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Posts by
Deborah Byrd
Meteors over Montana
The Orionid meteor shower peaked last weekend, and many of the meteors were drowned in bright moonlight. But John Ashley managed to catch a few dozen in the narrow window between moonset and dawn Sunday morning.
October 24, 2018
EVE and Wall-E have Mars in their sights
The MarCOs - 2 briefcase-sized CubeSats accompanying NASA’s InSight spacecraft - are chasing Mars as it orbits the sun. Along the way, they've captured the 1st-ever CubeSat image of Mars!
October 23, 2018
Venus is going, going …
Venus will sweep between us and the sun (inferior conjunction) on October 26. Check out this photo - taken just 5 days before inferior conjunction - of Venus as a slim crescent world.
October 23, 2018
Waxing toward full Hunter’s Moon
Tonight - October 23, 2018 - the moon is waxing for all of us, around the globe. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, it's waxing toward a full Hunter's Moon and the second full moon of autumn. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, the moon is waxing toward your second full moon of springtime.
October 23, 2018
Our Milky Way almost collided with another galaxy
Astronomers found a snail-shaped substructure of stars in our larger Milky Way galaxy. It indicates the Milky Way is still enduring the effects of a near-collision that set millions of stars moving like ripples on a pond.
October 22, 2018
Big Dipper over Grand Gulch, Utah
The Big Dipper over a pool in the Utah desert, caught from a canyon littered with the rock art and ruins of Ancestral Puebloans.
October 22, 2018
Light pillars over Whitefish Bay
When there are ice crystals in the air around you, you might see light pillars. They're the result of light reflecting from the crystals suspended in the air or clouds.
October 21, 2018
The Draconids did have an outburst
Experts had said "no outburst" predicted for the 2018 Draconids. But, since the parent comet had recently passed near, observers knew to watch anyway.
October 16, 2018
When white dwarf meets brown dwarf, pow!
In 1670, skywatchers saw a nova, a star that appeared where none had been before. Today's astronomers have learned it was a collision between an aging white dwarf star, and less massive brown dwarf.
October 14, 2018
Whale songs evolve, but calls persist for generations
Humpback whales have ever-changing and evolving songs. But a new study of whales in Alaska shows their repertoire of calls - including growls, trumpets, and ahoogas - remains more stable. Why?
October 9, 2018
