Astro Bob's Astronomy for Everyone

Astro Bob's Astronomy for Everyone For the latest on "what's up in the night sky" please go to duluthnewstribune.com/lifestyle/astro-bob

Meet the Milky Way's big sister, the Andromeda Galaxy We get 2 1/2 hours of twilight here in the Duluth area during earl...
06/22/2026

Meet the Milky Way's big sister, the Andromeda Galaxy

We get 2 1/2 hours of twilight here in the Duluth area during early summer, so it's not unusual to wait until after 11:30 p.m. for a dark sky. During twilight there's much to see — the changing colors / fading light, noctilucent clouds and occasional aurora. Much of this happens in the northern sky, where Cassiopeia's W shines reliably every clear night.

Since my camera often faces north these nights, I've noticed that the Andromeda Galaxy routinely appears in my images. By midnight it's high enough to see faintly with the naked eye and easily in binoculars.

While not the closest galaxy to us — that honor goes to the several obscure Milky Way satellite galaxies — Andromeda is the brightest, closest external galaxy to the our own. At the mind-numbing distance of 2.5 million light-years, it's amazing to even see such a thing across so vast a space.

Like the Milky Way, Andromeda is a spiral galaxy jam-packed with stars — 1 TRILLION of them — nebulae, star clusters and undoubtedly trillions of planets. And it's twice as big as our home galaxy. Think of it as the Milky Way's big sister.

Although it's best viewed in fall when high in the sky, I wanted you to know that if you stay up late you can see it right now. I took the close-up photo with a Seestar S30Pro smart telescope a couple nights ago. Two of Andromeda's satellite galaxies are also visible. I used a telephoto for the wider view. The map shows how to use the "W" to find the galaxy.

Technicolor solsticeThe sky's dark and pretty much colorless at night, right? Not to the camera's eye. Unlike our eyes, ...
06/21/2026

Technicolor solstice

The sky's dark and pretty much colorless at night, right? Not to the camera's eye. Unlike our eyes, which gather tiny sips of light, time-exposures drink it in by the bucketful. Allowing light to accumulate reveals subtleties and colors our eyes barely or can't perceive.

Last night, June 20-21, I saw faint, slightly streaky aurora with my eyes, while the camera showed distinct, colorful rays. After moonset, swaths of natural airglow — mostly from oxygen emissions at auroral altitudes — were also visible across the northern sky. But the camera transformed the scene into psychodelia!

Sun's on a high — happy solstice!Summer begins at 3:24 a.m. Central Time Sunday morning, June 21, when the sun reaches i...
06/20/2026

Sun's on a high — happy solstice!

Summer begins at 3:24 a.m. Central Time Sunday morning, June 21, when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky for the year. It's been a l-o-n-g climb to the solstice since we started this journey on Dec. 21. We've now arrived at the longest day and shortest night of the year.

In Duluth, the sun will beam down from about 67° altitude or two-thirds of the way up from the southern horizon at solar noon (about 1 p.m. local daylight time). To find the sun's altitude at your location, subtract your latitude from 90° then add 23.5°. For example, in Miami (lat. 26°), the sun's height is 90 - 26 +23.5 = 87.5°. That's less than 3° from directly overhead. Attention men with bald spots.

Speaking of shiny things, this is my pic of Venus and the Beehive star cluster from June 18. I'd hoped to photograph the two last night but clouds nixed that.

Paired for lifeWe've talked about conjunctions being line-of-sight arrangements of the moon and planets. You'll find sim...
06/19/2026

Paired for life

We've talked about conjunctions being line-of-sight arrangements of the moon and planets. You'll find similar line-of-sight pairings among star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. One of the best examples sits along the Cepheus-Cygnus border. It involves a beautiful, multi-armed spiral galaxy, NGC 6946, located 25 million light-years away, and the rich, dense open cluster NGC 6939, at 5,000 light-years distance.

They're separated by only 2/3 of a degree and fit in the same field of view of most telescopes. Incredible when you realize that the galaxy is 5,000 times farther away.

Unlike planetary conjunctions, which are made and broken in a night, this cluster-and-galaxy pairing will probably last hundreds of thousands of years. I took this portrait of them June 18 with a Seestar S30Pro.

Faint auroral rays (right) and noctilucent clouds in late twilight around 11 p.m. Thursday night, June 18 from Duluth.
06/19/2026

Faint auroral rays (right) and noctilucent clouds in late twilight around 11 p.m. Thursday night, June 18 from Duluth.

Beauty and the bees-t on June 18 and 19 Venus, goddess of beauty and love, pulls up alongside the Beehive star cluster o...
06/18/2026

Beauty and the bees-t on June 18 and 19

Venus, goddess of beauty and love, pulls up alongside the Beehive star cluster on Thursday and Friday nights, June 18 and 19. The two will be only a degree apart on the 18th and 3/4° on Friday night.

Venus needs no optical aid, but to spy the cluster, use binoculars and observe in mid- to late twilight, when the sky is starting to get dark. The Beehive is a physical star cluster located in Cancer about 550 light-years from Earth. Its suns were born from the same cloud of gas and dust and hang together through mutual gravitational attraction.

Just-for-fun star patternsHave you ever made up your own night-sky asterisms? Groupings of stars that suggest a pattern?...
06/17/2026

Just-for-fun star patterns

Have you ever made up your own night-sky asterisms? Groupings of stars that suggest a pattern? The other night, while hunting aurorae, I was struck by three, almost-equally spaced pairs of stars strung across the bottom of the northern sky. Gemini's two brightest stars, Pollux and Castor, made one set. Auriga's Capella and Menkalinen made a second, and Mirfak and Gamma Persei a third.

To me they looked like a twirling baton, an impression reinforced by seeing the three reflected in the lake. When hunting for galaxies and nebulae with our telescopes, amateur astronomers often find their way by star-hopping. You start at a bright star and navigate to the object by creating quick and easy patterns like triangles, lines, diamonds and curls. I'll often talk quietly to myself as I go: "Orange star to diamond, drop down to bright pair, big jump east to tiny triangle, nebula just below the bird beak."

Do you have any favorite patterns you can't help but see in the night sky?

Watch the moon eat Venus for lunch Wednesday, June 17 This Wednesday a rare celestial event will take place. The crescen...
06/16/2026

Watch the moon eat Venus for lunch Wednesday, June 17

This Wednesday a rare celestial event will take place. The crescent moon will pass directly in front of Venus and cover it for an hour or so for observers across the contiguous 48 states and much of Canada. Here's the thing — it happens in broad daylight!

All the planets orbit within the plane of the solar system, give or take a few degrees. So does the moon, give or take a few degrees. That's why every month the moon passes close to the seven planets as it circles around the sky.

Rarely does moon pass directly in front of planet and COVER it. That event is called an occultation, and it's a thrill to see one.

For most of the U.S. the cover-up starts in the early- to mid-afternoon. First find the moon, which will be about 4 fists to the left of the sun high in the southern sky. If possible, watch from a place where you can hide the sun behind a building or tree. That way you won't be bothered by its glare.

Once you've spotted the pale-white crescent, point your binoculars at it and focus sharply. A hour or so before the occultation begins, Venus will be right next to the moon just to its lower left. The planet is tricky to see in daylight if you know exactly where to look. But having the moon so close will make it almost effortless. Once you spot it, notice how much brighter the planet looks compared to the moon. Venus is covered in clouds that reflect light much better than the ancient, battered, lunar surface. The photo (below) I took of the April 22, 2009 occultation shows the stark difference.

If possible, mount your binoculars on a tripod or use another means of support (I've used ladder rungs), so you can watch as the moon's invisible left edge gobbles up the planet. It will take about a half-minute for Venus to disappear. It will reappear minutes to more than an hour later, depending on your location, along the moon's bright edge.

For a coverage map and list of times when Venus disappears and reappears for many cities, go to http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bstar/0617venus.htm The times shown there are Universal Time (UT). Subtract 4 hours to convert to Eastern, 5 for Central, 6 for Mountain and 7 for Pacific. I hope you get to see it — the next Venus-moon occultation for the U.S. happens in 2029.

Crescent moon joins the fray Tuesday, June 16 You thought seeing Jupiter and Venus kiss was awesome. Tomorrow the thin l...
06/15/2026

Crescent moon joins the fray Tuesday, June 16

You thought seeing Jupiter and Venus kiss was awesome. Tomorrow the thin lunar crescent will join the lineup in the western sky at dusk. Starting at the top we'll see Venus, Jupiter, the moon and (with binoculars) Mercury. Earthlight dimly illuminating the moon's night hemisphere will kick the whole shebang up a notch.

Then on Weds, June 17, a thicker crescent moon will lead the gang. Both nights should make for excellent naked-eye viewing. June has been nothing but a gift for skywatchers whose only equipment are their eyes — and phone cameras!

More NLCs! I know I've been going on about noctilucent clouds, but it's shaping up to be an amazing season at least in n...
06/15/2026

More NLCs!

I know I've been going on about noctilucent clouds, but it's shaping up to be an amazing season at least in northern Minnesota.

This is from last night. The clouds were decidedly luminous and blue and appeared very low in the northwestern sky Sunday night, June 14. I took this photo at 11:15 p.m. more than 2 hours after sunset. The dark cirrus clouds are too low to catch the sun any longer, but the NLCs are more than 50 miles high. From their "top of the mountain" vantage point, the sun is still shining.

One more tip on observing them besides staying out late and making sure you can see as close to the horizon as possible. Bring binoculars. When the clouds are low it's hard to make out any details in them. Binoculars gather more light and magnify, so you can see more.

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