Monthly Stargazing Calendar for April 2011
The Lyrids are an average meteor shower with about 20 meteors per hour at their peak on April 21 and 22. These meteors can produce bright dust trails that last for several seconds. The shower is most spectacular during the peak on April 21 and 22, but some meteors can still be spotted from April 16 to 25. The meteors will be radiating from the constellation of Lyra after midnight.
Monthly Stargazing Calendar for March 2011
This month, on the 20th, an equinox will occur. The Sun will shine directly on the equator and there will be nearly equal amounts of day and night throughout the world.
Stargazing with Google Sky
Today I downloaded the Google Sky app on my Android smartphone. So when it finally got dark today, I went out stargazing to try it out. I find this application really useful as it follows the movement of the phone and identifies the constellations, stars, planets and other celestial bodies you are pointing at. If you love stargazing and have an Android phone, then you really should download this free app! Google Sky Application for the Android. Image credit: Google While looking at the eastern sky, I saw a really bright star close to the Aquarius constellation, so I scanned it with my phone and I found out that it…
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Planet Uranus with Moons
This is a photo montage of Uranus and five of it's largest moons. The photos were taken separately by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. The moons, from largest to smallest as they appear here, are Ariel, Miranda, Titania, Oberon and Umbriel. When Voyager 2 visited the planet, it discovered 10 new smaller moons and took close-up pictures of its ring system.