"I am overjoyed and kind of surprised with my accomplishment getting into All-State and feeling very honored," said Monument Mountain senior Audrey Allard. "I'm super excited to perform alongside so many talented singers across the state in March.”
While we continue to learn how to dodge threats to our physical health from the pandemic, spring is arriving with opportunities to nurture mind and body in the safety of the outdoors.
Globe at Night is the international organization that has created a way for individuals to report what stars we see in just one constellation in the cycle or cycles you choose.
At this point, obsessed with grayness as I am and as are so many of the people I know, I'll stick to the weather, daily life, my neighborhood, Mutzl (my dog) and Hermes (my cat) bad politics and delicious food.
Let morning stargazing begin! The darkness of night, when all naked eye stars and constellations are visible, prevails until about 5:35 a.m. this week and 5:50 a.m. at month’s end.
Even faint shooting stars may be visible in dark skies in locations away from artificial light. The peak of the Eta Aquariids is predicted to be before dawn Sunday morning, May 5.
Below and left of Jupiter, relatively faint planet Mercury twinkles close above the skyline while, to the right of Mercury, red star Antares, also pale in the dawn light, rises into the winter morning sky.
The Orionid meteor shower, predicted to peak before dawn on Sunday the 21st, is active through November 7. At peak, in a dark location under a moonless sky, a maximum of 15 to 20 shooting stars per hour are predicted.
Seeing the rest of the planets visible this spring, especially the spectacle of red Mars increasing in magnitude, requires awakening by 5 a.m. close to a location with a clear view of the southeast to southwest horizon.
Recent daytime skies have reflected bracing ice blues over frozen landscapes and, alternately, soft vernal overtones during thaws. As the Sun arcs higher in the sky, we feel the pull toward spring.
Perseus evades the casual stargazer and is not well known because the star pattern lacks brilliant stars that create outstanding stick figures like Orion that are visible even in cities.
The Orionid meteor shower, its radiant appearing to be at the upper left of the constellation for which it is named, is forecast to be active from about the 19th through the 22nd, peaking before dawn on the 21st.
Planet Jupiter, visible in the east soon after sundown, dominates the eastern periphery of the crowded field of brilliant stars known as the Winter Circle or Winter Hexagon.
