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Travel + Leisure
a day ago
- Lifestyle
- Travel + Leisure
7 Must-see Astro Events in the Night Sky You Won't Want to Miss This June
Celestial meetups abound in the night sky this month, from eye-popping planet pairings to a crossing of the moon and Mars. Even better: you can view many of June's best sky sights from a city or the suburbs. Of course, traveling to a dark-sky destination, such as a national park, will elevate your stargazing experience, especially during late June's meteor shower. And dark skies are especially important when northern lights are in the forecast, which could happen at any time, given we're still in the heart of solar maximum—the roughly 11-year peak in aurora activity. The lights put on an unexpected contiguous U.S. show in late May 2025, and those ribbons could dance again at any moment; here's our guide to catching them. Now, it's time for June's night-sky highlights. Here's what to look for while stargazing this month. Don't miss sunset on June 7—particularly the roughly half hour after the orange orb sinks, when Mercury and Jupiter will travel toward the horizon in tandem. You can admire the pair in the same field of view in binoculars or a backyard telescope from June 7 through the evening of June 9. (For safety, wait until the sun has fully set before using viewing aids to watch the planets.) June's full moon earned the 'strawberry' nickname for the month's proliferation of the bright red berries. According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, the name originated with Indigenous communities like the Algonquian, Ojibwe, Dakota, and Lakota tribes. It will reach its peak illumination at 3:44 p.m. ET; catch it rising above the southeast horizon after sunset. And despite the fruity label, this month's moon won't actually look pink. A mesmerizing view of strawberry moon in the dark night sky. Around 2 a.m. local time on June 19, the half-moon and vivid Saturn will tango together in the eastern sky. The duo will be close enough to share a view in your stargazing binoculars this morning. Scan down to spot Venus, which rises just after Saturn and the moon in the eastern sky. Friday, June 20, marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and the start of winter in the southern hemisphere. To celebrate the new season's kick-off, here are 23 summer vacation ideas for 2025—or, for powder chasers, a buzzy new hotel to bookmark for skiing in New Zealand this winter. Add another celestial meetup to your June stargazing bucket list with the close approach of Venus and the moon in the pre-dawn hours of June 22. This morning, the sliver of a moon will appear just above Venus along the eastern horizon. Saturn will glow in the sky to the right, and the sparkly Pleiades star cluster will be visible just to the pair's left. The June Bootid meteor shower is weak compared to the late-summer Perseids, but it has been known to produce unexpected flurries of 100 or more meteors per hour, according to You can try your luck with the Bootids during the peak overnight from June 26 to 27. The shower's radiant point, located in the constellation Bootes, will be visible high in the western sky after sunset and into the pre-dawn hours. Head out for sunset on June 29 to watch the crescent moon temporarily cover Mars. The objects appear to cross right as the sun sets, and they'll slowly separate from each other as they near the western horizon. Enjoy the show from sunset until around midnight local time, and keep an eye out for Mercury on the northwest horizon after sunset, too.
Forbes
5 days ago
- Climate
- Forbes
When And Where To See A Spectacular ‘Smiley Face' In The Sky Tonight
A delicate crescent moon will tonight shine below two bright stars to create the illusion of a 'smiley face.' Although the celestial sight will be a beautiful sight — and an easy one to find in the night sky — the observing window is short. It's an illusion created in the night sky when a crescent moon passes beneath two close stars. In this case, it's a 12%-lit waxing crescent moon — a young moon fresh from its new phase on Monday — now creeping away from the sun's glare and passing two bright stars, Castor and Pollux, in the constellation Gemini. About 45 minutes after sunset, where you are on Thursday, May 29, 2025, is when to head outside, just as a deep twilight takes hold. However, there isn't much time to waste, because, within about 90 minutes, the moon — the "mouth" of the "smiley face" — will sink below the horizon, followed soon after by the '"eyes" castor and Pollux. The action will take place in the north-western sky, as seen from North America. That's just above where the sun will have set about 45 minutes prior. The "smiley face" will sink as you observe it. Besides being the mouth of the "smiley face," a 12%-lit waxing crescent moon is a beautiful sight all on its own. Look away from its bright crescent to the darker side of the moon, and you'll see it subtly lit. That's 'Earthshine,' sunlight reflected onto the moon by Earth's ice caps, clouds and oceans. It's an ethereal sight that can be easily seen with the naked eye but is best viewed through binoculars. It's only visible when the crescent moon is particularly slender. Scientists believe that "Earthshine" is becoming dimmer due to the climate crisis. Pollux (the left-hand "eye") and Castor, the heads of the Gemini twins, are two of the brightest stars in the night sky. About 34 and 51 light-years from the Sun, Pollux is slightly brighter and more orange than Castor, which has a more yellow hue. Pollux is a giant star, while Castor is three stars orbiting each other. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Irish Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
‘Reach for the stars': Organisers of astrophotography competition want public to capture the magic of the heavens
Ireland's biggest astrophotography competition is now open for entries. This year, for the first time, under-18s can enter the smartphone category, 'Night Sky in your Hand', which is open for images taken only with a smartphone of an astronomical scene and without telescopes. Other categories are: 'Out of this World' – Planetary; 'Out of this World' – Deep Sky; 'Back on Earth' – Landscape; and 'Back on Earth' – Landmark. The Reach for the Stars photography competition is organised by the school of astronomy and astrophysics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). READ MORE Entrants can submit up to two images, taken in Ireland between April 26th last year and June 2nd this year, per category. The deadline for entries is 5pm on June 4th. Shortlisted entrants will be announced in late June. The public are also invited to vote for their favourite to win the people's choice category. The judging panel is made up of: Alan Betson, The Irish Times; Michael McCreary, president, Irish Astronomical Society; Professor Peter Gallagher, senior professor and head of astronomy and astrophysics at DIAS; and Dr Lisa McNamee, co-founder, Space Medicine Ireland. The winning photographers in the 'Out of this World' and 'Back on Earth' categories will have their images published on the DIAS and The Irish Times websites and receive passes to three sites of the Astronomical Observatories of Ireland, a €500 voucher for photography equipment and a digital subscription to The Irish Times. The winner of the public choice category, as voted for by the public, and the winner of the 'Night Sky in your Hand' category will each get a voucher worth €250 for photography equipment and passes to the three sites of the Astronomical Observatories of Ireland. The winning and highly commended images will also be included in an exhibition at DIAS later this year. All shortlisted images will be included in an online exhibition, for the public vote, on the competition website. DIAS's Reach for the Stars competition is being run in partnership with The Irish Times and is sponsored by MKC Communications and The Astronomical Observatories of Ireland. The Irish Astronomical Society are initiative supporters. More information, including the competition guidelines and entry form, is available at
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
From Leaping Leo to the Big Dipper: Here's how to see the bright stars of spring rising in the east this season
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The constellations march ever westward from month to month, with old ones disappearing into the sunset as new ones rise in the east. This is because the stars run like clockwork on a specific schedule. Thanks to the fact that our Earth rotates on its axis once every 23 hours and 56 minutes, a star — any star — rises and sets four minutes earlier every day than it did the day before. This motion means that any given array of constellations will appear in the same location of the sky two hours earlier each month. So, the celestial scene you witnessed by staying up until 11 p.m. in mid-April is already there at dusk in mid-May. At this time of year, as the last of the bright patterns of winter decline in the west, the milder stars of spring have ascended to dominate our southern and eastern skies. For those of us living in the cities, surrounded by smoke and haze and bright lights, it becomes easy to overlook the beauty of the night. For seldom do we travel out into the country, far from the lights of humanity to enjoy this grandeur. Our distant ancestors, however, had no such concerns; they could see the sky at night perfectly from wherever they were. Their imaginations were not weakened by pictures in newspapers and magazines, movies or television. The night sky provided their sole entertainment, and they weaved stories filled with imagination, using patterns of stars for illustration. These patterns — the constellations — are the legacy of their imagination; the constellations that we know have their origins in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, thanks to the ancient Greeks and Romans. These constellations (plus some modern ones) are now accepted everywhere in the West. But what about traditional cultures in the rest of the world? Interestingly, the night sky contains a number of star patterns so striking that almost every culture in the world has recognized them. Several of them occupy our current spring sky. Probably the most famous is positioned almost directly over our heads this week as darkness falls: the Big Dipper. Officially, the Dipper is not a full-fledged constellation, but an asterism — just a part of the constellation known as Ursa Major, the Great Bear. And indeed, Ursa Major is a big bear. Along with the seven stars that compose the Big Dipper, its surrounding stars sprawl across a whole quadrant of the sky. In area it's the third biggest constellation, behind Hydra the Water Snake and Virgo the Maiden. Interestingly, the ancient Greeks associated the seven stars of the Big Dipper with a bear long before they added the surrounding stars to complete the picture of a ferocious animal with a head and paws some two millennia ago. But what made the Greeks think of a bear? The Dipper's handle must be the bear's long tail, yet bears possess short, stubby tails. TOP TELESCOPE PICK: See the night sky up close with the Celestron NexStar 4SE, an ideal telescope for beginners wanting quality, reliable and quick views of celestial objects. For a more in-depth look at our Celestron NexStar 4SE review. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed that the bear was the only animal that could survive in the frigid north — indeed, our word "arctic" is derived from arctos, which is Greek for "bear." By this logic, only a bear could inhabit the northern sky. We can use the Big Dipper to find other familiar stars and constellations currently adorning our springtime sky. The two stars forming the outer end of the Dipper's bowl, are known as the "pointer" stars and currently point straight down toward Polaris, the North Star, which is due north. The aim isn't perfect but close enough. Polaris marks the end of the tail of Ursa Minor the Little Bear, or the handle of the Little Dipper, whose stars are quite faint, except the North Star and the two in the front of its bowl; these have been called the "Guardians" because they seem to march endlessly, like sentries circling the pole. At New York's Hayden Planetarium, we would ask our audiences to imagine that the bowl of the Dipper was filled with water. "Now, imagine if we poked a hole in the bottom of the bowl and let the water spill out. Who would get wet?" With our electric pointer, we'd then follow the imaginary flow of water down to a pattern of stars composed of a triangle and a backward question mark shape that's about 1½ fist-widths at arm's length tall. This is the "Sickle" that marks the head and mane of Leo the Lion. The Sickle is a landmark of the spring skies; it's composed of six stars, the brightest of these is Regulus, a blue-white first magnitude star, 79 light years away which marks the base of the Sickle. The pointer stars of the Big Dipper point in one direction to the North Star; in the other direction to the triangle that makes up the lion's hind quarters and tail. Going back to the Big Dipper, if we follow the curve of the Dipper's handle past its end star for about 30 degrees ("three fists"), you'll come to a brilliant star — in rank, the fourth brightest in the sky — which shines with a distinct orange hue known as Arcturus, in Boötes the Herdsman. The other stars of Boötes are much fainter, of third and fourth magnitude. Most of them form a kite-shaped figure extending close to the Dipper's handle, although my personal preference is to visualize Boötes as an ice cream cone. Arcturus (at a magnitude of -0.05), one of the few stars mentioned by name in the Bible, is a giant, about 25 times the diameter of our sun and 36.7 light years away. Boötes is chasing the Bears with a pair of Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), which makes a small constellation between Arcturus and the Dipper's bowl. If we continue to follow the arc of the Big Dipper's handle past Arcturus, we eventually will "speed to Spica," the brightest star of Virgo the Maiden. Spica is a blue-white first magnitude star 250 light-years away. The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the United States; it is interesting to note that the light from Spica that started on its journey toward Earth at the time that the Declaration of Independence was ratified in 1776, will finally arrive next year. More night sky: — Night sky for tonight: Visible planets, stars and more in this evening's sky — Night sky, May 2025: What you can see tonight [maps] — Best stargazing apps 2025: AR apps and virtual star maps to help you navigate the night sky Just to the right of Spica, the most striking star pattern in the spring skies next to Leo's Sickle is a little four-sided figure of fairly bright stars, resembling a triangle whose top has been removed by a slanting cut. Like most of the constellations it bears little resemblance to the object it is supposed to represent: Corvus the Crow. Just follow the direction of its slanting top toward the left (east) and you will soon comet to Spica. In the old allegorical star atlases, Virgo is holding a spike of wheat where Spica glows, evidently representing the harvest time which occurs in mid-October when the sun is passing that bright star. And apparently, Corvus is lying in wait to snatch the wheat from out of Virgo's hand! At least that's the story. At this time of the year, eleven first magnitude stars are in the sky simultaneously as the sky darkens. Brilliant Sirius, a winter luminary and the brightest of all the stars, is disappearing in the west-southwest, while Deneb, a star of the summer season, is just beginning to peek above the north-northeast horizon. And our spring evening sky is also augmented with two bright planets. Low in the west-northwest is brilliant Jupiter, which will remain in view for another few weeks before it vanishes into the bright evening twilight. And much higher in the southwest sky glows Mars. Currently located against the dim stars of Cancer, on June 17 — just a few days shy of the official end of spring — it will call attention to itself in the west after dusk by forming a striking "double star" with Regulus. The planet will be just a trifle dimmer than the star but their proximity intensifies the orange-yellow of Mars and the blue-white of Regulus. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope and other publications.
Forbes
11-05-2025
- Science
- Forbes
A New Star Will Soon Appear In The Sky — All About T Coronae Borealis
A drawing star map pointing T CrB in Corona Borealis with a red pencil Have you heard about the nova? Called T Coronae Borealis, also known as T CrB or the 'Blaze Star,' this very dim point of light in the eastern night sky after dark is set to dramatically brighten sometime in 2025. When it does, it will become visible to the naked eye for the first time since 1946 and for the last time until about 2105. A 'recurrent nova" — a star system that brightens briefly every 80 years or so — it's the only one of its kind that does so within the span of a human lifetime. However, unless you know what you're looking at and how to find it, you'll likely miss it. Here's everything you need to know n about T Coronae Borealis, in numbers: T Coronae Borealis is to stars — an expanding red giant star and a small, dense white dwarf star. As it expands, the former is spewing hydrogen onto the latter's surface. When the temperature of the white dwarf reaches around 18 million degrees Fahrenheit (about 10 million degrees Celsius), there's a thermonuclear explosion — and a new star in the sky for a few days. Crucially, the white dwarf is not destroyed, and the 80-year-long process begins again. That's how far away this event will take place. Although the star will seem to erupt in real-time, the explosion happened around 3,000 years ago. Traveling at light speed, it takes that long for T Coronae Borealis' light to reach us. It's the same for all stars — even the sun's light is eight minutes old. Everything you see has already happened — including the thermonuclear flash on T Coronae Borealis. That's how long it's been since the last eruption in 1946. Before that, it was 1866 — we have the records from previous generations of astronomers. Of course, the fact that it's 3,000 light-years distant means it's almost certainly undergone a further 37 thermonuclear explosions, the light of which is on its way to us. A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae ... More Borealis. T T Coronae Borealis lies just outside Corona Borealis, a small, crown-shaped arc of seven stars whose name translates to Northern Crown. It's a small and little-known yet beautiful constellation in the Northern Hemisphere. The exact location of T Coronae Borealis is just outside the curve of stars, close to faint Epsilon Coronae Borealis. Find it now so you'll notice the sudden change when it does "go nova." To find Corona Borealis, start with orangish Arcturus in the constellation Boötes and Vega in Lyra — two of the five brightest stars in the entire sky — and look in between for the constellation Corona Borealis. Look east about an hour after dark, and you'll see it as a crescent. When it does flash, T Coronae Borealis will leap from +10 magnitude — which is beyond human sight — to +2 magnitude. That's about the same brightness as Polaris, the North Star, the 48th brightest star in the night sky. T Coronae Borealis will be visible to the naked eye for a few nights. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
