Launched on August 12, 2018, the Parker Solar Probe is designed to withstand the brutal near-solar environment and heat of the sun and its atmosphere. Its mission is to probe the near-solar environment and help us answer yet unanswered questions about the hot, tenuous solar corona, the solar wind, coronal streamers and the near-solar environment in[…]
I gazed at the full moon, hanging low and bright oe’r the trees last night, warm and inviting on that September night. Previously, we featured a story discussing this month’s full moon. In that article, we noted that the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox is known as the Harvest Moon. It should be[…]
I gazed at the full moon, hanging low and bright oe’r the trees last night, warm and inviting on that September night. The late summer sky is no less beautiful now than when it was at the beginning. The moon, with the southern stars of summer, Antares in Scorpio and Sagittarius to the east, are[…]
Supernova 1987a was the closest supernova to be observed since Kepler’s supernova in 1604. It was one of the first objects observed with the newly deployed Hubble Space Telescope in 1991 and thus, the first -and closest supernova- to be observed with a modern observing platform. Although it is named and designated according to the[…]
World renown lover of the stars and Professor of Astronomy, James B. Kaler has now gone onto that grand cosmos that was his home while he was with us. Jim Kaler quietly passed away from complications related to Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 84 at his home on November 26, 2022. There are now[…]
Comet Nishimura will be at its closest approach to the sun this weekend and thus affords us a rare opportunity to observe it at its brightest! Discovered on August 12 of this year by Hideo Nishimura, the comet originated in the Oort Cloud, a spherical shell of ancient debris, rock and ice left over from[…]
