Hooray! It’s meteor time! That’s right, the Draconid meteor shower starts in early October. Plus, they blend in with the popular Orionid meteor shower. And the Taurid meteor shower is ongoing now as well.| EarthSky
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Mandy Daniels captured this image on September 4, 2025, from the UK and wrote: “The waxing gibbous moon, showing 90% phase.” Thank you Mandy! See how to celebrate International Observe the Moon Night below.International Observe the Moon Night 2025| EarthSky
Exoplanets are worlds orbiting distant stars. Watch a video with an astronomer who studies them. Learn the history of our knowledge of exoplanets, and more. The post Exoplanets are worlds orbiting other stars first appeared on EarthSky.| Space | EarthSky
Have you ever wondered how many stars you can see in a dark sky?| EarthSky
The September equinox marks a moment of balance, when day and night are equal (nearly) across the globe. In 2025, the equinox occurs on September 22 at 18:19 UTC (1:19 p.m. CDT).That’s when the sun shines directly over Earth’s equator. This equinox brings spring to Earth’s Southern Hemisphere and autumn to the Northern Hemisphere. Join EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd as she explores the science behind the equinox, how Earth’s tilt shapes our seasons, and the signs of seasonal change all aro...| EarthSky
This is Timeanddate.com’s LIVE stream of the partial solar eclipse on September 21, 2025. It’s visible from New Zealand, where it will be early morning on September 22. Thank you, Timeanddate! The stream begins at 1 p.m. CDT on September 21. Watch in the player above or on YouTube.| EarthSky
Raúl Cortés – a co-author of EarthSky’s daily sun post – is the one on the top right in this photo. He lives in Mexico. But he and his family traveled to Corpus Christi, Texas, to place themselves in the path of the annular eclipse on October 14, 2023. Thank you, Raúl! Read tips below on how to safely watch a solar eclipse.You learned long ago never to look directly at the sun. Gazing sunward without eye protection can permanently damage your eyes. But there are a variety of ways yo...| EarthSky
The September equinox marks a moment of balance — when day and night are equal (nearly) across the globe. In 2025, the equinox occurs on September 22 at 18:19 UTC (1:19 p.m. CDT). That’s when the sun shines directly over Earth’s equator. This equinox brings spring to Earth’s Southern Hemisphere and autumn to the Northern Hemisphere. Join EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd as she explores the science behind the equinox, how Earth’s tilt shapes our seasons, and the signs of seasonal change all...| EarthSky
On September 20-21, 2025, Earth will fly between Saturn and the sun, bringing Saturn opposite the sun in our sky … to what astronomers call “opposition.” In opposition, Saturn rises at sunset and is visible all night. Its rings are at their widest and brightest for the year. Saturn at opposition is a stunning sight through any small telescope. Join EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd as she explores Saturn’s rings, moons, and celestial path, and learn how to spot this night sky giant during the...| EarthSky
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eric Jensen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, shared this “montage of the lunar eclipse” on March 14, 2025. Thanks, Eric!How to watch a total lunar eclipse| EarthSky
This weekend’s full moon is the Corn Moon … But many will also call it a full “blood moon.” That’s because a total eclipse of the moon is happening on September 7th or 8th, depending on your timezone. Join EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd for details.| EarthSky
You’ll find M20, the Trifid nebula, in a dark sky near the spout of the Teapot in Sagittarius. Notice the 3 westernmost (right-hand) stars of the Teapot spout, then get ready to star-hop! If you use binoculars, go about twice the spout’s distance upward until a bright hazy object glares at you in your binoculars. That’s the Lagoon nebula (Messier 8), which is visible to the unaided eye on a dark, moonless night. Once you locate the Lagoon nebula, look for the Trifid nebula as a hazy obj...| EarthSky
Many stargazers call it the finest globular cluster in the northern half of the heavens. It's M13, also known as the Great Cluster in Hercules. The post Meet M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules first appeared on EarthSky.| Clusters Nebulae Galaxies | EarthSky
The full Wolf Moon passed in front of red Mars for some observers last night. Here are some great images of the lunar occultation of Mars. The post Lunar occultation of Mars on January 13, 2025. Images here! first appeared on EarthSky.| Moon Phases | EarthSky
Maypole dancing at the village’s fair at Bishopstone, East Sussex, with the tower of St Andrew’s parish church in the background. Image via Kevin Gordon/ Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic).Looking up has never felt more important. Please donate to help EarthSky keep bringing the sky to your screen.| EarthSky
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
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Cecille Kennedy from Oregon shared this image on October 17, 2024, and wrote: “The Hunter’s Supermoon is the largest of four supermoons in 2024. The full moon’s effulgence shone through the thin fog cover. Its lower rim, the lower edge is deep crimson.” Thank you, Cecille! The 4th of 4 full supermoons in a row is the Super Beaver Moon on November 15, 2024.What are supermoons?| EarthSky
In December 2024, bright Venus continues ascending in the evening sky and will move through the constellations of Sagittarius, Capricornus and Aquarius. Venus will remain a brilliant evening star through March 2025. It’ll reach its greatest distance from the sunset in January 2025. It will shine at magnitude -4.4 by the end of month and be dazzling in the evening sky. Chart via EarthSky.In December 2024, Venus – Earth’s brightest planet – is shining in the western twilight after sunse...| EarthSky
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this close-up, off-center image of the globular cluster M5 in 2015. Image via HST/ NASA/ ESA/ APOD.| EarthSky
A hypothetical representation of a blue-colored moon. Blue-colored moons are extremely rare. They happen in a region that has experienced a major wildfire or a volcanic eruption. For example, people saw blue-colored moons after Krakatoa’s 1883 eruption and Mount St. Helens’ 1980 eruption. Will the August 19, 2024, full Blue supermoon look this color? No. It’ll be a Blue Moon in name only. Image via BlueHypercane761/ Wikimedia Commons (public domain).Next Blue Moon: August 19, 2024| EarthSky
Two spectacular star clusters glitter near the “stinger stars” – Shaula and Lesath – in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. Messier 6 and Messier 7 – or M6 and M7 – are open star clusters. Each cluster is a group of stars formed from the same interstellar cloud. The two clusters are visible on summer evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, or winter evenings in the Southern Hemisphere. They’re best viewed in a dark sky, and are a stunning sight through binoculars.| EarthSky
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | John Scarrott captured both the aurora and star trails from Jersey in the Channel Islands on August 12, 2024. John wrote: “This is from my back window at Beaumont, Jersey, Channel Islands. This location is at 49.14 degrees, close to France, so quite a powerful aurora to have moving lights far down.” Thank you, John!What are star trails?| EarthSky
Venus started passing behind the sun yesterday, June 3. SOHO’s LASCO C2 captured Venus about to pass behind the sun (or, in this case, behind the spacecraft imagery equipment’s sun-occulter). The occultation of Venus behind the sun – the “anti-transit” – started around 14 UTC (9 a.m. central) on June 3 as seen by SOHO’s LASCO 2 imager. Venus takes many hours to go to its deepest point behind the sun. It’ll be most deeply behind the sun today, June 4. Meanwhile, the Venus super...| EarthSky
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jose Zarcos Palma in Mina São Domingos, Mertola, Portugal, shared this image of the asterism known as the Winter Circle or Hexagon on December 26, 2022. Jose wrote: “I planned this composition to catch the great winter circle in an early stage of its ascension just behind the abandoned mining ruins of Achada do Gamo. We can clearly see Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major the Greater Dog near the chimney on the right side, just below Orion the Hun...| EarthSky
We counted down for months, in anticipation. And the total solar eclipse finally arrived on April 8, 2024. EarthSky hosted a livestream of the big event in cooperation with our friends at Timeanddate.com. So if you couldn’t make it to the line of totality – or were clouded out – watch here. | EarthSky
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Cecille Kennedy from Oregon shared this image on October 17, 2024, and wrote: “The Hunter’s Supermoon is the largest of four supermoons in 2024. The full moon’s effulgence shone through the thin fog cover. Its lower rim, the lower edge is deep crimson.” Thank you, Cecille!What’s a supermoon?| 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
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Vedant Pandey of India submitted this composite image of Mars racing toward its January 2025 opposition. Vedant wrote: “I used my 5-inch Maksutov telescope and smartphone camera to capture Mars over a period of 10 months.” Thank you, Vedant!| EarthSky
We are in our yearly meteor draught, the next major meteor shower is the Lyrids in Apri.| EarthSky
