Clear Skies

By Scott Levine Now that we’re past the winter solstice, we’ll start to see more daylight in our days, little by little, all the way until June’s summer solstice. We tend to think about winter as being the darkest time

By Scott Levine As the dog marched ahead, and the sun fell behind the hills across the river a night or two ago, I noticed for the first time that there were more leaves on the ground than on the

By Scott Levine People often say astronomy is like a time machine. The objects we love are so enormously far that we talk about them in terms of how long their light has traveled to us. When we say the

By Scott Levine I know what you’re going to say. “It’s summer. The skies are no good for watching the stars.” It’s true, just after the summer solstice, which is the shortest night of the year, true nighttime darkness doesn’t

by Scott Levine When we were together last month, we found Jupiter and Venus in the western dusk. Let’s head out again, but this time, look to the north’s skies. Maybe you’ve noticed most of the night’s familiar star patterns

By Scott Levine Last month, we looked to the south to find some of the brightest stars we can see. Sirius is the brightest star in our nights, but is it the brightest object? Let’s start in the west this

By Scott Levine The last time we were together was just after the winter solstice, the very start of winter. Time flies, the world still spins, and as if by magic, we’re about halfway through. There’s already more daylight in