Posts by

Bruce McClure

Look out our galaxy’s south window, into intergalactic space

Use the Great Square of Pegasus to locate Fomalhaut. Then you're on your way to looking out our galaxy's south window into intergalactic space.

Bruce McClure

EarthSky Voices

November 9, 2025

The year’s earliest solar noon is on November 3

November 3 brings the year's earliest solar noon - that is, earliest midday - by nature's clock. It's a harbinger of the Northern Hemisphere's earliest sunset.

Bruce McClure

November 2, 2025

Halloween is an astronomy holiday. It’s a cross-quarter day

A cross-quarter day falls between an equinox and a solstice. Halloween is the year's 4th cross-quarter day and the spookiest of them all.

Bruce McClure

October 31, 2025

Around now, watch for Taurid fireballs

Maybe you've been watching for them already. A nominal peak of the shower is November 4 and 5, and the North and South Taurids are overlapping now.

Bruce McClure

October 15, 2025

Double Cluster in Perseus on October evenings

The Double Cluster in Perseus is a breathtaking pair of open star clusters, easy to see in October. Here's how to find it in your sky.

Bruce McClure

October 9, 2025

Gamma Cephei, aka Errai, a future North Star

Gamma Cephei - or Errai - is a binary star system that will one day be Earth’s North Star. It's home to the 1st exoplanet ever discovered.

Bruce McClure

Deborah Byrd

September 28, 2025

See the Trifid nebula aka Messier 20 tonight

If you have a dark sky, you can spot the Trifid nebula as a fuzzy patch within the Milky Way. And binoculars or a telescope will reveal more details.

Bruce McClure

EarthSky Voices

August 28, 2025

Zodiacal light: Start watching for it now

The zodiacal light is an eerie light extending up from the horizon before dawn around the Northern Hemisphere autumn. Southern Hemisphere? Look after sunset!

Deborah Byrd

Bruce McClure

August 22, 2025

Capricornus the Sea-goat has an arrowhead shape

Capricornus the Sea-goat is can be spotted in September and October, and is formed in the shape of an arrowhead. One Messier object, M30, is found within.

Bruce McClure

Kelly Kizer Whitt

August 21, 2025

The Great Rift is a dark swath in the Milky Way

The Great Rift or Dark Rift is a darkened swath of the Milky Way where new stars are forming. It's best seen from a rural location away from light pollution.

Bruce McClure

August 20, 2025

Bruce McClure

Bruce McClure served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages from 2004 to 2021, when he opted for a much-deserved retirement. You can still find many articles at EarthSky.org that were originally written by Bruce, and which the EarthSky editors still update regularly. Bruce is 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. Bruce he loves cycles of all kinds! You can still find many articles at EarthSky with Bruce's name on them, exploring the various, intricate cycles of the sky.