The proper names of many stars come from ancient Arabic. And many of those names describe a star’s position in...More »
▶StarDate Radio: February 22 — Faint Cats
Ancient skywatchers drew 48 constellations that are still in use today. Most of them consisted of patterns of bright stars...More »
★Stargazing: February 22
Two faint cats pad across the eastern evening sky: Lynx and Leo Minor, the little lion. Leo Minor abuts Leo,...More »
▶StarDate Radio: February 21 — Contact Binaries
A faint star near the boundary between Orion and Taurus could have a bright future. The system consists of two...More »
★Stargazing: February 21
The star Navi forms the middle point of W-shaped Cassiopeia, which is in the northwest this evening. The name comes...More »
▶StarDate Radio: February 20 — Variable Stars
In Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar,” Caesar declares himself to be “as constant as the north star.” Unfortunately for Caesar, though,...More »
★Stargazing: February 20
Two variable stars are in view in winter’s evening sky. Algol, which consists of two stars that stage mutual eclipses,...More »
★Stargazing: February 19
The planet Saturn is quite low in the southeast at first light and looks like a bright star. Tomorrow it...More »
▶StarDate Radio: February 19 — Moon and Saturn
We haven’t seen life anywhere in the solar system besides Earth. Yet several worlds seem to have the potential for...More »
▶StarDate Radio: February 18 — Moon and Jupiter
A day after covering up Mars, the crescent Moon takes aim at another planet: Jupiter, the giant of the solar...More »
★Stargazing: February 18
The crescent Moon takes aim at the planet Jupiter, the giant of the solar system, early tomorrow. They will be...More »
▶StarDate Radio: February 17 — Moon and Mars
Mars and the Moon team up for a bit of stage magic tomorrow morning. As seen from parts of the...More »
★Stargazing: February 17
Mars will briefly disappear early tomorrow, hidden behind the Moon. The view will be best from the Mountain Time zone,...More »
2020 Sky Almanac
This year offers up some beautiful skywatching treats, including the opposition of Mars and the closest conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn in four centuries. You can find all the details on these and many others in our 2020 Sky Almanac. We also tell you about the rights and wrongs of astronomy and space exploration in science fiction.
