Solar System
July 2026 – Storm Season on Earth and in Space
July is storm season in Arizona. Dark clouds gather over the Bradshaw Mountains, lightning flashes across the desert, and astronomers reluctantly cover their telescopes as another monsoon shower rolls through. While thunderstorms…
June 2026 – Keeping An Eye On Jupiter
Mythology, moons & discovery In Roman mythology, Jupiter was king of the gods, ruler of the heavens, and notorious for his wandering eye. His wife Juno knew this all too well. Often…
May 2026 – A Fire in the Asteroid Belt
Discovering a world in the asteroid belt The dawn of the 19th century marked a boom in astronomical discovery. Telescope technology improved rapidly, revealing a new class of objects orbiting between Mars…
April 2026 – Earthshine: The Da Vinci Glow
Step outside on a clear evening and look for a thin crescent Moon hanging low in the twilight. If the sky is dark enough, you may notice something unexpected: the rest of…
February 2026 – Back to the Moon
Outside of space enthusiasts, Apollo 8 is an almost forgotten mission. On December 21, 1968, three astronauts launched aboard a Saturn V rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Just 68 hours later,…
November 2025 – Lunar Peculiarities
Imagine watching the formation of our Solar System some 4.5 billion years ago. From an omniscient view, dozens—perhaps hundreds—of planetoids are jockeying for position, carving out orbits around a newborn Sun. Smaller…
October 2025 – Lions and Comets and Bears, OH MY!
Nearly every evening, the Steward Observatory’s 60-inch Cassegrain reflector takes thousands of photos, the same as it has for almost two decades. From their perch atop Mount Lemmon at over 9,100 feet…
September 2025 – In the Shadow of Titan
It seems that discoveries across the Universe are announced almost daily. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, has been a workhorse in this effort, capturing and analyzing…
August 2025 – Early Risers
The early bird may get the worm, but the early astronomer gets the universe. August 2025 belongs to the early risers—when the Moon leads the dance and the planets shine their brightest…
July 2025 – Delta Aquariid Meteor Shower
As summer unfolds over Prescott, Arizona, July brings two celestial events that promise to captivate both seasoned astronomers and casual skywatchers alike: the New Moon on July 24 and the Delta Aquariid…