Italians are fascinated by Trump. Tuscany is very liberal, but even my more conservative friends here and in Sicily and Milan cannot understand why he continually changes his policies on a daily basis.
This glorious image, a tour-de-force of 21st-century science, reveals solar dynamics crucial to our awareness of our planet in space as well as teaching us about the universe of stars beyond Earth.
On this, the vernal equinox, let’s pause together to notice sunrise due east on the horizon and the higher arc our star draws as it climbs and then descends to its due west position on the skyline.
When clock time springs ahead an hour, not-so-early risers may look out a southwest-facing window at dawn to find star-like Jupiter rather low to the horizon.
During the months on either side of the spring and autumn equinoxes, there’s an elusive phenomenon, the zodiacal light, a glowing cone of light that is visible only in very clear and very dark skies.
Most of us are focused on one simple aspect of the astronomy of the season: the solstice that occurred on December 21. Unless we look closer, the fact escapes us that the darkest mornings of the year begin this Thursday, the 29th.
Although moonlight will screen out a view of all but a fraction of the shooting stars in the Geminid meteor shower, “a patient observer may be able to spot 20 or so per hour, even from urban locations,” according to the United States Naval Observatory writer.
Cinching evening darkness, new moon falls on the 29th, followed by evenings enhanced by a waxing crescent moon that sets early leading to long, dark, moonless nights.
Halloween encourages our imaginations and coaxes us to embrace the dark time of year marks the approximate halfway point between the autumnal equinox (September 22) and the winter solstice (December 21).
We experience sustained maximum sunlight during the six-week period that spans from May 30 through July 13, when days are 15 hours or longer between sunrise and sunset.
