April is a great time to start viewing the famous Australian constellation of the Southern Cross. You can track it over mid-autumn and winter evenings. When you head outside to stargaze, what you will notice first are two bright stars on a diagonal. The brighter of...
The Quadrantid meteor shower is generated from an asteroid called 2003 EH1, which orbits the Sun every 5.5 years. The meteor shower is sometimes called the Bootids, since their radiant (the point in the sky that the meteors appear to be coming from) is in the modern...
This is the month to view Jupiter! The image above is for about 8pm on 10th January. On this date, Jupiter is at what is called “opposition” and means its closest to Earth for the year. It also means that this is the ideal time to view Jupiter through...
Antares is a super giant red star and the 15th brightest star we see in the Southern Hemisphere’s night sky. In the early hours of 15th January, the Moon will pass in front of Antares and the view should be spectacular, especially when the action starts. When...
If you’ve dreamed of ticking multiple planets off your bucket list in the one night, here’s a great chance! The Sun will have only just set, but you should still be able to catch a glimpse of Venus and Mercury very low on the western horizon before they...
What a beautiful evening to be out under the stars! Bright Jupiter and the Moon will appear in the constellation of Gemini. It will be a delight to see. See if you can pick which of the bright stars under the Moon is Castor and which is Pollux. they are the brighter...
Supermoon | 5th December, 3rd January You’ve probably heard about 'supermoons', but what are they? In the strictest sense, supermoon isn't an astronomy term — the name was coined by an astrologer, and even today, some people are still convinced that the extra...
Alpha Centaurids Meteor Shower | 7th-8th February The Alpha Centaurids Meteor Shower gets its name from the apparent origin of the meteors, in this case, the constellation of Centaurus, which rises in the south eastern sky at this time of year. This means that the...
How Do I See the Total Lunar Eclipse? | 3rd March Eclipses are wonderful examples of the extraordinary motion of the objects within our Solar System. For natural cosmic phenomena, you don't get more remarkable than a total eclipse of the Moon! For a total lunar...
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