Q-90.1's Backyard Astronomer

Whenever the crescent moon is thin, the nighttime side of the moon can look faintly illuminated. This effect is called Earthshine.

If you’ve heard reports of increased Aurora activity, there’s a good reason for it! The sun is approaching the peak of its 11-year sunspot cycle, and that can trigger solar storms that effect the Earth.

Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse form a giant triangle in the southern sky known as the Winter Triangle. And like Orion’s Belt, it can make for an excellent pointer and guidepost to the winter night sky.

All this week, the phase of the moon grows larger and brighter as it moves from First Quarter toward Full. It’s also a good time to look for the 'Man in the Moon'.

No matter the time of year, under a clear dark sky you can expect to see four or five little streaks of light each hour. Sometimes called shooting stars or falling stars, these are meteors that burn up in our atmosphere.

About two hours after sunset, the distinctive constellation of Orion the Hunter is almost due south. You can use the three stars in Orion's belt as a guidepost to the sky.

About two hours after sunset, look halfway up the eastern sky for two bright stars that are relatively close to one another. These are Pollux and Castor, the heads of Gemini the Twins.

After the Full Moon of January 25 the shape of the lunar disc will decrease into a thinner oval each night called the Waning Gibbous.

The orange star Aldebaran – the fiery eye of Taurus the Bull – is a great target for the January sky. It also lies within a beautiful star cluster called the Hyades.

Venus is the second planet from the sun, but during the week of January 8th you’ll have a rare opportunity to glimpse the elusive planet Mercury, hugging the eastern horizon at morning twilight.

Ushering in the new year is one of the best-known constellations of all, Orion the Hunter.

December's full moon, called the Cold Moon, falls on the 26th and will be placed among the season's brightest constellations as it says goodbye to 2023.

Many of our modern holiday traditions have their roots in the winter festivals of long ago, and that includes the dating of Christmas Day.

One of the best meteor showers of the year is already active and comes to a peak on the evenings of December 13 and 14.

About 90 minutes after sunset, look low in the south for the medium bright star, Fomalhaut. At only 25 light years away, astronomers have found a disk of material that could be new planets forming.

The holidays are one of the most popular times of year for buying a telescope. So, what's the best one to look for?

Right now is the best time to see the seventh planet from the sun. Uranus is at its closest approach to earth right now, which makes it barely visible as a faint star to the naked eye if you know exactly where to look under dark skies.

Look low the east after dark and you should see a pretty little cluster of stars. Its shape might remind you of a miniature little dipper, but it’s actually the famous Pleiades Star Cluster.

Also called the “sister spiral” to our own Milky Way Galaxy, Andromeda is the most distant object you can see in the entire night sky without a telescope.

Low in the east, soon after dark, you’ll find a star so bright that it looks like a fiery beacon in the sky. It’s actually the planet Jupiter, and it’s making its closest approach to Earth this week.