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AstronomyThe People's Guide |
The Solar SystemAll things held captive |
The ConstellationsEverything else |
As the seasons change, so do the stars. The Spring sky sees the winter constellations of Orion and his family, including the brilliant star Sirius, exiting stage right, making way for the stars of Spring.
In the west, our brilliant evening star, the planet Jupiter is also leaving us, slowly sinking into the sunset, while the planet Venus gradually climbs up out of the sunset to take its place. After Jupiter sets you will find the Gemini twins standing arm in arm on the western horizon.
Overhead Leo, the majestic, sphinx-like lion, sporting the bright royal star Regulus, is centre stage, followed closely by Virgo, the virgin, containing both the brilliant blue-white star Spica, and the planet Saturn, a mandatory target for anyone with a backyard telescope. No-one should go through life without at least one firsthand glimpse of Saturn and its breathtaking rings.
In the southern sky Hydra, the sea snake, slithers its way across the sky from east to west, carrying the crow (Corvus), and the goblet (Crater) on its back.
And in the north, the celestial herdsman, Bootes, perpetually drives the great bear, Ursa Major before him, forever circling the north star, Polaris, through the night.
Solstice is Latin for the standing still of the Sun. It is the moment in Earth's orbit around the Sun when the north or south pole is leaning as far as it can towards the Sun. In one hemisphere it is the longest day of the year, and in the other hemisphere, it is the shortest day of the year. It is the moment when the Sun appears to stop its north/south migration in the sky and "stand still" - just for a moment - before it starts moving back in the opposite direction again. It happens twice a year, and traditionally marks the first day of winter and the first day of summer.
Halfway between the solstices, halfway between the longest and shortest days of the year, we reach a moment when days and nights are equal, all over the world, and we call these moments equinoxes, Latin for equal nights. In the northern hemisphere, the moment of this year's spring equinox occurred on March 20, and in the northern hemisphere the days will keep getting longer, and the nights shorter, until we reach the moment of the summer solstice at 5:04 AM, Greenwich Mean Time (11:04 PM, Central Time), June 21, 2013.
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Current Solar Flare (X-ray) activity :
Current Status of Solar Geomagnetic Field : |
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(Updated every ten minutes from the NOAA Space Environment Center through n3kl.org.) |
| Sunday, May 12 | Monday, May 13 | Tuesday, May 14 | Wednesday, May 15 | Thursday, May 16 | Friday, May 17 | Saturday, May 18 | |
| Sunrise | 6:28 am | 6:28 am | 6:27 am | 6:26 am | 6:26 am | 6:25 am | 6:25 am |
| Sunset | 8:05 pm | 8:05 pm | 8:06 pm | 8:07 pm | 8:07 pm | 8:08 pm | 8:08 pm |
| Moonrise | 8:27 am | 9:16 am | 10:07 am | 10:59 am | 11:52 am | 12:46 pm | 1:42 pm |
| Moonset | 10:30 pm | 11:15 pm | 11:57 pm | 12:35 am thur | 1:12 am fri | 1:47 am sat | 2:22 am sun |
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| Current Morning Star(s): | Arcturus (mag -0.04, low in the west). | Current Evening Star(s): | The planet Jupiter (mag -2.8, low in the west). |
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