Comet Swift-Tuttle is back, plunging toward its closest approach to the sun early next month [in December 1992].
Astronomy
Photo by Cody Nottingham on Unsplash
Orion Nebula • ESA/Hubble
Gazing into creation’s light
On a night that is perfectly dark and clear, the naked eye can just discern the Great Orion Nebula as a patch of fuzzy white light in the sword of Orion. It might easily be mistaken for a star, but the light we see is the light of many stars, newly born, embedded in a cloud of glowing gas.
Photo by Edward Paterson on Unsplash
Night sky’s there for the giving
If Santa has telescopes in his sleigh this year, then he should toss in a few good star books too. Here’s why.
Artist's depiction of Galileo exploring Jupiter • NASA/JPL (Public Domain)
Just in case anybody is hanging out in Jovian neighborhood
Spacecraft Galileo is on its way to Jupiter.
Photo by Brennan Wolf on Unsplash
A whole lot of heaven at a starstruck resort
Looking for dark, starry skies? Drive 60 miles east out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Get off the interstate at Las Vegas (not the neon-lit casino town, but a place with fewer lights and considerably more charm).
Photo by Susanne Jutzeler from Pexels
Only 158 more days ’til summer
Among things that help keep alive thoughts of summer during cold, cloudy days of January are the Burpee seed catalog and Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar.
Photo by Rad Pozniakov on Unsplash
For all lovers of the night
The January 1991 issue of “Sky & Telescope” is on the newsstands and in the mailboxes. With this issue, the Cambridge-based astronomy magazine kicks off a celebration of its 50th year of publication.
The American Midwest at night from space • NASA (Public Domain)
Lighting up the world
Long before humans actually set foot on the moon they visited that place in their imaginations. One of the earliest lunar travelers was Francis Godwin, who in 1638 published a book called The Man in the Moone about a Spaniard named Domingo Gonsales who travels to the moon and back by attaching himself to a flock of wild swans.
Photo by Tim de Groot on Unsplash
Universal peace
Forget for the moment that the actual year of Christ’s birth was probably sometime between 7 BC, when Augustus ordered a census of Judea, and 4 BC, when Herod died. Forget that the season of birth may have been spring, when shepherds watched their newborn lambs by night. Let’s focus on the traditional place and time, Bethlehem in Galilee, on the night of December 24 – 25 in the year 1 BC (as historians reckon).
Photo by Hamid Khaleghi on Unsplash
Touring the zodiac
Why should astrology buffs have all the fun looking up their birth signs in the newspaper horoscope? Herewith, a horoscope (of sorts) for real stargazers, a potpourri of light-hearted zodiac trivia.