Copyright: Barden Ridge Observatory rth’s orbit around the Sun is not a circle, it’s an ellipse. The point along its elliptical orbit where our fair planet is closest to the Sun is called perihelion. This year perihelion is today, January 4, at 13:28 UTC, with the Earth about 147 million kilometers from the Sun. For […]
Copyright: Josh Dury clipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can nearly align. Then the full and new phases of the Moon, separated by just over 14 days, create a lunar and a solar eclipse. But only rarely is the […]
Copyright: Betul Turksoy Recorded during 2024, this year-spanning series of images reveals a pattern in the seasonal drift of the Sun’s daily motion through planet Earth’s sky. Known to some as an analemma, the figure-eight curve was captured in exposures taken only at 1pm local time on clear days from Kayseri, Turkiye. Of course the […]
Copyright: Telescope Live, Heaven’s Mirror Observatory; Processing: Chris Cantrell The closest star system to the Sun is the Alpha Centauri system. Of the three stars in the system, the dimmest — called Proxima Centauri — is actually the nearest star. The bright stars Alpha Centauri A and B form a close binary as they are […]
