4 YEARS UNTIL TOTALITY

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE? If you’re an American and you missed totality in 2017, you probably have not! No, it’s NOT a partial solar eclipse! No, it’s NOT a lunar eclipse! Once you see a total eclipse of the Sun, you’ll never forget! And you’ll have a chance four years from today! April 8, 2024. Continue reading

Get Ready for the ’20s!

Another decade has passed quickly and here we are on the threshold of yet another.  For those of us “of a certain age,” it’s kind of mind-blowing that the ’20s are here again, and that the decade of “the Roaring ’20s” is already a century gone by.  My grandmother told me stories of her days as a Flapper who danced… Continue reading

Saturn in Folklore

A Moral Reflection at the close of the last Year” Seventeen hundred and eighty is now forever past; Seventeen hundred eighty one will fly away as fast. But whether life’s uncertain scene shall hold an equal pace; Or whether Death shall come between, and end our mortal race; Or whether sickness, pain or health, our future lot shall be; Or… Continue reading

VERNAL EQUINOX

SPRING BEGINS at 4:58PM EDT on March 20. This is the moment of the vernal equinox, when the Sun is centered on the celestial equator, where traditionally day and night are balanced. Some know-it-all types like to mention “equilux” instead of “equinox.” This is some newfangled pedantry that presumes to correct the traditional definition of “12 equal hours of day… Continue reading

WINTER SOLSTICE

WINTER SOLSTICE: Winter begins for the northern hemisphere on December 21 at 22:23 UT (5:23 PM EST). This is the precise moment when the Sun reaches its most southerly declination of the year. For this reason, December 21 is the shortest day of the year. As seen from the northern hemisphere, the noon Sun is lowest in the sky of… Continue reading

MOON AND MARS

Mars has had a great year! After reaching blazing brilliance this summer, the Red Planet has still been a conspicuous object through the fall, hanging high at the meridian after sunset. The waxing crescent Moon will pass close to Mars in conjunction on Friday evening, December 14. This pair will be close the “circlet” asterism in Pisces and the “water… Continue reading

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