Taurus the Bull resides near the constellation Orion the Hunter. It contains 2 famous star clusters that are easy to spot; they are the Pleiades and the Hyades.
Binary stars - a star system consisting of two stars - are extremely useful. They give all the information needed to measure mass of a star. Here is how.
Wait, what? It's true. The sky's brightest star, Sirius aka the Dog Star, will come to within 1.6 degrees of the south celestial pole in the year 66270.
The brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere's winter sky form the shape of the Winter Circle, or Hexagon, that will help you locate 6 constellations.
From January to April, look for the Hyades star cluster in the evening sky. It's beautiful through binoculars. And in 2025, bright Jupiter will be nearby, too!
The longest days accompany the winter solstice. In December, a day - a whole cycle of day and night - is about half a minute longer than the average 24 hours.
You can see the Orion Nebula as a fuzzy spot in the sky using just your eyes. It's really a vast cloud in space where new stars are forming. Learn more.
When a year with 366 days starts on a Monday, it's inevitable Friday the 13th will occur twice. In 2024, Friday the 13th comes in September and December.
Bruce McClure served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages from 2004 to 2021, when he opted for a much-deserved retirement. He's a sundial aficionado, whose love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and sailing in the North Atlantic, where he earned his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. He also wrote and hosted public astronomy programs and planetarium programs in and around his home in upstate New York.