science
October 2026 – The October Dark Sky Challenge
How many can you find? October 10 brings us a New Moon, giving us one of the darkest evenings of the month. In central Yavapai County, sunset will be around 6:00 PM.…
September 2026 – The Mother of Hubble
In 1925, Nancy Grace Roman was born in Nashville, Tennessee. Her family moved frequently during her childhood, but it was her mother who first introduced her to the night sky. By the…
The (Star)Light of Independence
Arc To Arcturus, Spike To Spica: Tracing A Line Through The Stars And American History This Independence Day– A Backyard Astronomer Special The Big Dipper is one of those patterns that seems almost…
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…
Arizona’s Orbital Tow Truck: Giving a Space Telescope a Second Chance – A Backyard Astronomer Special
On Saturday, June 27, a Flagstaff, AZ Startup Will Attempt Something Never Before Done in Space: Rescue an Aging Scientific Observatory Most of us who spend time under the night sky have…
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,…
December 2025 – Occupy Space
On December 4th, 1998, Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off carrying some very special cargo: Unity, the first U.S.-built module of what would become the International Space Station. Two days later, NASA astronaut…
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…