
Contributed / Stellarium with additions by Bob King

Astro Bob 2:27 pm, Aug. 23, 2021

Astro Bob: Have a small scope? Take a peek at Hebe

The moon, photographed one day past full on Sunday, July 24, 2021, is anything but blue! Forest fires at the time fill the air with smoke, which dimmed and reddened the rising moon. Contributed / Bob King

Astro Bob 2:32 pm, Aug. 21, 2021

Astro Bob: Will the real Blue Moon please stand up?

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