As soon as darkness falls on May 25, 2012, look westward to see tonight’s moon lining up – or nearly lining up – with Castor and Pollux in Gemini.
Bruce McClure has been a writer and editor for the wildly popular EarthSky Tonight feature since early 2004. If you ask a sky question on our site, it’s likely to be Bruce that answers it. He says his "number one passion"- besides his wife Alice - is stargazing. Bruce writes sky articles, gives planetarium shows and hosts a wide assortment of public astronomy programs in and around his home in upstate New York. His love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, and he has sailed the North Atlantic, earning his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. Bruce is also a sundial aficionado. He believes the scroll of the lore-laden heavens, written in a language universal and more enduring than any human artifice, is our shared heritage. And he shares EarthSky's vision for stewardship, hoping future generations will enjoy uncontaminated air, soil and water, and a clear window to the universe.
Posts by Bruce
May 23, 2012
Tonight
11 Comments
The moon still shines in the vicinity of Venus after sunset this Wednesday evening, May 23, 2012.
May 22, 2012
Tonight
12 Comments
On May 22, 2012, for North America and most of the world, the moon swings closest to the planet Venus for this month.
May 20, 2012
Tonight
39 Comments
Everything you need to know – whether you’re in Earth’s eastern or western hemisphere – about the May 20 or 21 annular eclipse of the sun.
May 20, 2012
Tonight
15 Comments
There is an annular eclipse of the sun today for some lucky viewers – a partial eclipse for the rest of us. Who, what, when, where in this post.
May 17, 2012
Tonight
14 Comments
On May evenings, the disk of our Milky Way galaxy coincides with the plane of the horizon. Because it is low in the sky in all directions, we can’t see it.
May 16, 2012
Tonight
30 Comments
See a bright object near a faint one in the west after sunset? It’s the brightest planet Venus near the star Elnath.
May 12, 2012
Brightest Stars
3 Comments
Thuban was the Pole Star some 5,000 years ago, when the Egyptians were building the pyramids.
May 12, 2012
Tonight
18 Comments
At nightfall, look directly overhead and star-hop to the constellation Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs.
May 08, 2012
Astronomy Essentials
17 Comments
Venus will cross the sun’s face as seen from Earth for the last time in this century on June 5-6, 2012. This transit of Venus will be the last of our lifetimes.
