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Welcome to the night sky report for February 2025 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. Venus blazes at its brightest for the year just after sunset, then Mars and Jupiter rule the night amid the menagerie of bright winter stars. Little Mercury pops up just above the horizon in late February, looking relatively bright as the sunset fades. In February, the Winter Triangle is your guide to the night sky. The northern hemisphere is treated to views of the stars Procyon, Sirius, and Betelgeuse, as well as awe-inspiring views of the Great Orion Nebula (M42, NGC 1976), sculpted by the stellar winds of central bright stars. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Happy New Year and welcome to the night sky report for January 2025 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. Each evening this month, enjoy a sweeping view of six planets at once (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn with the naked eye and Uranus and Neptune with a telescope). Also look for a close approach of Venus and Saturn, Mars occulted by the Moon, and the Quadrantid meteors. The January sky is also filled with bright stars in the constellations Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Canis Major, and Canis Minor. Find these cosmic gems by looking toward the southeast in the first few hours after it gets dark. The northern hemisphere also features beautiful views of Capella - a pair of giant yellow stars, Aldebaran - a red giant star, two star clusters [the Hyades (Caldwell 41) and the Pleiades (M45)], and the Crab Nebula (M1, NGC 1952). The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for December 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all visible during the month. Also, the Geminid meteor shower peaks at mid-month. Step outside on a cold December night when the stars shine bright to find the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, and Cepheus. They will help you locate a binary star system (Eta Cassiopeiae), a fan-shaped open star cluster M103 (NGC 581), and a variable star (Mu Cephei). Also, throughout the month, you can find Pegasus, the winged stallion, high overhead in the south. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for November 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. This month, hunt for the fainter constellations of fall, including Pisces, Aries, and Triangulum. They will guide you to several galaxies, including the spiral galaxies M74 (NGC 628, the Phantom Galaxy) and M33 (NGC 598, the Triangulum Galaxy). Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter can be observed during the month. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for October 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. The highlight of this October is a potentially bright comet (C/2023 A3 aka Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) that will appear around mid-month. In addition, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter can be observed along with the Moon. The crisp, clear October nights are also full of celestial showpieces for the deep sky observer. For example, find Pegasus the flying horse of Greek mythology to pinpoint nice dense globular clusters and galaxies. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for September 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. During the month you will have an opportunity to view five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), as well as a supermoon eclipse and a NASA solar sail satellite. In September, Pegasus becomes increasingly prominent in the southeastern sky, allowing skywatchers to locate globular clusters M2 (NGC 7089), M30 (NGC 7099), as well as a nearby double star, Alpha Capricorni, which is an optical double (but not a binary pair). Also, if you have access to dark skies away from urban light pollution, you might be able to get a glimpse of the faint, glowing pillar of the zodiacal light, which is sunlight reflecting off of an interplanetary dust cloud between Earth and the inner fringes of the main asteroid belt, just past Mars. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for August 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. Provided you have clear skies, viewing conditions for the Perseid meteors will be favorable this year. In mid-August there will be a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Mars. Also, in August, a number of star-studded figures soar overhead. Look for the constellation Lyra, shaped as a small parallelogram, which points to Epsilon Lyrae and the Ring Nebula (M57, NGC 6720). You can also spot three bright summer stars: Vega, Deneb, and Altair, which form the Summer Triangle. Keep observing around the group of stars commonly known as the Teapot and you’ll be looking toward the center of the Milky Way. In that direction, you can see the Lagoon Nebula (M8, NGC 6523), August is also a great month to learn an easy-to-spot constellation – Cygnus the swan. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase, so get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for July 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. All month in July, as in June, the planetary action is in the morning sky. Saturn rises around midnight and climbs high into the south by sunrise. Mars rises a couple of hours later, with Jupiter trailing behind it, and shifting higher in the sky each day. July is a prime time to view the Milky Way in all its glory. Find the constellation Scorpius to identify the reddish supergiant star Antares, which will lead you to the globular star cluster M4 (NGC 6121). M22 (NGC 6656) in the constellation Sagitarius is one of the brightest globular clusters in the sky and is visible to the naked eye.. Keep observing around the group of stars commonly known as the Teapot and you’ll be looking toward the center of the Milky Way. In that direction, you can see the Lagoon Nebula (M8, NGC 6523), the Omega Nebula (M17, NGC 6618), and the Trifid Nebula (M20, NGC 6514). Two open star clusters, the Butterfly Cluster (M6, NGC 6405) and the Ptolemy Cluster (M7, NGC 6475), can be found on the end of the constellation Scorpius, just above the stinger. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for June 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. All the planetary action continues to be in the morning sky, with Saturn and Mars rising in the early morning hours. They are joined later in the month by Jupiter. A number of online sources have created excitement about a "Parade of Planets" that will be visible in the morning sky in early June. Unfortunately we are in for a bit of a disappointment because in reality, only two of the six planets (Saturn and Mars) will actually be visible. In early June, Jupiter and Mercury will be at or below the horizon in the morning twilight and not visible… And Uranus and Neptune are too far and too faint to be seen without a telescope, especially as the morning sky brightens. During the month, look for the Hercules constellation, which will lead you to a globular star cluster with hundreds of thousands of densely packed stars. Globular cluster M13 (the Hercules Cluster, NGC 6205) is best observed with a telescope, but binoculars will reveal it as a fuzzy spot. You can also spot Draco the dragon, which will point you to the Cat’s Eye Nebula (C6, NGC 6543). The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for May 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. See Mars, Saturn, and Mercury in the May morning sky and the eta Aquariid meteors, which peak on May 6th courtesy of remnants from Halleys Comet. In May, we are looking away from the crowded, dusty plane of our own galaxy toward a region where the sky is brimming with distant galaxies. Locate Virgo to find a concentration of roughly 2000 galaxies and search for Coma Berenices to identify many more. Coma Berenices is a great target for binoculars. Look for galaxies like M104 (Sombrero Galaxy), M87 (Virgo A Galaxy), and M64 (Black Eye Galaxy). The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for April 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. A total solar eclipse sweeps across the United States on April 8th, as the Moon's shadow moves from Texas northward through Maine. Areas outside totality will enjoy a partial eclipse. Also, there's still time to observe comet 12P this month. During April, near the Big Dipper you will find several interesting binary stars. You can also spot galaxies like the Pinwheel Galaxy (NGC 5457, M101), the Cigar Galaxy (NGC 3034, M82), and M96 (NGC 3368) -- the last of which is an asymmetric galaxy that may have been gravitationally disrupted by encounters with its neighbors. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for March 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. There's a comet making its way into the inner Solar System that's already observable with a telescope and might start to become visible to the unaided eye by late March or in April. Comet 12P Pons-Brooks has been observed on several of its previous appearances going back hundreds of years and one thing it's known for is its occasional outbursts. In March, the stars of spring lie eastward. Look for the constellations Gemini and Cancer to spot interesting celestial features like star clusters M35, the Beehive Cluster (M44), and NGC 3923, an oblong elliptical galaxy with an interesting ripple pattern. Find the Y-shaped constellation Taurus, the bull, high in the southwest. The Hyades star cluster forms the bull's face. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for February 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. Venus is beginning its exit from the morning skies this month, just as Mars returns to visibility. In February, the Winter Triangle is your guide to the night sky. The northern hemisphere is treated to views of the stars Procyon, Sirius, and Betelgeuse, as well as awe-inspiring views of the Great Orion Nebula (M42, NGC 1976), sculpted by the stellar winds of central bright stars as well as Bode’s Galaxy (M81, NGC 3031). The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Happy New Year and welcome to the night sky report for January 2024 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. The January sky is filled with bright stars in the constellations Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Canis Major, and Canis Minor. Find these cosmic gems by looking toward the southeast in the first few hours after it gets dark. The northern hemisphere also features beautiful views of Capella - a pair of giant yellow stars, Aldebaran - a red giant star, two star clusters - the Hyades (Caldwell 41) and the Pleiades (M45), and the Crab Nebula (M1, NGC 1952). The moderate Quadrantid meteor shower is active from Dec. 28 to Jan. 12, and peaks overnight on Jan. 4th. The Moon will wash out faint meteors, but the shower often produces bright fireball meteors. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.

Welcome to the night sky report for November 2023 -- Your guide to the constellations, deep sky objects, planets, and celestial events that are observable during the month. This month, hunt for the fainter constellations of fall, including Pisces, Aries, and Triangulum. They will guide you to several galaxies, including the spiral galaxies M74 and M33. Saturn rides high during the month and Venus and Jupiter are visible on opposite sides of the sky. Also, the Leonid meteors peak this month. The night sky is truly a celestial showcase. Get outside and explore its wonders from your own backyard.