Celestial Dance and a Marathon

For thousands of years, stargazers looking up would notice some somewhat bright objects that would track slowly across the sky over weeks, months, and even years. The Greek translation of the planets is the “wanderers”. Other than the bright moon, the planets have always captivated those that would see and follow their slow dance.

Last Total Lunar Eclipse Until 2025

With memories of the last total lunar eclipse back in May still fresh in our minds, the Sun, Earth and Moon are once again lining up for a spectacular celestial show. In the early morning hours of November 8, we will once again have the chance to see magic in the sky with another total eclipse.

Total Lunar Eclipse

On the night of May 15/16, North America will witness a wonderful cosmic lineup. Occurring twice and sometimes three times each year, the sun, earth and moon geometrically align to produce either a solar or lunar eclipse. This does not happen each month as the moon orbits earth on a slight tilt of five degrees. Some months the full moon will be positioned above or below the cone of darkness projected by the earth’s shadow.

The Messier Marathon

Charles Messier (1730 – 1817) was one of the most prolific comet hunters of his time. Over his career, he used a 100 mm telescope and discovered 13 new comets, and co-discovered seven more. During many observing sessions, he would come across objects that were not comets such as nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies which he plotted on his star charts. With the collaboration of Pierre Mechain, the first version of the Messier catalogue contained only 45 entries. Other revisions saw more entries for a total of 110 objects we see today. From this list, 76 objects are bright enough (some challenging) to be seen in a pair of 10 X 50 binoculars from a dark sight on a moonless night.