Record rainfall continues in southern California, so my solstice is coming and going today without one of my favorite ritual of marking the furthest south sunset of the year. But… Read the rest of the article: The Winter Solstice

(images via Wikipedia) For the past two weeks, as we've followed the moon nearly halfway around the sky, I've talked about the relative positions of the earth and the moon… Read the rest of the article: Lunar Eclipse

(Photograph of "Halo Moon" contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by BB reader Scott Wililams.) If your December evening skies have been clear recently you probably can't help but… Read the rest of the article: Yelping at Saints

(photo by Katrina Tuliao, via Wikipedia) This morning, on the web site of Science magazine, the news and research journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the… Read the rest of the article: You Betcha: Speculation, space, and markets for alien life

(Image via Wikipedia: Views of a Foetus in the Womb, c. 1510 – 1512, a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.) I will admit to occasional single-minded ranting. You might think… Read the rest of the article: Due Date

(Image courtesy Wikipedia) Most people know by now that Pluto has been downgraded. Astronomers have decided that, conceptually, we should reserve the word "planet" for the small number of dominant… Read the rest of the article: How Many Dwarfs Are There?

(image via Wikimedia Commons: Space Station over Sedona.) For the first couple of Christmas eve's of my daughter's life, I would take her over to the computer and show her… Read the rest of the article: Santa Claus is coming to your sky

(photo: "Starry Twilight," contributed to the Boing Boing Flickr Pool by Mike Geiger of Ottawa, Canada.) I'm assigning no new astronomical homework for tonight. It's your chance to catch up… Read the rest of the article: Star log for Monday, December 13, 2010

(Photo, via Wikipedia: "Leonid Meteor Storm, as seen over North America in the night of November 12./13., 1833. Source, E. Weiß: "Bilderatlas der Sternenwelt"; Published 1888) The Earth is hurtling… Read the rest of the article: The Geminids: A Fiery Death

Did anybody catch Mercury for the first time last night? I had just enough hazy cloud on my western horizon last night that Mercury was lost in the much. If… Read the rest of the article: Look Up!

Back in the good old days everyone knew how many planets there were, then scientists came along and screwed everything up. How could something that was always a planet suddenly… Read the rest of the article: The Seven Planets

(Palomar Observatory. Photo: Mike Brown) Last night's sliver of a moon grows a bit bigger and sets a bit later in its trek across the skies this month. Can you… Read the rest of the article: I think there's another planet past Pluto

(photo via Wikipedia) This past Sunday began the last lunar cycle of the year, which, for the first time in almost 20 years, includes a full moon on the winter… Read the rest of the article: It's Only a Sliver Moon (Daily Astronomy Log with Mike Brown)

I've spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to understand the astonishment that people feel over the demotion of Pluto. I mean: it's really really really… Read the rest of the article: Die, Pluto, Die!