Posts by 

Larry Sessions

Spica, the bright beacon of Virgo, is 2 stars

Spica is a very close, scorching-hot pair of stars, whirling around one another. One of them may go supernova someday. It's the brightest star in Virgo.

Meet Regulus, the Lion’s Heart

The bright star Regulus in Leo the Lion is prominent in the evening sky in May. It looks like a single point of light, but is really four stars.

Coma Berenices: How Leo the Lion lost his tail

Coma Berenices is the constellation of Queen Berenice's Hair. It used to be the tail of Leo the Lion before it became its own constellation.
Brightest Stars

Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to our sun

Our closest stellar neighbors are the 3 stars that are the Alpha Centauri system. They lie just over 4 light-years away (25 trillion miles or 38 trillion km).

The Coma Berenices galaxy cluster, best in April and May

Myriads of galaxies, visible only to those with telescopes, shine among the stars of the constellation Coma Berenices. This is the distant Coma Berenices galaxy cluster.

Acrux is the brightest star in the Southern Cross

You have to go far south on Earth's globe to see the Southern Cross constellation. Bluish Acrux, aka Alpha Crucis, is its brightest star.

Notice the colors of the stars

Winter is the perfect time for noticing the colors of the stars. Start with Capella, then move on to Taurus and Orion. Check out some colorful stars tonight!

Capella is sometimes called the Goat Star

The 6th-brightest star in the night sky, Capella, in the Northern Hemisphere constellation Auriga the Charioteer, is also a point of the Winter Hexagon.

M41: A faint star cluster near bright Sirius

Sirius is easy to find. It's the sky's brightest star. If you have binoculars and a dark location, look near it for the star cluster M41.

Meet the Crab Nebula, remnant of an exploding star

The Crab Nebula, the scattered fragments of a supernova, or exploding star, was observed by earthly skywatchers in the year 1054.