No matter when or where you do your stargazing, the night sky in 1998 promises a year's worth of excitement. Your backyard and our annual Sky Almanac are a good place to start. The year begins with a spectacular gathering of the Moon, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in Capricornus on January 1.

If a telescope or a pair of binoculars was one of your holiday gifts this year, then be sure to note our seasonal stargazing charts featuring the Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy. With just a little magnification, star clusters, distant galaxies, and nebulae become wondrous sights.

The year's only total solar eclipse on February 26 will miss the U.S., instead favoring parts of the Caribbean, Colombia, and Venezuela. The rest of 1998 doesn't offer much eclipse viewing for North America either. Three penumbral lunar eclipses — in which sunlight is only partially blocked by Earth — will occur on March 12, August 7, and September 6.

Without a comet like Hyakutake or Hale-Bopp to light up the nights of 1998 (yet), veteran stargazers are counting on the Leonid meteors to provide the biggest spark this year. Regenerated by the return of its parent comet, the November shower may peak at several thousand meteors an hour. Dark skies and a clear view will be all you need to enjoy nature's fireworks.

Until then, you'll find many other nightly surprises listed in our monthly summaries.

Read archived news from StarDate magazine in the Resources section.

Every issue of StarDate also includes monthly star charts and stargazing highlights, plus stunning astronomical images.

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