Posts by

Deborah Byrd

Yellowstone’s Roosevelt Arch with planets

Located in Gardiner, Montana, the Roosevelt Arch is at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The US Army at Fort Yellowstone oversaw its construction. Theodore Roosevelt laid down its cornerstone in 1903.

Deborah Byrd

February 9, 2019

Our Milky Way is warped

A team of astronomers has produced a 3D map of our galaxy, the 1st accurate one, they say. It reveals our galaxy's true shape as warped and twisted.

Deborah Byrd

February 5, 2019

See it! Moon and morning planet photos

A glorious sight on what for many was a very cold morning - late January and early February - 2019. The brightest planets Venus and Jupiter near the moon!

Deborah Byrd

February 2, 2019

Zodiacal light back in the west after sunset

It's back in the west after sunset, unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere. Then watch for it in the east before dawn!

Deborah Byrd

February 1, 2019

Polar vortex 2019 photos and videos

Here's a glimpse of what the bone-chilling conditions in the U.S. Midwest this week look like.

Eleanor Imster

Deborah Byrd

January 31, 2019

Light pillar, a moon pillar, moon dogs

For many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it's cold! Here's a predawn sky - from Alberta, Canada, earlier this week - at least partly created by cold.

Deborah Byrd

January 31, 2019

Small telescopes detect missing link in planet evolution

We know objects far from our sun - in the Kuiper Belt - that are tens to hundreds of miles across. This object is only a few miles across. Astronomers caught it with the aid of 2 small telescopes and a distant star.

Deborah Byrd

January 29, 2019

More globular star clusters found at Milky Way’s heart

We think of globular clusters as being scattered far from the galaxy's central regions, in the great spherical halo of our Milky Way. But astronomers are finding them much closer to the galactic center.

Deborah Byrd

January 27, 2019

ISS transit on eclipse night

Astrophotographers watch for transits of the International Space Station across the face of the sun or moon. This one happened on eclipse night, as seen from Texas.

Deborah Byrd

January 25, 2019

Lunar light pillar over Antarctica

We see a fair number of photos of light pillars - shafts of light extending from the sun or other bright light source - taken from northerly latitudes. This one is caused by the moon, and it's over Earth's South Pole.

Deborah Byrd

January 24, 2019

Deborah Byrd

Deborah Byrd (asteroid 3505 Byrd) helps edit EarthSky.org and is a frequent host of EarthSky videos. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named in her honor in 1990, a Public Service Award from the National Science Board in 2003, and the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 2020. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.