SkyCaramba

Venus and Jupiter will appear very close this week. Saturn relieves Mercury of morning duty.

Venus keeps climbing the evening sky. Cetus the sea monster sets. At the heart of Leo is a star shaped like an egg.

Venus has a super close conjunction with Neptune this week. This is a good time to look at them in a telescope. And a beast who appears in fables going back thousands of years somehow never got a constellation until somewhat recently. There's a unicorn on the celestial dome now.

Most of the planet watching is in the evening this week. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passes by Mars in our sky. Learn about how someone discovered that the sun emits radio waves and why that was kept a secret for a few years.

Saturn sinks toward sunset. Venus climbs toward Jupiter. And a comet crosses the sky.

The brightest star in Canis Minor (the little dog) has some things in common with the brightest star in Canis Major (the big dog). This week is the anniversary of Clyde Tombaugh taking the pictures that led to the discovery of Pluto.

Venus climbs Capricornus for a close call with Saturn. Jupiter's at perihelion. Mars moves eastward again. The moon occults Zubenelgenubi and has its closest perigee in five years. Mercury moves to the morning. Pluto's in conjunction with the sun.

Venus climbs Capricornus toward Saturn, Jupiter reigns above them, Mars turns around, Mercury is coming out of inferior conjunction and moving to the morning.

Two planets are at perihelion this week. Some people have a hard time believing it about one of them. Mercury says so long to the evening sky. Venus climbs toward Saturn. And the moon occults Mars again.

Mars at equinox. Martian clouds. The asteroid belt isn't nearly as dense as shown on TV. Planets don't twinkle--usually.

Mercury's at greatest elongation and near Venus. Jupiter and Saturn are easy evening sights. So is Mars. Earth's at solstice. These are the longest days of the year as measured by high noon to high noon.

Mercury and Venus trek across the northern part of Sagittarius as they barely make it into the evening sky. The moon goes farther north and south each month as it approaches a so-called major lunar standstill. The Geminid meteor shower peaks this week. The first astronomers who saw this shower described it as not very active, but things have changed.

Venus and Mercury step into the evening sky. The moon hides Mars for observers in North America and Europe.

The legend of the constellation Auriga tells of a man who succeeded in winning a royal bride after 18 suitors failed. They had to race the princess's father. If they lost, they lost big. The DART mission to nudge an asteroid into a different orbit worked. Why bother? The day may come when our lives depend on it.

Have you ever wanted to figure out where the planets would appear? I won't go into the details you'll need to do the math. But I'll tell you something to help you decide if you want to get started.

The Leonid meteor shower peak is coming. Actually, we could have multiple peaks as Earth passes through three old trails. A southerly bird on the celestial dome is a little hard for northern hemisphere observers to see, but you can try.

There's a total lunar eclipse this week. Start looking for Leonids. Earth is expected to pass through a few dense streams from hundreds of years ago. The designers of a monument to veterans in Arizona used astronomy to make something special happen at 11:11am on November 11.

Mars is turning around. Get ready for next week's total lunar eclipse. It's been 450 years since a supernova shone new light--literally and figuratively--on the true nature of stars.

An almost new moon hides an almost full Mercury this week. Learn how they can both be in the same part of the sky but in different phases. Capricornus is often recognized as a goat, but did you know it's half fish?

Parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia get a partial solar eclipse this month. If you're where you can see it, make sure you see it safely. Uranus will be at opposition next month. Learn how it got its name and some other ways to say it if you find it embarrassing.

Comet Halley is almost as far from us as it gets, but we're about to pass through its trail. Meet the Hyades, half-sisters of the Pleiades. Not much is said about the king going around the celestial north pole. The queen going around with him likes it that way. Learn about them and their daughter.

The brightest night star can be seen in the daytime at certain times of the year if you know exactly where to look. And observations are underway to determine if human technology can nudge an asteroid.

Your idea of how the moon affects the tides is probably incomplete. Here's the rest of the story.

One of the fainter constellations is named for a crustacean, even though two of its stars are donkeys and one of its star clusters is described as a beehive.

The most famous whirlwind in the solar system has been spinning for almost 200 years. Some think it's been around more than 360 years. You can see it for yourself in a telescope--if you look at the right time.