Tag Archives: Solar System
Here Comes the Sun: This Year’s December Solstice
The winter (for the northern hemisphere) solstice arrives at 9:59 am CST on December 21. That’s 10:59 EST, 8:59 MST, etc. As long as people in the northern hemisphere have been observing the annual cycle of the Sun’s apparent motion on the sky, they have noticed a slowing in its descent towards the southern horizon…
Get Ready for November’s Partial Lunar Eclipse
Set your alarm for very early Friday morning (or just stay up Thursday night). All of North America will have a front-row seat to a nearly total lunar eclipse. The Full Moon will be just over 97% eclipsed at mid-eclipse (3:02 am Central Time, which is 4:02 Eastern Time, 2:02 Mountain time, etc.) when the…
What You Need to Know About the 2021 Perseid Meteor Shower
Note: This is an update of a blog post I created several years ago for an earlier version of my website. The most famous display of its kind, the Perseid meteor shower often puts on a spectacular show. This year should be a good year to observe the Perseids because the Waxing Crescent Moon will…