SUNSET: 
Sky at a Glance | January 27th, 2012
Venus blazes high at dusk. The bright Moon passes Jupiter, then shines over Orion. And Mars and Saturn rise ever earlier in the night.
Sky at a Glance | January 20th, 2012
Jupiter is shrinking, Mars is growing, Orion stands high, and the waxing crescent Moon will soon pass Venus.
Vast New Trove of Variable Stars
Newly online: light curves for 198 million stars. The latest great mass of variable-star data comes from the Catalina Sky Survey — which is actually looking for asteroids.
Sky at a Glance | January 13th, 2012
Venus and Jupiter slowly draw toward each other. The Winter Hexagon looms large over the evening world. And the waning Moon shines in early dawn.
A Rare Flyby of Asteroid Eros
The grandaddy of near-Earth asteroids brightens to magnitude 8.6 as it flies by Earth in late January and early February.
Sky at a Glance | December 30th, 2011
Venus and Jupiter light the evenings as the new year arrives. Having already left Venus behind, the waxing Moon now passes Jupiter.
A Fine Year for the Icy Quads
One of the best — but briefest — annual meteor showers should be active in the hours before dawn on the morning of Wednesday, January 4th.
Sky at a Glance | December 23rd, 2011
Venus and the crescent Moon highlight Christmas Week twilights. And after ringing in the New Year, step outside for Sirius at the meridian.
Sky at a Glance | December 16th, 2011
As fall finally turns to winter on the Longest Night this week, Venus and Jupiter light the evening sky and Orion shines through the many hours of darkness.
Geminids in the Moonlight
With an average of 100 meteors per hour radiating from near the bright star Castor, this end-of-the-calendar shower is usually one of the year’s best. However, this week's performance will be spoiled by a just-past-full Moon that rises not long after the radiant clears the northeastern horizon.
Sky at a Glance | December 9th, 2011
Venus is easier to spot in twilight. Jupiter dominates the night. And the Geminid meteors peak on the nights of the 13th and 14th, though moonlight interferes.
Sky at a Glance | December 2nd, 2011
Venus and Jupiter both continue moving higher in the evening. And will you be positioned to see the eclipse of December's full Moon?
A Dawn Eclipse of the Moon
The Moon will become totally eclipsed for much of North America before sunrise on December 10th.
Cygnus X-1, Exactly
Astronomers have pinned down the distance, mass, and spin rate for the first black hole candidate discovered, information that points to a birth sans supernova.
Sky at a Glance | November 18th, 2011
Venus shines low in the twilight, Jupiter blazes high all evening, the Mars-Regulus pair is up after midnight, and the Saturn-Spica pair is up at dawn.
Sky at a Glance | November 18th, 2011
Venus stays up throughout twilight now. Jupiter blazes high all evening, the Mars-Regulus pair is up by midnight, and the Saturn-Spica pair shows at dawn.
Sky at a Glance | November 11th, 2011
Jupiter is still close and big, and it's shining high in the southeast earlier now. The Mars-Regulus pair is up after midnight. And the Saturn-Spica pair has emerged from the dawn.
Sky at a Glance | November 4th, 2011
Jupiter is still essentially as close. big, and bright as at opposition last week. Watch the full Moon pass by it.
Sky at a Glance | October 28th, 2011
Jupiter is at an unusually close opposition, as big as you'll ever see it. Venus and Mercury show themselves together briefly after sunset. And Comet Garradd glows on.
Sky at a Glance | October 21st, 2011
Venus and Mercury briefly peek into view after sunset. On the other side of the sky, blazing white Jupiter has nearly reached its unusually close opposition — and is as big as you'll ever see it.
