A Penumbral Eclipse

A full moon on Thursday is really the second half of a solar eclipse that happened two weeks ago. Did you know it’s possible for there to be three eclipse seasons per year meaning a chance for six possible eclipses? Even though the penumbral eclipse this week has no color there is a cornucopia of bright objects in the night sky to see this week, including a star called Vega, part of the constellation Lyra. Just look up to the night sky around 9:30 pm and look directly overhead and you’ll see the second brightest star in the northern hemisphere. Next door is the constellation Hercules, you’ll need binoculars and a dark sky to see this constellation, which is 25,000 light years away and don’t miss the Andromeda galaxy, best seen very late at night in the summer with binoculars.If your a budding amateur astronomer check out the Galaxy Zoo where you can go online to identify galactic structure and have the opportunity to begin classifying galaxies.Listen:[audio: st20090803.mp3]