Tonight presents a bright moon and another night for the 2013 Lyrid meteor shower. Watch late night April 22 to dawn April 23. No meteors? Check out Lyra the Harp!
Larry Sessions
Larry Sessions writes for EarthSky about astronomy and other topics related to physical science, emphasizing observations that can be made with little or no equipment. He also writes and maintains his own astronomy website, as well as class websites for the classes he teaches. His North American Skies website has earned a one of “Ten Cool Sites” recognition by the Exploratorium, and the Griffith Observatory Star Award.
A former planetarium director in Little Rock, Fort Worth and Denver, Larry currently is an adjunct faculty member at Metropolitan State College of Denver, and at the Community College of Aurora (CCA, Colorado). He is a co-recipient of the 2010 Tom Brosh Adjunct Faculty Award at CCA, and a former longtime member of “Solar System Ambassadors” program of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For six years he was a contributing writer for the Sky Calendar on Space.com. In addition, he was formerly the managing editor at the Denver Museum of Natural History, as well as for the award-winning “Weather Guide” calendar from Accord Publishing. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Sky & Telescope, Astronomy and Rolling Stone. His small book on world star lore, Constellations, was published by Running Press.
Larry is a member the SouthWestern Association of Planetariums. He lives in Denver with his wife, Marlene, and their three dogs, Mikatsuki (“New Moon”), Sachiko (“Joyful Child”) and Yoshi ("Lucky").
Posts by Larry Sessions
Tonight | Apr 09, 2013
A clump of faint stars trailing the constellation Leo once represented the Lion’s tail – but now these stars are known as a queen’s beautiful hair.
Tonight | Apr 08, 2013
If you’re in the U.S., you must be at about New Orleans’ latitude to glimpse it. From the southern hemisphere, Mimosa is a prominent and beloved star.
Tonight | Mar 25, 2013
Blue Acrux shines as the brightest star in the constellation Crux the Southern Cross.
Blogs | Mar 17, 2013
A rundown of space objects visible under the right conditions to the unaided human eye during the day.
Tonight | Feb 24, 2013
Procyon – in Canis Minor the Lesser Dog – actually means “before the dog.” That’s because it rises into the sky shortly before the Dog Star Sirius in Canis Major.
Tonight | Feb 18, 2013
Two stars noticeable for being bright and close together might be Castor and Pollux of the Gemini Twins constellation.
Tonight | Feb 10, 2013
From southerly latitudes, you’ll easily find Canopus on February evenings. Look southward below brilliant Sirius. Canopus is our second-brightest star.
Tonight | Jan 14, 2013
We see Capella as the brightest star in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. It is really two stars, each with a golden color similar to our sun.
Tonight | Videos | Jan 06, 2013
We could not live as close to Rigel as we live to our sun, because Rigel is nearly twice as hot – and about 40,000 times brighter – than our local star.
