The Backyard Astronomer
April 2025 – Clear Skies and Comet Tails
Astronomers love to get lucky. It’s a true art of patience, “waiting for the stars to align”, both metaphorically and physically speaking. Despite Arizona’s more than 300 days of Sun each year,…
The Backyard Astronomer – March 2025 – An “Edgy” Perspective
By Adam England, The Backyard Astronomer Stuck on Earth, we essentially get one viewpoint of the cosmos. From a nearly fixed location in the universe, it doesn’t seem like other objects move…
February 2025 – Planetary Alignments
“The planets are aligned for the first and last time in 396 billion years!” Well, not quite. Headlines like the above have become common click-bait in the last few weeks, as most…
January 2025 – The Pleiades: 7 Sisters From 6 Stars?
Most everyone on Earth can pick out a few basic star clusters, constellations, or asterisms, despite their respective language, culture, or even level of education. Orion’s belt is probably the most common…
December 2024 – Rockets, Satellites, and Acronyms
The media was abuzz in November with Congressional Hearings on UAPs. As governments do, this new acronym was created to better describe unknown objects as “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” as opposed to our…
November 2024 – The Great Square of Pegasus
The ancients clearly had two things going for them: wonderfully dark skies and fantastic imaginations. It can often be difficult for the modern backyard astronomer to pick out constellations and imagine a…
October 2024 – Wandering Stars, The Oort Cloud and Comets
In space, everything is in motion. From a spacecraft orbiting the Earth, to moons dancing around planets, or star systems on an epic voyage across our galaxy, nothing ever truly “stops” moving. …
Sept/Oct 2024 – Aliens!
Earth is a cool place. It has oceans, forests, and mountains galore. These different environments serve as host to millions of different types of animal and plant life, including us, humans. Earth…
September 2024 – The History of Saturn
September gives us prime viewing of two of our Solar System’s four ringed planets. Yes, you read that correctly; our Solar System has four planets with rings. You’re certainly familiar with Saturn,…
August 2024 – The Sky Is Falling!
Recently there have been a string of stories in the news regarding objects falling from space. Both the universe and humanity have contributed to these episodes, such as a recent fireball that…