April 12, 2020
Here’s my Apollo 13 boot print--the one that never stepped on the moon.
Go back 50 years and imagine those five days in isolation, punctuated by the calm utterance, "Houston, we've had a problem." What the astronauts gave us then was courage in a time of national need...
April 1, 2020
In the opening days of April 2020, the planet Venus glides past the Pleiades star cluster. This is a naked-eye celestial delight that requires no special equipment or skills; and it gets you outdoors for a safe event. An image by Fred Espenak, below, and an arti...
November 25, 2019
You've seen pictures of the International Space Station (ISS), but have you ever actually seen it? If you can steady on the moon with a simple telescope, try this: an ISS transit.
As the International Stace Station (ISS) orbits overhead, occasionally its pa...
March 2, 2018
Most people have never seen an ISS transit before. Try this early Saturday morning, March 3, 2018.
Set up a telescope in downtown Elkhart, IN, and aim it at the moon. If you set up elsewhere along the line on the map, get accurate times of the event for your location...
August 17, 2017
To get the elephant out of the room, for US observers, the next total solar eclipse is April 8, 2024. Additionally, peruse the map of total solar eclipses in the 21st century over North American, courtesy of Michael Zeiler.
Future total solar eclipses are mapped by Mi...
December 8, 2015
I had been looking forward to seeing Venus astride the crescent moon. Instead, the moon occulted Venus and clouds occulted both. Here are some snippets in anticipation of today's celestial event.
December 1
Telescopes were set up atop Jordan Hall of Science at...
December 3, 2015
Monday, December 7, has three celestial highlights for observers in the South Bend, IN, region--a comet, an occultation, and satellite passes.
Sunrise
Before sunrise in the eastern twilight, find a triangle formed by the crescent moon, Venus, and Comet Catalina, wit...
April 2, 2015
April 7
On Tuesday, April 7, the ISS rises in the west near blazingly bright Venus (mag.= -4.0) around 9:28 p.m. EDT. When the spacecraft is almost abreast the planet, nearby is another lovely star cluster, the Pleiades. At 9:30:20 p.m., if you hop from the...
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