July 19, 2023 Tomorrow evening at 8:45 pm, it is possible to find Venus just south of a thin waxing moon along the western horizon. Venus also begins its retrograde motion tomorrow and will appear to move back toward the Sun in our sky over the next several weeks. The western sky as it will… Continue reading
Tuxedo Jacket
Tuxedo Jacket, ca. 1970s Tomorrow is International Moon Day! What better way to celebrate than with this out-of-this-world Tuxedo Jacket?! With its stylish mix of gray and brown shades, this crushed velvet jacket is meant to resemble the surface of the Moon. It’s even nicknamed the “Apollo” jacket referring to the program that put man… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: July 18, 2023
July 18, 2023 If you look north tonight at 10 pm, you will see several famous groupings of stars. In the northwest is the Big Dipper. Due north is the Little Dipper. Low in the northeast is the “W” shape of Cassiopeia. All of these patterns are circumpolar, so we see them throughout the year.… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: July 17, 2023
July 17, 2023 New moon occurs today; this is an ideal time to travel to a dark site for star gazing. When the Moon is near its full phase, it appears brighter and washes out other nighttime objects. Near new moon is the best time to track down objects such as nebula and galaxies. The… Continue reading
Night Sky Update: July 15-23 , 2023
This is the Saint Louis Science Center’s NIGHT SKY UPDATE for the week of Saturday, July 15, 2023. Information updated weekly or as needed. Times given as local St. Louis time which is Central Daylight Time (CDT). For definitions of terminology used in the night sky update, click the highlighted text. If relying on times… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: July 16, 2023
July 16, 2023 On this date in 1969, Apollo 11 – with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., aboard – was launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, KSC, at 9:32 a.m. In just four days, Armstrong and Aldrin would become the first two people to set foot on the… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: July 15, 2023
July 15, 2023 In 1975 on this date, the Soviet Union launched Soyuz 19, their part of the joint US-Soviet flight known as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a flight meant to show the thawing political tensions between the two nations. On July 17, the two spacecraft docked, and for the next two days the crew… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: July 14, 2023
July 14, 2023 Tonight around 9:15 pm, it is possible to find both Venus and Mars low along the western horizon. The two planets appear on either side of Regulus, the brightest star in Leo the Lion. The western sky as it will appear tonight at 9:15 pm. Mars and Venus both appear in the… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: July 13, 2023
July 13, 2023 On this date in 1969, the Soviet Union launched the unmanned Luna 15 probe to the Moon in a last-ditch effort to return lunar soil to Earth before the United States. The attempt failed when it crashed into the moon on July 20 in an attempted landing. A mockup of the Luna… Continue reading
Astronomy Fact of the Day: July 12, 2023
July 12, 2023 Tomorrow morning around 4:30 am, it is possible to see a thin crescent moon just south of the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades – also known as M45 – is a group of approximately 1,000 stars located about 444 light-years away from Earth. The eastern sky as it will appear tomorrow morning… Continue reading