It’s Been a Dog Day’s Night!

There’s a great International Space Station pass tonight northwest over to the west; 8:51 to 8:58, but it’ll blink out of sight before it gets to the horizon.

This week’s challenge: Take a pair of binoculars out to a dark sky location and sweep your view through the Milky Way at night. For early risers – look for Mars between 5:00am and 5:30am. Start with bright Capella, come down to the two bright winter stars Castor and pollux of Gemini (Yes, winter stars!), then almost straight down to the horizon.

Timing is everything when it comes to observing planets beyond our solar system, and astronomers were fortunate to find Kepler 453b amid a particularly crowded field.