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planets

  • Strange Universe With Bob Berman
    It’ll soon be Valentine’s Day, so what makes a great romantic gift? A book of poetry? A candlelight dinner? Excellent choices — but as a nightcap, there's nothing like a moonlight or starlit stroll. So if it's a very late date or if you and your beloved wake up just as morning twilight begins and gaze out an east facing window, the Morning Star will be totally, absolutely riveting, although very low. And look at that little orange star next to it — that’s Mars, as if the male and female aspects of the heavens are dancing.
  • Strange Universe With Bob Berman
    According to the U.N., most of us live in cites rather than rural regions. The switchover arrived in 2007. Which brings up the rural night’s main illumination – the Moon. We now know that lunar brightness doubles 2.5 days before Full Moon, which is a big deal if you need a little extra light to complete outdoor rural work. After all, a Half Moon is only a tenth as bright as a Full Moon, not enough to be fully useful.
  • Strange Universe With Bob Berman
    Saturn wins the Miss Universe contest. For anyone who's ever seen it through a telescope, there are hardly any runners-up. Saturn’s just a knockout, and even 60 power is plenty to show it well. Tune in for the best time to see the planet in action.
  • Strange Universe With Bob Berman
    Orion and its famous belt points down to the brightest star, Sirius. Being the most brilliant object in the Big Dog constellation it’s naturally called the Dog Star, and by amazing coincidence it hovers at its highest, perfectly due south, at exactly midnight on each New Year’s Eve. Hear how to catch the two brightest stars in the sky.
  • Strange Universe With Bob Berman
    All this week we’re viewing crescent moons that grow fatter each evening. The crescent may be the Moon’s most fascinating phase.
  • Strange Universe With Bob Berman
    This is the time of year when the Milky Way splits the sky from north to south, and passes straight overhead. If you can get to the country next week, when the bright Moon will be gone, you'll see it in all its glory.
  • Strange Universe With Bob Berman
    This week we’ll learn about Venus’ ferocious winds, just how slow the planet spins, and how the carbon dioxide bubbling planet could perfectly line up with the Sun.
  • Earth's sister planet has heated up the evening sky all year. No doubt you've seen that dazzling "star" after sunset: This has been its best showing since 2015. This eight year interval is no accident. So happens, Venus takes 224.8 days to orbit the Sun, so that 13 of its “years” (13 x 224.8) is the same number as eight Earth years (8 x 365.25). They both work out to 2,922 days. What this means is that after eight years, we on Earth see an exact duplicate of Venusian behavior.
  • Tune in to hear how the year’s finest conjunction is happening. You don’t need a telescope, a star chart, or even need to know a single star or constellation. Two of the brightest objects in the sky will move closer and closer together, a sight you don’t want to miss.
  • Comet ZTF has gotten a lot of media headlines, talking about the great green comet. But the word in astronomy circles is very different. So if you haven’t seen it, and I’m willing to bet that you haven’t, don’t feel bad. In truth, the comet only looks green in long exposure astrophotography. If you managed to find it in the night sky through binoculars, which is pretty hard even for backyard astronomers, it looks like a faint, gray, fuzzy ball with no tail. And a comet with no tail is hardly spectacular as a visual object.