Weekly SkyWatcher's Forecast: June 25 - July 1, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! What a great week to enjoy lunar features! We'll celebrate many famous birthdays - including Charles Messier - and take on challenging double stars. If you're in the mood to just kick back in a lawn chair and enjoy, then check out the June Draconid meteor shower. (sssssh... it may have been responsible for the Tunguska Blast!) Still more? Then keep an eye on the western horizon, because Mercury is about to become a "guest star" in the Beehive Cluster! When ever you're ready, just meet me in the back yard...

NuSTAR Reveals The Universe In X-Rays

An Orbital Sciences technician completes final checks of NASA's NuSTAR inside the Orbital Sciences processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Over a century ago, Wilhelm Rontgen made an amazing discovery - X-rays. Never in his wildest dreams could he ever have imagined the many uses this form of electromagnetic radiation would have inspired. It has evolved from basic medical uses to the furthest reaches of outer space. Now an orbiting NASA telescope has been launched and it will provide us a look at the Universe that we've never seen before. This new telescope was developed with help from researchers from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford’s main campus and the views it will provide will be hard. Hard X-rays!

Weekly SkyWatcher's Forecast: June 18-24, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Let's begin the week with some awesome galactic studies and enjoy a meteor shower during Summer Solstice! We'll be studying variable stars, the planet Mars, Saturn, the Moon and Mercury, too! There's always a bit of astronomy history and some unusual things to learn about. When you're ready, just meet me in the back yard...

Weekly SkyWatcher's Forecast: June 11-17, 2012

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! You can breathe now... the Venus Transit is over and we're back to the mundane astronomical excitement like great globular clusters, an early morning conjunction and two meteor showers - the Ophiuchids and June Lyrids. If you're up to the ordinary, then follow along as we capture some great galaxies and a very challenging study! Dust off your optics and meet me in the back yard...

Weekly SkyWatcher's Forecast: June 4-10, 2012

Greeting, fellow SkyWatchers! It's gonna' be a great week! We start off with a partial lunar eclipse of the Strawberry Moon, head into the historic Venus Transit, study some Herschel objects, catch both the Scorpid and Arietid Meteor Showers, practice some binocular astronomy and even take on some challenge objects! How awesome is that? Whenever you're ready, just follow me into the back yard...