Night Sky Network

Night Sky Network
Astronomers have been trying to discover evidence that worlds exist around stars other than our Sun since the 19th century. By the mid-1990s, technology finally caught up with the desire for discovery and led to the first discovery of a planet orbiting another sun-like star, Pegasi 51b. Why did it take so long to discover these […]
Posted May 1, 2025
Night Sky Network
Depending on your locale, equinoxes can be seen as harbingers of longer nights and gloomy weather, or promising beacons of nicer temperatures and more sunlight. Observing and predicting equinoxes is one of the earliest skills in humanity’s astronomical toolkit.
Posted March 14, 2025
Night Sky Network
by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific What Are Messier Objects? During the 18th century, astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier wanted to distinguish the ‘faint fuzzies’ he observed from any potential new comets. As a result, Messier cataloged 110 objects in the night sky, ranging from star clusters to galaxies to nebulae.
Posted March 4, 2025
Night Sky Network
Light pollution has long troubled astronomers, who generally shy away from deep sky observing under full Moon skies. The natural light from a bright Moon floods the sky and hides views of the Milky Way, dim galaxies and nebula, and shooting stars. In recent years, human-made light pollution has dramatically surpassed the interference of even […]
Posted February 7, 2025
Mars
Night Sky Network
Have you looked up at the night sky this season and noticed a bright object sporting a reddish hue to the left of Orion? This is none other than the planet Mars! January will be an excellent opportunity to spot this planet and some of its details with a medium-sized telescope. Be sure to catch these three events this month.
Posted January 1, 2025
Night Sky Network
by Vivan White & Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific NASA’s Night Sky Network is one of the most successful and longstanding grassroots initiatives for public engagement in astronomy education.
Posted December 16, 2024
Night Sky Network
Supermoons get lots of publicity from the media, but is there anything to them beyond the hype? If the term “supermoon” bothers you because it’s not an official astronomical term, don’t throw up your hands. You can turn supermoon lemons into lunar lemonade for your star party visitors by using it to illustrate astronomy concepts […]
Posted December 4, 2024
Jupiter
Night Sky Network
by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Jupiter is our solar system’s undisputed king of the planets! Jupiter is bright and easy to spot from our vantage point on Earth, helped by its massive size and banded, reflective cloud tops. Jupiter even possesses moons the size of planets: Ganymede, its largest, is […]
Posted November 29, 2024
Comets
Night Sky Network
by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific If you spotted comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in person, or seen photos online this October, you might have been inspired to learn more about these visitors from the outer Solar System. Get ready for the next comet and find out how comets are connected to […]
Posted November 1, 2024
Night Sky Network
by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific September brings the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn back into view, along with their satellites. And while we organize celebrations to observe our own Moon this month, be sure to grab a telescope or binoculars to see other moons within our Solar System! We recommend […]
Posted August 30, 2024
Sign up for our newsletter:

Categories

1
Io
3
4
1
5
530
1
17
3
1
227
2
1
1
4
3
15
5
2
6
4
65
1
6
34
1
2
1
1
293
6
1
3
1
4
103
145
11
8
40
1
38
2
27
2
1
1
10
1
4
185
10
158
2
2
12
3
2
16
1
6
1
1
3
10
1
31
1
21
7

Recent Posts

Newsletter Archive