Venus passed between us and the sun on March 23. At that time, it moved from the evening sky to the morning sky. Now Venus is shining very brightly in the east before sunrise every morning. It’ll reach greatest brilliancy on April 27, 2025, lying not far from 2 faint-and-hard-to-see planets Saturn and Mercury. Over the coming weeks, Venus will also be climbing farther from the eastern horizon before sunrise. It’ll reach its greatest distance from the sun on May 31-June 1, 2025. Chart via ...| EarthSky
Meteors in annual showers have a radiant point, a point in the sky from which all the meteors appear to radiate, marked by an O in this image from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).Meteor showers have a radiant point| EarthSky
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Radu Anghel in Motoseni, Romania, wrote: “A bright Perseid meteor and a Polaris star trail from August 13, 2023. I set up the camera pointing at Polaris, and after that I just enjoyed the celestial show with family and friends until the morning.” Beautiful, Radu! Thank you.Don’t wait for it to set| EarthSky
Satellite views of Earth on the solstices and equinoxes. From left to right, a June solstice, a September equinox, a December solstice and a March equinox. To understand these images, look at the poles. Notice that at the June solstice, the North Pole is in sunlight. At the December solstice, the South Pole is in sunlight. Read more about these images, which are via Robert Simmon (Sigma Space Corporation)/ NASA.June solstice in 2024| EarthSky
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Teoh at Heng Ee Observatory in Penang, Malaysia, captured this photo of Sirius A (center) and Sirius B (a white dwarf on the left) on January 26, 2021. He used 30 1-second exposures and stacked them together to make faint Sirius B appear. Thank you, Michael!The brightest star in our sky, Sirius, and its white dwarf companion, Sirius B, are currently farthest apart from our perspective. The two stars orbit each other with a period of about 50 years,...| EarthSky
At superior conjunction, Venus or Mercury are behind the sun from Earth. At inferior conjunction, Venus or Mercury are between the Earth and sun. At greatest elongation, Venus or Mercury are most to one side of the sun. Around greatest elongation, these inner planets, Mercury and Venus, are at their greatest distances from the sun on our sky’s dome. Chart via EarthSky.What is an elongation?| EarthSky
Argh! They’re at it again. Memes are circulating suggesting a planet alignment in early June 2025. True or not true? Night sky expert Deborah Byrd of EarthSky has the scoop – plus a REAL planet forecast for June – beginning at 12:15 p.m. CDT (17:15 UTC) on Monday, June 2. Join live, and we’ll answer your questions!| EarthSky
