Hayden Planetarium Blog

Blog Post SKY REPORTER: June 2012 The transit of Venus, and other celestial highlights. June 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: May 2012 Celestial highlights for May 2012. May 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: July 2012 What's up in the night sky for July 2012? July 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: August 2012 Mars Curiosity rover lands on Mars this month. August 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: October 2012 The night sky for October 2012. October 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: September 2012 Celestial highlights for September 2012. August 31, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: November 2012 Celestial highlights for November 2012. November 1, 2012 Blog Post Leonid Meteors Active Early Tuesday Morning This is the time for the Leonids meteors, that middle-of-November, middle-of-the night celestial light show. November 16, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: January 2013 This month, the Moon finds itself between the Crab Nebula and the Hyades, a large star cluster in Taurus. January 1, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: April 2012 What's up in the sky for the month of April 2012. April 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: March 2012 Jupiter and Venus are in conjunction, while Mars reaches opposition. March 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: February 2012 February's celestial highlights for 2011. February 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: November 2011 Celestial highlights for November 2011. November 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: October 2011 What's up in the sky this month? October 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: June 2011 Celestial highlights for June 2011. June 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: May 2011 What's up in the night sky for May 2011. May 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: September 2011 Celestial highlights for September 2011 September 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: August 2011 What's up in the night sky for August 2011. August 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: July 2011 Celestial highlights for July 2011. July 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: April 2011 Celestial highlights for April 2011. April 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: January 2012 Celestial highlights for the new year. January 1, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: December 2011 What's up in the sky for December 2011. December 1, 2011 Blog Post 2012 Doomsday Deception Revealed Laura Venner, a science educator and NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, has devised a timely resource for parents and educators on... January 4, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: March 2011 Saturn and the Crab Nebula become more prominent in this month's night sky. March 1, 2011 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: February 2011 Celestial highlights for February 2011. February 1, 2011 Blog Post A "Gem" of a Meteor Shower is Coming One of the best meteor showers is just around the corner, scheduled to reach its peak during the early hours of Tuesday, Dec. 14:... December 7, 2010 Blog Post Here Come the Perseid Meteors! Clear skies over these next few nights and enough personal stamina to stay awake will afford a view of one of the flashiest meteor... August 10, 2010 Blog Post Superb Shuttle Launch Video Plus Commentary Have thirty years of Space Shuttle launches made us complacent? This montage of slow-motion launch footage, along with the accompanying... December 13, 2010 Blog Post Night of the Red Moon, 2010 For a few hours on the night of Dec. 20-21, the attention of tens of millions of people will be drawn skyward, where there will hang... December 15, 2010 Blog Post Early Earth's Force Field A collection of small, clear quartz crystals unearthed in South Africa has given researchers from the University of Rochester a new... March 19, 2010 Blog Post New VISTA Telescope Exposes Orion Nebula The VISTA telescope has captured stunning new images of the Orion Nebula. March 8, 2010 Blog Post In Hot Pursuit of Asteroids Scientists estimate that every few hundred thousand years an asteroid capable of causing global catastrophe careens dangerously close... August 6, 2010 Blog Post Shuttle Discovery to be a "Morning Star" on Monday Early next Monday morning (April 5) at 6:21:22 a.m. Eastern Time, the Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to be launched on mission... April 2, 2010 Blog Post New Solar Satellite Delivers First Images In April 2010, NASA released the first collection of images taken by its newest solar spacecraft, the Solar Dynamics Observatory... April 30, 2010 Blog Post Planck and Herschel: The Sky at Two Scales Planck and Herschel have begun returning vibrant new images of the Milky Way Galaxy. The satellite duo is scanning the sky at infrared... April 5, 2010 Blog Post Cosmic Collisions Fuel Black Holes Swift is a NASA satellite designed to spot gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the Universe. What kinds of dynamic... June 22, 2010 Blog Post New Evidence of Water on Asteroids What’s the difference between a comet and an asteroid? The distinction is hazy at best, thanks to the recent discovery of ice... May 18, 2010 Blog Post Shuttle Endeavour and Space Station Visible With the Space Shuttle Endeavour scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday evening, skywatchers across... February 16, 2010 Blog Post Hubble's Deepest Look at Space NASA’S Hubble Space Telescope has looked into deeper into the universe—and further back in time—than ever before.... February 10, 2010 Blog Post A "Gem" of a Meteor Shower If you missed out on last month's Leonid Meteor Shower, don’t fret. What potentially will be the best meteor display of the... December 10, 2009 Blog Post Once in a Blue Moon On New Year's Eve the Full Moon will rise shortly after sunset—doing just what full moons are supposed to do. In this case,... December 31, 2009 Blog Post Exoplanet Hunters Find a Chemical Clue European scientists recently used a telescope instrument called HARPS to measure the chemical content of 500 stars similar to the... December 18, 2009 Blog Post Here Come the Leonid Meteors! How and where to watch the Leonid meteor shower. November 11, 2009 Blog Post New Views of Kappa Crucis Cluster A new series of telescope images taken with conventional cameras, high-resolution ground telescopes, and the Hubble Space Telescope... November 23, 2009 Blog Post Farthest Explosion Gives Glimpse of Ancient Star On April 23, 2009, NASA’s Swift satellite captured a glimpse of the most distant astronomical object ever seen—the fading... November 12, 2009 Blog Post Search for Moon Water Intensifies Evidence is mounting of a widespread yet faint signature of water on Earth’s moon that is strongest near the poles. October 21, 2009 Blog Post Moons Meddle in Jupiter’s Aurora Like Earth, Jupiter has auroras that gleam at its poles but, unlike Earth, astronomers have noticed that Ganymede and Io each add... October 8, 2009 Blog Post Summer Warms Pluto’s Icy North NASA has recently released images from the Hubble Space Telescope that catch Pluto changing with the seasons. February 24, 2010 Blog Post WISE to Scan the Infrared Sky NASA's latest infrared space telescope—the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE—was launched on December 14,... January 21, 2010 Blog Post Virginia Rocket to Create an Artificial Cloud on Saturday Sky watchers in the Tri-State Area may get a look at an odd artificial cloud on Saturday night (Sep. 19) after it’s released... September 17, 2009 Blog Post Sunset on the World Trade Center At 110 stories, the World Trade Center twin towers were tall enough for the Sun to set nearly two minutes later for people on the... September 11, 2009 Blog Post Two For The Show This week the New York metro area will have three great opportunities to see the Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space... September 8, 2009 Blog Post Sunspots From Supercomputers For the first time, astronomers from developed a simulated sunspot to unlock the mysteries of the Sun. July 28, 2009 Blog Post Upcoming Rocket Launch Could Surprise East Coast Residents Should a rocket blast off on schedule early Tuesday evening, May 5, 2009, from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia,... May 2, 2009 Blog Post Modeling Galaxies in Space and Time To understand how the modern Universe came to be, astronomers turn to computer models, programs that follow the physical laws of... April 23, 2009 Blog Post New Map of Dusty Milky Way Astronomers have unveiled a brand-new atlas of the galactic plane of the Milky Way. July 28, 2009 Blog Post How to Spot the International Space Station (and other satellites) How to see passing satellites and the space station from your own backyard. July 1, 2009 Blog Post Saturn’s G Ring: Made by a Moon Recent images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft show a luminous dot speeding within the G ring, one of the planet’s faintest,... March 26, 2009 Blog Post Shuttle Launch Visible Along East Coast People in the eastern United States will get a great opportunity, weather permitting, to see the Space Shuttle Discovery launched... March 10, 2009 Blog Post 84 Years Ago, the Sun Blinked Out! In 1925, the southern portion of the Moon's umbral shadow passed over upper Manhattan, parts of Queens and all of the Bronx. January 24, 2009 Blog Post Stunning Supernova Goes 3D Astronomers have used data from HST and Spitzer to construct the 3-D evolution of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. January 13, 2009 Blog Post Carbon Dioxide Found on Extrasolar Planet NASA scientists have announced that they’ve detected carbon dioxide on a planet 63 light-years from Earth. The new find is... January 2, 2009 Blog Post Arp 194: A Galaxy Group in Flux For its 19th anniversary, the Hubble Space Telescope has shot the peculiar group of galaxies Arp 194. June 18, 2009 Blog Post Vaccine For the Mars Virus Nearly everyone I know receives annual e-mails about Mars from an anonymous source, but sent to them by friends who could not resist... August 1, 2009 Blog Post Scientists Track Remarkable Asteroid Crash For the first time, scientists have discovered meteorites from a previously tracked asteroid in space after fragments landed in the... April 6, 2009 Blog Post Looking a Galaxy in the Eye The telescope technique of adaptive optics is rapidly advancing, allowing unprecedented ground-based views of distant galaxies. Astronomers... February 11, 2009 Blog Post Ancient Upheaval in Andromeda Galaxy Although neighboring Andromeda Galaxy may look tranquil, scientists are realizing the extent of its tumultuous history. September 22, 2009 Blog Post Space Shuttle Launch Visible Along U.S. East Coast The Shuttle flight (STS-126) will be the 27th to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station (ISS) and the glow of its... November 11, 2008 Blog Post Playing with Galaxies Explore the 2MASS Galaxy Catalog in Digital Universe. November 11, 2008 Blog Post Pole Vaulting to a Solar Eclipse Joe Rao, longtime Hayden Associate, files a dispatch from his latest eclipse tour. August 3, 2008 Blog Post Scientists Spy Galactic “Traffic Jam" Astronomers have spotted a rare, complex cosmic collision of four galaxy clusters. A spectacular composite image from NASA's Chandra... May 6, 2009 Blog Post Martian Rocks Make Geological Clocks The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken striking images of periodically deposited sedimentary layers, suggesting that random floods... December 15, 2008 Blog Post First Look at Faraway Worlds At long last, two teams of scientists have directly glimpsed the feeble light of planets orbiting distant stars through the lenses... November 26, 2008 Blog Post Wait Just a Second . . . Wait a second. The start of next year will be delayed by circumstances beyond everyone's control. Time will stand still for one second... December 23, 2008 Blog Post Look... Up in the sky... It's the International Space Station See the International Space Station pass over the New York City metropolitan area on November 22, 2008. November 19, 2008 Blog Post New Mission to the Moon In June, NASA is sending two satellites, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite... June 18, 2009 Blog Post Dwarf Galaxies: More Star Power The Hubble Space Telescope discovers something new about star formation in dwarf galaxies. June 18, 2009 Blog Post Cassini Reveals an Earthlike Titan As the Cassini spacecraft orbits the Saturn system, it is showing astronomers that Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has many weather... August 25, 2009 Blog Post Jupiter Impact Makes Its Mark Late last month, an amateur astronomer in Australia discovered a new impact "scar" on Jupiter left by a comet or asteroid. August 11, 2009 Blog Post How Fast Do Stars Form? Museum scientists use the rotation rate of a galaxy's spiral arms to discover the timescale for star formation. August 19, 2008 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Record Setting Asteroid Encounter Highlights for February 2013, including information about the 2012 DA14 asteroid encounter. February 1, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: December 2012 The Curiosity rover begins digging on Mars, and other celestial highlights. December 1, 2012 Blog Post Geminid Meteors Arrive Thursday Night The annual Geminid meteor shower is coming. Learn where to look and how to watch. December 6, 2012 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: The (not-so lonely) Star of Autumn   October 11, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Now You See It, Now You Don’t This month, comet ISON reaches its closest approach. November 1, 2013 Blog Post Comet ISON Visits Later This Year Anticipation is building over Comet ISON's visit later this year. At closest approach, it may be one of the brightest comets in decades. February 7, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Comet PanSTARRS Visits Comet PanSTARRS is the celestial event of March 2013. March 1, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Gaia’s Eyes are Opening Gaia will revolutionize our view of the solar neighborhood and the Milky Way, and it's about to begin observations. February 12, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Cosmic Events COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey returns in March, along with a stellar occultation. March 7, 2014 Blog Post The End of Comet ISON? See what becomes of comet ISON as it makes its closest approach next week. November 21, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Rising Stars What's up in January? And, The Chinese have landed on the Moon. January 10, 2014 Blog Post Center Stage for a Comet This month's sky report, with news about Comet ISON. August 1, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Harvest Moon   September 15, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: The Search for Habitable Planets The Kepler Mission discovered a new earth-like extrasolar planet. April 24, 2013 Blog Post Observing in NYC Sky watching in NYC—where to find a telescope to view the Sun, Moon, and planets. April 24, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Season of the Sun   June 13, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: High Summer At 11 am Friday July 5 Earth reached the aphelion point of its orbit, when our planet was 94,508,958 miles from the Sun. It’s... July 5, 2013 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Saturn Appears in the Evening Saturn makes its way into the evening sky this month. May 1, 2013 Blog Post Betelgeuse Is Shrinking The famous star in the Orion constellation has reduced in size 15 percent over the past 15 years, according to observations from... June 29, 2009 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Goldilocks and the Swan A new extrasolar planet in the habitable zone has been discovered by the Kepler mission. May 13, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: On to Arcturus Saturn and Mars are prominent in the evening sky, along with the giant star Arcturus. June 12, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Big and Bright Jupiter Jupiter is prominent in the night sky, along with Venus and Mercury right after sunset. January 17, 2015 Blog Post Four Super-Duper Moons this Month? What does it mean to be a super moon? We will see four of them this month. August 8, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Winter Wondersky The great Orion Nebula comes into view in the crisp, winter sky. December 10, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Telescopes Great and Small Upcoming colossal telescopes will offer glimpses into the unknown, but you also can find a telescope this summer to see what's up... July 15, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Comet Bull’s-eye This month the Rosetta mission will land on a comet! Read about the mission and see what's up this month. November 11, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Mars Shines Brightly While the Moon Winks Mars brightens while the Moon is eclipsed on April 15th. April 9, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Seeking Dark Skies Learn where to find the darkest skies near you to observe the September sky. September 12, 2014 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Winter Rendezvous Venus and Jupiter gain prominence, while NASA's Dawn heads for the dwarf planet Ceres. February 19, 2015 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Planetary Dances Check out Venus, Mars, and Jupiter this month, which are all prominently displayed in the evening sky. March 20, 2015 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: April Skies Spot satellites and planets in this month's sky. April 14, 2015 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Messages Well Received We say goodbye to Mercury Messenger, and May is a great month to see the planets in the evening. May 13, 2015 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: June’s Planet Spectacular A magnificent show is evolving in our western evening sky as Venus and Jupiter consummate a springtime get-together. June 9, 2015 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Shine on Harvest Moon This month's Harvest Moon will not only be "super," it will also pass through our shadow for a lunar eclipse. September 6, 2015 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Mars Fever! Find out about the recently discovered water flows on Mars. October 6, 2015 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Passing Pluto This month, after almost 10 years of travel, New Horizons makes its historic encounter with Pluto. June 29, 2015 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Looking Up and Ahead August's big event is the Perseid meteor shower. July 31, 2015 Blog Post Orion and Company at Center Stage Orion is visible once again. Here's your guide to the region. January 11, 2016 Blog Post Eyes on the Great Nebula February is the right time to observe the Great Nebula in Orion, the nearest stellar nursery in the neighborhood. February 25, 2016 Blog Post Exploring Mars Mars is on full view this month, here's how Curiosity sees there red planet. August 1, 2016 Blog Post Angles of Sun and Moon September brings the beginning of autumn, and the harvest moon. September 15, 2016 Blog Post The Strange Case of Tabby’s Star: An Ongoing Story? Kepler recently discovered a star with odd light signatures and astronomers endeavor to understand their origin—is it a comet... December 3, 2015 Blog Post Planets on Our Minds Jupiter is prominent in the sky right now, but there's other planetary news upcoming too. April 13, 2016 Blog Post Mars and the Transit of Mercury Mars appears brilliantly in the sky, in opposition to the Sun. And, mercury transits the Sun this month. May 6, 2016 Blog Post SKY REPORTER: Two October Eclipses A total lunar and a partial solar eclipse will be widely visible across North America in October. However each event is too near... October 6, 2014 Blog Post Target Jupiter As Juno reaches Jupiter, the largest planet is prominent in July's evening sky. June 10, 2016 Blog Post Thanksgiving Sky Reunion This Thanksgiving, enjoy the splendors of the great constellation of Orion. November 21, 2016 Blog Post Visions of Venus February is a great opportunity to spot Venus after sunset. February 3, 2017 Blog Post Sky Smorgasbord On March 4, the Moon "eclipses" Aldebaran, a bright star in the night sky. And, a new planetary system recently discovered may be... March 3, 2017 Blog Post Eyes on a Mysterious Star Tabby's Star, discovered by the Kepler Mission, is the latest object to confound scientists, who continue to search for understanding. May 15, 2017 Blog Post Skylight: How TRAPPIST-1’s Earth’s-sized Planets Compare to our Solar System TRAPPIST-1’s earth-sized planets are much closer together than the planets of our solar system. See how the scale of this... June 23, 2017 Blog Post Twilight Scenes Jupiter is prominent in the night sky this month along with bright stars of the summer triangle. June 21, 2017 Blog Post Skylight: Tracking the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse See how the Great American Eclipse on August 21, 2017, appears from various vantage points on Earth, and watch it from space. August 14, 2017 Blog Post Skylight: Saturn Shows Off Its Rings Saturn’s rings are captivating from any vantage point, but more so when tilted fully towards or away from Earth, as there are... October 19, 2017   The Winter Sun The winter solstice is upon us, after which Earth marks its closest approach to the Sun. December 20, 2016 Blog Post Moon, Mars, and Venus on Parade Catch the Moon, Venus, and Mars in the evening sky this week. January 27, 2017 Blog Post Perspectives on the Universe When we look out into the universe, we look back in time. April 7, 2017 Blog Post Skylight: More Than Meets the Eye The sky is awash in light, most of which we cannot sense with our eyes. What do we see when we use telescopes to peer into the invisible? December 20, 2017 Blog Post Skylight: How Does Our Solar System Move Around the Milky Way? The planets orbit the sun in a fairly flat plane. How does this solar system move around the Milky Way Galaxy? May 20, 2018 Blog Post Skylight: The Big Dipper Through Time Stars aren’t still—they move through space. So why do today’s constellations closely resemble those depicted by... July 28, 2017 Blog Post Skylight: Mars's Closest Approach In 15 Years This year, Earth and Mars will be closer than they’ve been since 2003. Why are the planets especially close this year, and... July 27, 2018 Blog Post Skylight: Looking Back in Time at the Speed of Light Light takes time to travel from stars and distant galaxies to observers here on Earth. How much have the stars changed since first... December 10, 2018 Blog Post Skylight: Why Does Earth Have Seasons? The amount of daylight we experience varies from place to place. Find out why Earth’s tilt is the reason we have seasons. May 11, 2019 Blog Post Skylight: Apollo Mission Landings and Lunar Phases Find out how the lunar phases helped Apollo astronauts to land on the Moon, and what they saw when they looked back at Earth. July 19, 2019 Blog Post Introducing the New Hayden Blog Welcome to the new Hayden Planetarium blog. July 22, 2008