2024 brought us a total eclipse of the Sun, superb auroras, and a naked-eye comet, three top highlights of a wonderful year of celestial attractions. Maybe the best!
In our book The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide (which we revised this year), Terence Dickinson and I created an Aah! Factor scale with various celestial sights ranked from:
• 1, evoking just a smile, to …
• 10, a life-changing event!
Our book’s Aah! Factor Scale in Chapter 1
Coming in at an 8 is a naked-eye comet. Deserving a 9 is an all-sky display of an aurora. The only sight to rate a top 10 is a total eclipse of the Sun.
2024 brought all three, and more!
Here’s my look back at what I think was one of the greatest years of stargazing.
NOTE: The images might take a while to all load. All can be enlarged to full screen. Just click or tap on them.
January
A Winter Moonrise to Begin the Year
The rising of the winter “Wolf” Moon, the Full Moon of January, over the frozen Crawling Lake Reservoir, in southern Alberta.
Now, this was not any form of rare event. But seeing and shooting any sky sight in the middle of a Canadian winter is an accomplishment. This is the rising of the Full Moon of January, popularly called the Wolf Moon, over a frozen lake near home in Alberta, Canada 🇨🇦.
It serves to bookend the collection with a Full Moon I captured eleven months later in December.
February
Auroras from Churchill, Manitoba
Had this been my only chance to see the Northern Lights fill the sky this year, I would have been happy. As we often see in Churchill, the aurora covered the sky on several nights, a common sight when you are underneath the main band of aurora borealis that arcs across the northern part of the globe.
This is a vertical panorama of the sky-filling aurora of February 10, 2024, as seen from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, in Churchill, Manitoba.
I attended to two aurora tour groups at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre who both got good displays to check “seeing the Northern Lights” off their bucket list. Join me in 2025!
March
Under the Austral Sky
Ranking a respectable 7 on our Aah! Factor scale is the naked-eye sight of the galactic centre overhead, with the Milky Way arcing across the sky. That’s possible from a latitude of about 30° South. That’s where I went in March, back to Australia 🇦🇺 for the first time since 2017.
This is a framing of the most spectacular area of the southern Milky Way, from Centaurus at left, to Carina at right, with Crux, the Southern Cross, at centre.
I wrote about it in my previous blog, where I present a tour along the southern Milky Way, and wide-angle views of the Milky Way (the images here are framings of choice regions).
This frames the southern Milky Way from Canis Major and its bright star Sirius at top, to Carina and its bright star Canopus at bottom, the two brightest stars in the night sky. The large red complex is the Gum Nebula.
It is a magical latitude that all northern astronomers should make a pilgrimage to, if only to just lie back and enjoy the view of our place in the outskirts of the Galaxy. I was glad to be back Down Under, to check this top sky sight off my bucket list for 2024.
April
A Total Eclipse of the Sun
No sooner had I returned home from Oz, when it was time to load up the car with telescope gear and drive to the path of the April 8 total solar eclipse, the first “TSE” in North America since 2017, which was the last total eclipse I had seen, in a trip to Idaho.
This is a composite of telescopic close-ups of the April 8, 2024 total eclipse, with a multi-exposure blend for the corona at centre, flanked by the diamond rings.
But where? I started south to Texas, my Plan A. Poor weather forecasts there prompted a hasty return to Canada, to drive east across the country to … I ended up in Québec. My blog about my cross-continental chase is here. My final edited music video is linked to below.
It was gratifying to see a total eclipse from “home” in Canada, only the third time I’ve been able to do that (previously in 1979 – Manitoba, and 2008 – Nunavut). If the rest of the year had been cloudy except for this day I wouldn’t have complained. Much.
This definitely earned a 10 on the Aah! Factor scale. Total eclipses are overwhelming and addictive. I’ve made my bookings for 2026 in Spain 🇪🇸 and 2027 in Tunisia 🇹🇳.
May
The Sky’s On Fire
It had been several years since I had seen an aurora from my backyard with colours as vivid and obvious as they were this night. But on May 10, the sky erupted with a fabulous display of aurora that much of the world saw, as aurora borealis in the north and aurora australis in the south.
This is a 300º panorama of the May 10, 2024 Northern Lights display, when the Kp Index reached 8 (out of 9), bringing aurora to the southern U.S.
This was the first of several all-sky shows this year. I blogged about the year’s great auroras here, where there are links to the movies I produced that capture the Northern Lights as only movies can, recording changes so rapid it can be hard to take it all in. Check off a 9 here!
So not even half way through the year, I had seen three of the top sky sights: the Milky Way core overhead (7), an all-sky aurora (9), and a total eclipse of the Sun (10).
But there was more to come! Including an Aah! Factor 8.
June
World Heritage Nightscape Treks
This is a panorama of the arch of the Milky Way rising over the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, with a sky tinted with twilight and airglow.
The sky took a break from presenting spectacles, allowing me to head off on short local trips, to favourite nightscape sites in southern Alberta, which we have in abundance. The Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park are just an hour away, the site for the scene above.
A panorama at sunset at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park (Áísínai’pi) in Alberta, with the Milk River below and the Sweetgrass Hills in the distance in Montana. Note the people at far right.
The rock formations of Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park are a bit farther, requiring a couple of days commitment to shoot. Clouds hid the main attraction, the Milky Way, this night, but did provide a fine sunset.
The Milky Way rises over Mt. Blakiston, in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta. This was June 10, 2024, so snow remains at high altitudes.
A little further west down the highway is Waterton Lakes National Park, another great spot I try to visit at least once each year.
All locations I hit this month are U.N. World Heritage Sites, thus the theme of my blog from June. People travel from all over the world to come here, to sites I can visit in a few hours drive.
July
Mountains by Starlight
In summer we now often contend with smoke from forest fires blanketing the sky, hiding not just the stars by night, but even the Sun by day.
The Andromeda Galaxy at centre is rising above Takakkaw Falls, in Yoho National Park. Above is the W of stars marking Cassiopeia.
But before the smoke rolled in this past summer I was able to visit a spot, Yoho National Park in British Columbia, that had been on my shot list for several years. The timing with clear nights at the right season and Moon phase has to work out. In July it did, for a shoot by starlight at Takakkaw Falls, among the tallest in Canada.
This is the Milky Way core and a bonus meteor over the peaks and valleys at Saskatchewan River Crossing, in Banff National Park, Alberta.
The following nights I was in Banff National Park, at familiar spots on the tourist trail, but uncrowded and quiet at night. It was a pleasure to enjoy the world-class Rocky Mountain scenery under the stars on perfect nights.
August
The All-Sky Auroras Return
In August I headed east to Saskatchewan and the annual Summer Star Party staged by the astronomy clubs in Regina and Saskatoon. It is always a pleasure to attend the SSSP in the beautiful Cypress Hills. The sky remained clear post-party for a trip farther east to the little town of Val Marie, where I stayed at a former convent, and had a night to remember out in Grasslands National Park, one of Canada’s first, and finest, dark sky preserves.
The Northern Lights in a superb all-sky Kp6 to 7 display on August 11-12, 2024, in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan.
The plan was to shoot the August 11 Perseid meteor shower, but the aurora let loose again for a stunning show over 70 Mile Butte. My earlier blog has more images and movies from this wonderful month of summertime Northern Lights.
We are fortunate in western Canada 🇨🇦 to be able to see auroras year-round, even in summer. Farther north at the usual Northern Lights destinations, the sky is too bright at night in summer.
September
Back to Deep Sky Wonders …
This is a framing of the rich starfield in Sagittarius and Serpens containing a mix of bright star clouds, glowing nebulas, and dark dust in the Milky Way.
September is the month for another astronomical party in the Cypress Hills, but on the Alberta side. At the wonderful Southern Alberta Star Party under its very dark skies, I was able to shoot some favourite deep-sky fields along the Milky Way with new gear I was testing at the time.
This frames the complex region of emission nebulas in central Cygnus near the star Gamma Cygni, at lower left. The Crescent Nebula is at centre.
And from home, September brought skies dark and clear enough (at least when there was no aurora!) for more captures of colourful nebulas (above and below) along the summer Milky Way.
This frames all the photogenic components of the bright Veil Nebula in Cygnus, a several-thousand-year-old supernova remnant.
We invest a lot of money into the kind of specialized gear needed to shoot these targets (and I’m not nearly as “committed” as some are, believe me!), only to find the nights when it all comes together can be few and far between.
… Plus, A Very Minor Eclipse of the Moon
I had to include this, if only for stark contrast with the spectacular solar eclipse six months earlier.
We had an example of the most minor of lunar eclipses on March 24, 2024, with a so-called “penumbral” eclipse of the Moon, an eclipse so slight it’s hard to tell anything unusual is happening. (So I’ve not even included an image here, though I was able to shoot it.)
Me at another successful eclipse chase … to my backyard to capture the partial lunar eclipse on September 17, 2024. The Moon is rising in the southeast.
On September 17, we had our second eclipse of the Moon in 2024. This time the Earth’s umbral shadow managed to take a tiny bite out of the Full Moon. Nothing spectacular to be sure. But at least this eclipse expedition was to no farther away than my rural backyard. A clear eclipse of any kind, even a partial eclipse, especially one seen from home, is reason to celebrate. I did!
Of course, a total eclipse of the Moon, when the Full Moon is completely engulfed in Earth’s umbra and turns red, is what we really want to see. They rate a 7 on our Aah! Factor scale. We haven’t had a “TLE” since November 8, 2022, blogged about here.
We knew early in 2024 that the then newly-discovered Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS had the potential to perform this month. I planned a trip south to favourite spots in Utah and Arizona to take advantage of what we hoped would be a fine autumn comet.
This is Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3) at its finest in the evening sky, on October 14, two days after its closest approach to Earth, and with it sporting a 10º- to 15º-long dust tail, and a short narrow anti-tail pointed toward the horizon. The location was Turret Arch in the Windows area of Arches National Park, Utah.
It blossomed nicely, especially as it entered into the evening sky in mid-October, as above. Despite the bright moonlight, it was easy to see with the unaided eye, a celestial rarity we get only once a decade, on average, if we are lucky. My blog of my comet chase is here.
This is a panorama of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS over Arches National Park, Utah, on a moonlit night, October 15, 2024, with the comet easy to see with the unaided eye.
A naked-eye comet ranks an 8 on our Aah! Factor scale. So now 2024 had delivered all four of our Top 4 sky sights.
This 360° panorama captures a rare SAR (Stable Auroral Red) arc across the Arizona sky in the pre-dawn hours of October 11, 2024. The SAR arc was generated in the high atmosphere as part of the global geomagnetic storm of October 10/11, 2024, with a Kp8 rating that night.
But … just as a bonus, there was another fabulous aurora on October 10, seen in my case from the unique perspective of southern Arizona, with an appearance of a bright “SAR” arc more prominent than I had ever seen before. So that view was a rarity, too, so unusual it doesn’t even make our Aah! list, as SARs are typically not visible to the eye.
November
Back to Norway for Northern Lights
2024 was notable for travel getting “back to normal,” at least for me, with two long-distance drives, and now my second overseas trip. This one took me north to Norway 🇳🇴, which I had been visiting twice a year as an enrichment lecturer during pre-pandemic years.
A green and red aurora appears over the coast of Norway, with Jupiter bright at right. This was from the Hurtigruten ship m/s Nordkapp on November 10, 2024, on a coastal cruise with a Road Scholar tour group.
The auroras were excellent, though nothing like the great shows of May and October. But the location sailing along the scenic coast and fjords makes up for any shortfall in the Lights. It was good to be back. I plan to return in 2025 for two cruises in October. Join me there, too!
December
A Winter Moonrise to End the Year
As I write this, December has been nothing but cloud. Almost. A clear hour on Full Moon night allowed a capture of the “Cold Moon,” with the Moon near Jupiter, then at its brightest for the year. So that’s the other lunar bookend to the year, shot from the snowy backyard.
This is the Full Moon of December 14, 2024, near the planet Jupiter at lower right. Both were rising into the eastern sky in the early evening.
However, I did say after the clear total eclipse in April that if the rest of 2024 had been cloudy I wouldn’t complain. So I’m not.
And there’s no reason to, as 2024 did deliver the best year of stargazing I can remember. 2017 had a total solar eclipse. 2020 had a great comet. But we have to go back to 2003 for aurora shows as widespread and as a brilliant as we’ve seen this year. 2024 had them all. And more!
May 10, 1994 Annular Eclipse taken from a site east of Douglas, Arizona showing “reverse” Bailey’s Beads —lunar mountains just touching Sun’s limb 4-inch f/6 apo refractor at f/15 with Barlow lens Ektachrome 100 slide film.
Here’s my preview of some of the best celestial events for 2023. Mine is certainly not an exhaustive list. I’ve picked just one event per month, and I’ve focused on events best for unaided eyes or binoculars, and visible from North America. (So the solar eclipse of April 20 visible from Australia and the South Pacific, and the two minor lunar eclipses this year don’t make the cut!)
Click or tap on any of the illustrations to bring up a full-screen view with more detail and readable labels!
JANUARY
As 2023 opens, Venus is beginning its climb into the evening sky, while Saturn is sinking into the sunset. The two planets pass each other on Sunday, January 22, when they appear just one-third of a degree apart in the twilight. Use binoculars to pick out dimmer Saturn. And look for the thin day-old crescent Moon just over a binocular field below the planet pair.
FEBRUARY
A month later, on Wednesday, February 22, Venus has now ascended higher, preparing to meet up with descending Jupiter. But before they meet, the crescent Moon, with its dark side lit by faint Earthshine, joins the planets in a particularly close conjunction with Jupiter. They will appear about 1° (two Moon diameters) apart, with Venus about a binocular field below.
MARCH
Here’s a date to circle on your calendar. On Wednesday, March 1 the sky’s two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, pass within half a degree of each other, in arguably the year’s best conjunction. They’ll be close enough to frame nicely at medium power in a telescope, though the featureless gibbous disk of Venus will appear small, about the third the size of Jupiter’s banded globe. But Venus is by far the brighter of the two worlds.
APRIL
If you want to check Mercury off your sighting list this year, this is a good week to do it. On April 11 Mercury reaches its greatest angle away from the Sun in the evening sky, and for northern hemisphere viewers, is angled at its highest in the western sky. Even so, look just a binocular field above the horizon. While you’re at it, look higher for the fine sight of Venus near the Pleiades star cluster.
MAY
Wednesday, May 17 brings a chance to see the crescent Moon pass in front of Jupiter. But it will be a tricky event to catch. While most of North America and parts of Northern Europe can see the occultation, it occurs in the daytime sky with the Moon only 25° west of the Sun. However, locations along the West Coast of North America can see either the start or end of the occultation in a bright pre-dawn sky. Vancouver, Canada sees Jupiter disappear before sunrise, while Los Angeles – the view shown above – sees Jupiter reappear just before sunrise. Other locations will see a close conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter low in the dawn sky.
JUNE
As June opens we have Venus still shining brightly in the evening below much dimmer Mars, now far from the Earth and tiny in a telescope. But it’ll be worth a look this night even in binoculars as the red planet passes in front of the Beehive star cluster, also known as Messier 44. If you miss June 2, Mars will be close to the Beehive the night before and after.
JULY
Venus has been bright all spring, but on July 7 it officially peaks at its maximum brilliance, reaching a blazing magnitude of -4.7. It reached its greatest angle from the Sun a month earlier on June 4 and is now dropping closer to the Sun each evening. But you still can’t miss it. What you might miss is dim Mars above, now close to the star Regulus in Leo. Mars passes 3/4 of a degree above Regulus on July 9 and 10. You’ll need binoculars to pick out the pairing.
AUGUST
Everyone looks forward to the annual summer stargazing highlight – watching the Perseid meteor shower. This is a good year, with the peak hour of the shower falling in the middle of the night of August 12/13 for North America. That’s a Saturday night! But most importantly, the waning Moon doesn’t rise until the wee hours, as shown here, so its light won’t wash out the meteors. Plan to be at a dark site for an all-night meteor watch.
SEPTEMBER
By September Venus has made the transition into the morning sky and shines at its greatest dawn-sky brilliance on September 19. It will then be joined by Mercury, with the inner planet reaching its greatest angle away from the Sun on September 22 shown here. This is the best morning appearance of Mercury for Northern Hemisphere observers. The view this morning bookends the view five months earlier on April 11. If you are away from urban light pollution, also look for the faint glow of Zodiacal Light in the pre-dawn sky before Mercury rises.
OCTOBER
October is solar eclipse month! On Saturday, October 14 the shadow of the Moon passes across all of North America and most of South America. Everyone on those two continents sees a partial eclipse of the Sun. But those along a narrow path sweeping across the western U.S. and down into Mexico, Central America and across northern South America can see a rare “ring of fire” eclipse as the Moon’s dark disk eclipses the Sun, but isn’t quite large enough to totally cover it. This is an “annular” eclipse. The view above is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, one of the largest U.S. cities in the path of annularity, second only to San Antonio, Texas.
This is the path of annularity across the western U.S. To see the Moon pass centrally across the Sun (the “ring of fire”) you have to be somewhere in that grey path. Outside the path you will see only a partial eclipse of the Sun. For detailed and zoomable eclipse path maps like the one above, please visit EclipseWise.com.
NOVEMBER
Close conjunctions between the crescent Moon and Venus are always notable. Get up early on Thursday, November 9 to see the 26-day-old Moon shining only a degree below Venus. Venus reached its greatest angle away from the Sun on October 23. It is now descending back toward the Sun, but remains high in the morning sky in early November.
DECEMBER
Though it usually puts on a better show than the summer Perseids, the Geminid meteor shower is not as popular because it’s cold! But this is also a good year for the Geminids as it peaks only two days after New Moon. The best night might be Thursday, December 14, but a good number of meteors should be zipping across the sky the night before on December 13, shown here. Start watching at nightfall and go as long as you can in the chill of a December night.
To download my free Amazing Sky 2023 Calendar in PDF format, go to my website at https://www.amazingsky.com/Books The PDF file can be printed out at home or taken to an office supply shop to be printed and bound.
Good luck in your stargazing and clear skies for 2023!
Two total eclipses of the Moon, an all-planet array across the sky, and a fine close approach of Mars highlight the astronomical year of 2022.
In this blog, I provide my selection of the best sky sights of 2022. I focus on events you can actually see, and from North America. I also emphasize photogenic events, such as gatherings of the Moon and planets at dawn or dusk, and the low Full Moons of summer.
The sky charts are for my longitude in Alberta and my home latitude of 51° N, farther north than many readers will likely live. From more southerly latitudes in North America, the low planet gatherings at dawn or dusk will be more obvious, with the objects higher and in a darker sky than my charts depict.
Feel free to share the link to my blog, or to print it out for reference through the year.
Highlights: Lunar Eclipses, Planet Array and Mars
As in 2021, this year we have two lunar eclipses, both total this year, six months apart in May and in November. On the night of May 15/16 eastern North America gets the best view of a deep total eclipse that lasts 85 minutes. Six lunar cycles later, western North America gets the best view of another 85-minute-long total lunar eclipse.
The year begins with four planets in the evening sky, but not for long. They all soon move into the morning sky for the rest of the first half of 2022. In fact, in late June we have the rare chance to see all five naked eye planets lined up in order (!) across the morning sky.
The “star” planet of 2022 is Mars, as it reaches one of its biennial close approaches to Earth, and a decent one at that, with its disk relatively large and the planet high in the winter sky, making for excellent telescope views. The night Mars is directly opposite the Earth and at its brightest coincides with a Full Moon, which just happens to also pass in front of Mars that night! That’s a remarkable and rare event to round out a year of stargazing.
The RASC has also partnered with Firefly Books to publish a more popular-level guide to the coming year’s sky for North America, as the 2022 Night Sky Almanac, authored by Canadian science writer Nicole Mortillaro. It provides excellent monthly star charts to help you learn the sky.
January
The year begins with a chance to see four planets together at dusk. But catch them quick!
January 4 — Mercury, Venus (just!), Jupiter and Saturn, plus the Moon
Venus is sinking out of sight fast, as it approaches its January 8 conjunction with the Sun, putting it out of sight. But Mercury is climbing higher, approaching its January 7 greatest angle away from the Sun.
This night the waxing crescent Moon appears below Saturn. It was below Mercury on January 3, and will be below Jupiter on January 5. On January 13, Mercury shines 3.5 degrees (°) below Saturn, just before both disappear close to the Sun.
This is a comparison pair of the Full Moon at apogee (farthest from Earth for the year) at left, and at perigee (closest to Earth) at right, with the perigean Moon being a so-called “Supermoon”.
January 17 — The 2022 Mini-Moon
The Full Moon this night is the most distant, and therefore the smallest, of 2022. Shoot it and the Full Moon of July with identical gear to collect a contrasting pair of Mini and Super Moons, as above.
January 29 — Waning Moon and Morning Planets
By the end of January, Mercury and Venus have both moved into the morning sky, where they join Mars. The waning crescent Moon appears below magnitude 1.5 Mars this morning, as the famed red planet begins its fine appearance for 2022.
February
The main planet action migrates to the morning sky, while Zodiacal Light season begins in the evening.
February 16 — Mercury As a Morning Star
Though not a favourable elongation for northern latitudes, on February 16 Mercury reaches its highest angle away from the Sun low in the eastern dawn, below Venus and Mars, with Venus having just reached its greatest brilliancy (at a blazing magnitude -4.9!) on February 12, shining above much dimmer Mars. (Magnitude 0 to 1 is a bright star; magnitude 6 is the faintest naked-eye star; any magnitude of -1 to -5 is very bright.)
While at magnitude 0, elusive Mercury shines a magnitude and a half brighter than Mars, Mercury’s lower altitude will make it tougher to see. Use binoculars to pick it out. But Venus remains a brilliant and easy “morning star” for the next few months.
A 360° panorama of the spring sky over the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, on March 29, 2019. At bottom is the tapering pyramid-shaped glow of the Zodiacal Light
February 18 — Zodiacal Light Season Begins in the Evening
From sites away from light pollution look for a faint glow of light rising out of the southwest sky on any clear evening for the next two weeks with no Moon. This glow is caused by sunlight reflecting off cometary dust particles in the inner solar system. The next moonless window for the evening Zodiacal Light is March 20 to early April. Spring is the best season for seeing and shooting the Light in the evening sky.
February 27 — Moon Joins the Morning Planet Party
The waning crescent Moon appears very low below Mars and Venus, with Mercury still in view, and Saturn just beginning to emerge from behind the Sun.
March
Equinox brings a favourable season for great auroras, while the morning planets begin to cluster in the east.
A panorama of the auroral arc seen from home in southern Alberta (latitude 51° N) on April 14/15, 2021.
March 1 on — Prime Aurora Season Begins
While great auroras can occur in any month, statistically the best displays often occur around the two equinoxes in spring and autumn. No one can predict more than 12 to 48 hours ahead (and still with a great deal of uncertainty) when a display will be visible from mid-latitudes. But watch sites such as SpaceWeather.com for heads-up notices.
A capture of a line of geosats (geostationary communication satellites) as they flare in brightness during one of their semi-annual “flare” seasons near the equinoxes.
March 1 on — Flaring Geosat Season Begins
In the weeks prior to the spring equinox, and in the few weeks after the autumn equinox, the string of communication satellites in geostationary orbit catch the sunlight and flare to naked-eye brilliance. Long-exposure tracked photos of the area below Leo (in spring, as here) will catch them as streaks, as the camera follows the stars causing the stationary satellites to trail.
March 12 — Venus and Mars in Conjunction
Venus and Mars reach their closest separation 4° apart low in the southeastern dawn sky.
March 20 — Equinox at 11:33 a.m. EDT
Spring officially begins for the northern hemisphere, autumn for the southern, as the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north. Today, the Sun rises due east and sets due west, great for urban photo ops.
March 27 — Moon and a Planetary Triangle
The waning crescent Moon appears to the west of Venus and Mars, with Venus about 2° above Saturn. The view will be better the next morning, March 28, with the thin Moon directly below the close pairing of Venus and Saturn. But the Moon will be even lower in the sky, making it more difficult to sight.
April
Mercury puts on its best evening show of 2022, near the Pleiades, and with a possible comet nearby. The month ends with a very close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter at dawn.
This is a 160°-wide panorama of the Milky Way arching over the Badlands formations at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, taken on a moonlit night in May.
April 1 — Milky Way Arch Season Opens
With the Moon out of view, the next two weeks bring good nights to shoot panoramas of the bright summer Milky Way as an arch across the sky, with the galactic core in view to the south. Catching the arch takes a very late-night shoot in early April. But the Milky Way moves into prime position two hours earlier each month.
April 5 — Mars and Saturn 1/2° apart
The two planets appear almost the same brightness as a close “double star” in the dawn, not far from brighter Venus. Mars and Saturn will also be close the morning before, on April 4.
April 27 — Moon Joins Venus and Jupiter
Jupiter is now emerging from behind the Sun to meet up with Venus, for a grouping of the sky’s two brightest planets. On this morning the waning Moon appears 4.5° below the pair.
April 29 — Mercury Appears Beside the Pleiades
Just as Mercury reaches its greatest angle away from the Sun for its best evening appearance of 2022, it also appears just 1° away from the famous Pleiades star cluster low in the west.
April 30 — Venus and Jupiter in Close Conjunction
This is an early morning sight well worth getting up for! Venus passes only 1/3° below Jupiter this morning, but low in the eastern dawn sky. They will be almost as close on May 1.
April 30 — A Bonus Comet?
Comet PanSTARRS (C/2021 O3) might become bright enough to be a binocular object, and a photogenic target, right next to the Pleiades and Mercury pairing. Maybe! Some predictions suggest this comet could fizzle and break up earlier in April. Even if the comet survives and performs, you’ll need a very clear sky to the northwest to catch this rare sight.
May
On May 15-16 a totally eclipsed Moon shines red in the south at midnight for eastern North America, and in the southeast after sunset from the west.
May 15-16 — Total Eclipse of the Moon
The first of two total lunar eclipses in 2022 can be seen in its entirety from eastern North America, with totality beginning at 11:30 p.m. EDT on May 15 and lasting 85 minutes until 12:55 a.m. EDT. At mid-eclipse just after midnight from eastern North America the Moon will appear nearly due south, with the summer Milky Way to the east, shining brightly as the sky darkens during totality. Travel to a dark site to see and shoot the Moon and Milky Way.
Those in western North America see the totally eclipsed Moon rising into the southeast with some portion of the eclipse in progress, as depicted above. Once the sky darkens, the reddened Moon should become visible. Over a suitable landscape this should be a photogenic scene, though with the core of the Milky Way not yet risen. But a Milky Way arch panorama with a red Moon at one end will be possible. Choose your scenic site well!
Courtesy Fred Espenak/EclipseWise.com
See Fred Espenak’s EclipseWise.com page for details on timing and viewing regions. The dark region on this map does not see any of this eclipse.
May 18 — Red Planet Meets Blue Planet
Mars passes just 1/2° south of Neptune this morning, though both planets are very low in the east. They will appear close enough to frame in a telescope (the red circle is 1° wide).
May 24 — Moon with Mars and Jupiter
As it does every month in early 2022, the waning crescent Moon joins the morning planets, on this day grouping with Mars and Jupiter before dawn.
May 27 — Moon with Venus, plus Mars and Jupiter Close
Later that week the thinner waning Moon passes 4° below bright Venus, still shining at magnitude -4. But higher up Mars and Jupiter are reaching a close conjunction, passing about 1/2° apart on May 28 and May 29. Mars is still a dim magnitude +0.7; Jupiter is at -2.2.
June
Noctilucent cloud season begins for northerners, as does prime Milky Way core season for southerners. But the unusual sight is the line of all five naked eye planets, and in order!
The northern summer Milky Way over Middle Waterton Lake at Driftwood Beach in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta on a July night.
June 1 on — Milky Way Core Season at its Prime
In early June with no Moon to interfere, and monthly for the next four months, the Milky Way core is ideally placed to the south through the night for nightscapes. However, for those at more northern latitudes the sky in June doesn’t get dark enough to make deep Milky Way shots feasible.
The brightest section of the massive “grand display” of noctilucent clouds at dusk on June 16, 2021.
June 1 on — Noctilucent Cloud Season Begins
Instead, northerners are rewarded by the occasional sight of noctilucent clouds to the north through June and well into July (even into August for sub-arctic latitudes). The Sun illuminates these high-altitude electric-blue clouds during the weeks around the summer solstice. However, there is no predicting on what night a good display will appear.
June 14 — First of the Summer Supermoons
The Moon is full on the night of June 14-15, when it also reaches one of its closest perigees (closest approach to Earth) of 2022. In modern parlance, that makes it a “supermoon.” It will look impressive shining low in the south all night, with the low-altitude “Moon illusion” making it appear even larger. It is a good night for nightscapes with the Moon, though exposures are a challenge — try blending short exposures for the lunar disk with long exposures for the sky and ground.
June 21 — Solstice at 5:14 a.m. EDT
Summer officially begins for the northern hemisphere, winter for the southern, as the Sun reaches its most northerly position above the celestial equator. The Sun rises farthest to the northeast and sets farthest to the northwest, and the length of daylight is at its maximum.
June 24 — All Planets in a Row
As fast-moving Mercury rises into view at dawn in mid-June, it completes the set to provide the rare chance to see all five naked eye planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — in a row along the ecliptic, the path of the planets. Even more fun, they are in the correct order out from the Sun! The scene shown here depicts the morning of June 24, when the Moon sits between Venus and Mars, just where it should be in order of distance from the Sun as well.
A panorama of several stitched images will be best for capturing the scene which spans 120°. Uranus and Neptune are there, too, though not in order and faint enough (below naked eye brightness) they will be tough to capture in a wide-angle scene. Long exposures with a tracker might do the job! But by the time Mercury rises high enough, the sky might be getting too bright to nab the faintest planets.
June 26 — Inner World Gathering
The select club of just inner worlds gathers for a meeting this morning, with the waning crescent Moon 2.5° above Venus. The rising stars of Taurus serve as a fine backdrop in the dawn twilight.
July
Once the pesky full supermoon gets out of the way, the heart of Milky Way season will be infull swing.
July 13 — Second of the Summer Supermoons
It will be a battle of summer supermoons in 2022! But July’s Moon wins on a technicality, as it is ever so slightly closer (by about 200 km) than the June Moon. It also appears slightly farther south, so lower in the sky than a month before. This is a good night for lunar (looney?) photo ops, though don’t expect to see the Milky Way as shown here — moonlight will wash it out.
July 26 — Dawn Moon and Morning Star
Another photo op comes on July 26 when the waning crescent Moon passes 3° above Venus, still bright at magnitude -3.8. The last week of July and the first week of August are prime weeks for shooting the Milky Way core to the south over scenic nightscapes, assuming we get clear skies free of forest fire smoke.
August
The popular Perseid meteors are mooned out, but late in the month under dark skies, the Milky Way reigns supreme.
August 1 — Red Planet Meets Green Planet
As it did in May, Mars meets up with an outer planet, passing close enough to Uranus this night for both to appear in a low-power telescope field (the red circle is 2° wide).
August 12-13 — Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks
The annual and popular Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight, but with a nearly Full Moon in Aquarius (as shown above) lighting the sky all night. Under a transparent sky, you’ll still see some bright meteors radiating from Perseus in the northeast. But you’ll need to be patient, as bright meteors are infrequent. But why not enjoy a moonlit summer night under the stars anyway?
August 14-15 — Saturn at Opposition
Saturn is at its closest and brightest for 2022 tonight, rising at sunset and shining due south in eastern Capricornus in the middle of the night. Through a telescope the rings appear tipped at an angle of 13°, about half the maximum possible at Saturnian solstices. The northern face of the rings is tipped toward us.
August 16 on — Prime Milky Way Season
After it spoils the Perseids, the waning gibbous Moon takes a long time to get out of the way. As it does so, mid-August brings some good nights to shoot the Milky Way to the south as the rising waning Moon to the east illuminates the landscape with warm “bronze hour” lighting. By the last week of August, nights are finally moonless enough for an all-night dark-sky shoot.
August 25 — Thin Moon Above Venus
Those enjoying an all-nighter under the stars on August 24 will be rewarded with the sight of the thin waning Moon and Venus rising together at dawn on August 25. They will be 5° apart in the morning twilight, against the backdrop of the winter stars rising.
September
It’s Harvest Moon time, with this annual special Full Moon coming early before the equinox this year.
The G2 auroral storm of October 11/12, 2021 with the curtains exhibiting a horizontal “dunes” structure.
September 1 on — Prime Aurora Season Begins
As in spring, some of the best weeks for sighting auroras traditionally occur around the autumn equinox. Solar activity is on the rise in 2022, heading toward an expected solar maximum in late 2024 or 2025. So we can expect some good shows this year, including some that should extend south into the northern half of the lower 48 in the U.S.
The full Harvest Moon rising over the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park on September 20, 2021.
September 10 — Full “Harvest” Moon
Occurring 12 days before the equinox, this is the closest Full Moon to the equinox, making it the official Harvest Moon of 2022. With it occurring early this year, the Harvest Moon will rise well south of due east at sunset and set well south of due west at sunrise on September 11.
Planning apps such as PhotoPills or The Photographer’s Ephemeris can help you plan where to be to place the rising or setting Moon over a scenic foreground.
Sunset at the September equinox, in this case on September 22, 2021.
September 22 — Equinox at 9:04 p.m. EDT
Autumn officially begins for the northern hemisphere, spring for the southern, as the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south. As in March, the Sun rises due east and sets due west for photo ops on east-west aligned roads, as above.
The Zodiacal Light in the dawn sky, September 14, 2021, from home in Alberta.
September 23 — Zodiacal Light Season Begins in the Morning
With no Moon for the next two weeks, from sites away from light pollution look to the pre-dawn sky for a faint glow of light rising out of the east before twilight brightens the morning sky. The end of October brings another moonless morning window of opportunity for the Zodiacal Light.
September 26-27 — Jupiter at opposition
Jupiter, now in southern Pisces, reaches its closest and brightest for 2022 tonight, also rising at sunset and shining due south in the middle of the night. Jupiter has now moved far enough along the ecliptic to place it high in the sky for northern observers, providing us with sharper telescope views than we’ve had for many years.
October
Mercury rises into the dawn, while the Moon occults the planet Uranus.
October 8 — Mercury at Its Morning Best
This is the best time to sight Mercury in the morning, as it reaches its greatest angle away from the Sun today, while the steep angle of the ecliptic on autumn mornings swings the inner planet up as high and clear from horizon haze it can get for the year.
October 11 — Moon Hides Uranus
While many observers might not have seen Uranus, here’s a chance to see it, then not see it! The waning gibbous Moon passes in front of magnitude 5.7 Uranus this night, occulting the planet for about an hour around midnight. Exact times will vary with location. Seeing the planet reappear from behind the dark limb of the Moon, as shown here, will be the easiest sighting, but a telescope will be essential.
October 21 — Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks
With both the Perseids and Geminids mooned out this year, the weaker but reliable Orionids remain as perhaps the best meteor shower of 2022. The meteors (expect only about 10 per hour) all appear to radiate from northern Orion, which doesn’t rise until just before midnight. Mars shines bright above the radiant point.
October 25 — Partial Solar Eclipse for Europe
While my list is aimed at North American stargazers, I should mention the partial eclipse of the Sun (there are no total solar eclipses this year) that observers across parts of Asia, Africa, Europe and the U.K. (as shown above) can see.
Courtesy Fred Espenak/EclipseWise.com
At maximum eclipse from Siberia about 86% of the Sun’s disk will be covered. No part of the eclipse is visible from North America. For details, see the page at EclipseWise.com.
October 30 — Mars Begins Retrograde Motion
Mars stops its eastward motion this night and begins to retrograde westward for the next two months centred on the date of opposition, December 7. It then stops retrograding and resumes its prograde motion on January 12, 2023. Naked-eye Mars watchers can follow the changing position of Mars easily, using the stars of Taurus, including yellowish Aldebaran below, as a guide.
November
The second total lunar eclipse of 2022 brings a red Moon to the skies over western North America.
November 8 — Total Eclipse of the Moon
In a mirror-image of the May eclipse, this eclipse also lasts 85 minutes, but can be seen best from western North America. From the east, the Moon sets at dawn with some portion of the eclipse in progress.
But from the west the Moon is fully eclipsed during the wee hours of November 8, with the Moon sitting west of the winter Milky Way, making for good wide-angle photos.
The Moon sits just a degree west of Uranus during totality. From Asia the eclipsed Moon actually passes in front of the planet for a rare eclipse and occultation combination. We have to be content with seeing the green planet east of the reddened Moon. A telescope with 600mm focal length should nicely frame the pairing.
The total phase of the eclipse begins at 5:16 a.m. EST (3:16 a.m. MST) and ends at 6:41 a.m. EST (4:41 a.m. MST).
Courtesy Fred Espenak/EclipseWise.com
For details see Fred Espenak’s EclipseWise site. As above, the dark region on this map does not see any of this lunar eclipse.
November 17 — Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks
As with the Orionids, this is normally a weak shower, but this year we have to be content with watching the weak showers. The waxing crescent Moon shining below Leo (as shown above) shouldn’t hinder observations of the Leonids too much. But with Leo not rising until late, this is another shower that requires a long, late night to observe.
December
Mars reaches its closest point to Earth since October 2020, with the Moon occulting Mars on peak night.
December 1 — Mars at Its Closest
Mars is closest to Earth this night, at 81 million kilometres away. This is not as close as it was in October 2020 when it was 62 million km away. Its disk then appeared large, at 22.5 arc seconds across. Maximum size on this night is 17.2 arc seconds, still good enough for fine telescope views.
Take the opportunity on every clear night to view Mars, as this is as good as we will see the planet until the early 2030s. As it happens, the most interesting side of Mars, featuring the prominent dark Syrtis Major region and bright Hellas basin (shown above in a simulated telescope view), faces us in North America on closest approach night.
Wide-angle views and photos will also be impressive, with reddish Mars shining brightly at magnitude -1.8 in Taurus with its photogenic star clusters, and near the winter Milky Way.
December 7/8 — Mars at Opposition
This is the night Mars is officially at opposition, meaning it lies directly opposite the Sun and shines at its brightest. As it rises at sunset and into the early evening (as above), it is accompanied by the Full Moon, also at opposition this night, as all Full Moons are.
By midnight (above), the Moon and Mars lie due south high in the sky. If you can keep warm and keep an eye on Mars over this long night of opposition, you’ll see surface features on Mars change as the planet rotates, bring new areas into view, with the fork-shaped Sinus Meridiani region rotating into view as triangular Syrtis Major rotates out of sight.
December 7 — Moon Occults Mars
This is very rare! On opposition night, not only does the Full Moon appear close to Mars, it actually passes in front of it during the early evening for North America. The occultation lasts about an hour, and exact times will vary with location. Binoculars will show the event, as will even the naked eye. But the best view will be through a telescope (as above), where you will be able to see the edge of the Moon cover Mars over about half a minute. Ditto on the reappearance. This is an event worth traveling to seek out clear skies if needed.
December 13-14 — Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks
The most prolific meteor shower of the year peaks with a waning gibbous Moon rising about 10 p.m. local time (as above), lighting the sky for the rest of the night. But the early evening is dark, and with Gemini just rising we might see some long Earth-grazing fireballs from the Geminids. So certainly worth a watch on a cold December night.
December 21 — Solstice at 4:48 p.m. EST
Winter officially begins for the northern hemisphere, summer for the southern, as the Sun reaches its most southerly position below the celestial equator. The Sun rises farthest to the southeast and sets farthest to the southwest, and the length of daylight is at its minimum.
December 24 — Inner Planets at Dusk
On Christmas Eve the waxing crescent Moon joins Mercury and Venus low in the southwest evening twilight. Mercury is three days past its greatest elongation, so is easier to see than usual, though it will be three and a half magnitudes fainter than magnitude -3.9 Venus.
December 28 — Mercury and Venus in Conjunction
This evening, descending Mercury passes 1.5° above Venus, now ascending into the evening twilight sky. Venus is just beginning what will be a spectacular evening appearance for early 2023, featuring close conjunctions with Saturn (on January 22, 2023) and Jupiter (on March 1, 2023).
Two major eclipses of the Moon and a partial eclipse of the Sun over eastern North America highlight the astronomical year of 2021.
I provide my selection of three dozen of the best sky sights for 2021. I focus on events you can actually see, and from North America. I also emphasize events with the potential for good “photo ops.”
What I Don’t Include
Thus, I’m excluding minor meteor showers and ones that peak at Full Moon, and events that happen with the objects too close to the Sun.
I also don’t include events seen only from the eastern hemisphere, such as the April 17 occultation of Mars by the Moon — it isn’t even a close conjunction for us in North America. The August 15 rare triple transit of three Galilean moons at once on the disk of Jupiter occurs during daylight hours for western North America, rendering it very challenging to see. An outburst on August 31 of the normally quiet Aurigid meteor shower is predicted to happen over Asia, not North America.
I also don’t list the growing profusion of special or “supermoons” that get click-bait PR every year, choosing instead to limit my list to just the Harvest Moon of September as a notably photogenic Moon.
Good Year for Lunar Eclipses
But two Full Moons — in May and in November — do undergo eclipses that will be wonderful sights for the eye and camera. As a bonus, the Full Moon of May is the closest Full Moon of 2021, making it, yes, a “supermoon.”
The New Moon eclipses the Sun on June 10, bringing an annular eclipse to remote regions of northern Canada and the Arctic (including the North Pole!). Eastern North America and all of Europe can witness a partial solar eclipse this day.
Recommended Guides
For an authoritative annual guide to the sky and detailed reference work, see the Observer’s Handbook published each year in Canadian and U.S. editions by The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. I used it to compile this list.
The RASC has also partnered with Firefly Books to publish a more popular-level guide to the coming year’s sky for North America, in the 2021 Night Sky Almanac, authored by Canadian science writer Nicole Mortillaro. It provides excellent monthly star charts.
However, feel free to print out my blog or save it as a PDF for your personal reference. To share my listing with others, please send them the link to this blog page. Thanks!
January
The year begins with a chance to see three planets together at dusk.
January 10 — Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn within 2 degrees (°)
Even three weeks after their much publicized Great Conjunction, Jupiter and Saturn are still close and visible low in the evening twilight. On January 10 Mercury joins them to form a neat triangle of worlds, but very low in the southwest. Clear skies and binoculars are a must!
NOTE: The red circle on this and most charts represents the 6.5° field of view of a typical 10×50 binocular. So you can see here how binoculars will frame the trio perfectly. All charts are courtesy the desktop app Starry Night™ bySimulation Curriculum.
January 14 — Thin waxing crescent Moon above line of Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn
Saturn disappears behind the Sun on January 23, followed by Jupiter on January 28, so early January is our last chance to see the evening trio of planets, tonight with the crescent Moon.
January 20 — Mars and Uranus 1.6° apart
Uranus will be easy to spot in binoculars as a magnitude 5.8 green star below red Mars, so this is your chance to find the seventh planet. The quarter Moon shines below the planet pair.
January 23 — Mercury at a favourable evening elongation
This and its appearance in May are the best opportunities for northern hemisphere observers to catch the innermost planet in the evening sky in 2021. Look for a bright magnitude -0.8 “star” in the dusk twilight.
February
This is a quiet month with Mars the main evening planet, but now quite small in the telescope.
February 18 — Waxing Moon 4° below Mars
The pairing appears near the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters high in the evening sky.
March
Mars shines high in evening sky in Taurus, while the three planets that were in the evening sky in January begin to emerge into the dawn sky.
A 200+ degree panorama of the arch of the winter Milky Way, from south (left) to northwest (ar right) with the Zodiacal Light to the west at centre. This was from Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta on February 28, 2017.
March 1 — Zodiacal light “season” begins in the evening
From sites away from light pollution look for a faint glow of light rising out of the southwest sky on any clear evening for the next two weeks with no Moon.
March 3 — Mars 2.5° below the Pleiades
This will be a nice sight in binoculars tonight and tomorrow high in the evening sky, and a good target for tracked telephoto lens shots.
March 4 — Mercury and Jupiter just 1/2° apart
Close to be sure! But this pairing will be so low in the dawn sky it will be difficult to spot. They will appear equally close on March 5 should clouds intervene on March 4.
March 9 — Line of Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and waning crescent Moon
Three planets and the waxing crescent Moon form a line across the dawn sky but again, very low in the southeast. The even thinner Moon will be below Jupiter on March 10. Observers at low latitudes (south of 35° N) will have the best view on these mornings.
March 20 — Equinox at 5:37 a.m. EDT
Spring officially begins for the northern hemisphere, autumn for the southern, as the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north. Today, the Sun rises due east and sets due west for photo ops.
March 30 — Zodiacal light season again!
With the Moon out of the way, the faint zodiacal light can again be seen and photographed in the west over the next two weeks, but only from a site without significant light pollution on the western horizon.
April
The inner planets appear in the evening sky, while Mars meets M35.
The arch of the Milky Way over the Red Deer River valley and badlands at Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, Alberta, on May 19/20, 2018 just after moonset of the waxing crescent Moon.
April 6 — Milky Way arch season begins
With the waning Moon just getting out of view, this morning and for the next two weeks are good nights to shoot panoramas of the bright summer Milky Way as an arch across the sky, with the galactic core in view to the south. The moonless first two weeks of May, June and July will also work this year, but by August the Milky Way is reaching high overhead and so is difficult to capture in a horizontal landscape panorama.
April 24 — Mercury and Venus 1° apart
The two inner planets will be very low in the western evening sky tonight and tomorrow, but with clear skies this is a chance to catch both at once. Use a telephoto lens for the best image.
April 26 — Mars passes 1/2° north of M35 star cluster
This will be a fine scene for binoculars or a photo op for a tracked telephoto lens or telescope in a long enough exposure to reveal the rich star cluster Messier 35 in Gemini.
May
On May 26 a totally eclipsed Moon shines red in the west before sunrise for western North America.
May 12 — Venus and Moon 1.5° apart
Look low in the western evening sky this night for the pairing of the thin crescent Moon and Venus, and the next night, May 13, for the crescent Moon higher and 4° away from Mercury. These are good nights to capture both inner planets using a short telephoto lens.
May 16 — Mercury at a favourable evening elongation
With Mercury angled up high in the northwest this is the best week of the year to catch it in the evening sky from northern latitudes.
The total lunar eclipse of April 4, 2015 taken from near Tear Drop Arch, in western Monument Valley, Utah. This is a single 5-second exposure at f/2.8 and ISO 400 with the Canon 24mm lens and Canon 6D, untracked. The sky is brightening with blue from dawn twilight.
May 26 — Total Eclipse of the Moon
The first total lunar eclipse since January 20, 2019, this “TLE” can be seen as a total eclipse only from western North America, Hawaii, and from Australia and New Zealand. Totality lasts a brief 15 minutes, with the Moon in Scorpius not far from red Antares. The red Moon in a twilight sky will be beautiful, as it was for the April 4, 2015 eclipse at dawn over Monument Valley, Utah shown above.
Those in western North America will see the totally eclipsed Moon setting into the southwest in the dawn hour before sunrise, as depicted here. Over a suitable landscape this will be a photogenic scene, as even at mid-eclipse the Moon will be bright red because it passes so far from the centre of Earth’s umbral shadow.
Unfortunately, those in eastern North America will have to be content with a view of a partially eclipsed Moon setting in the morning twilight.
A bonus is that this is also the closest and largest Full Moon of 2021, with a close perigee of 357,311 kilometres occurring just 9 hours earlier. So the Full Moon that rises on the evening of May 25 will be the year’s “supermoon.”
See Fred Espenak’s EclipseWise.com page for details on timing and viewing regions. The dark region on this map does not see any of this eclipse.
May 26 — Comet 7/P Pons-Winnecke at perihelion
The brightest comet predicted to be visible in 2021 (as of this writing) is the short-period Comet Pons-Winnecke (aka Comet 7/P). It reaches its closest point to the Sun — perihelion — the night of the lunar eclipse and is well placed in Aquarius high in the southeastern dawn sky above Jupiter and Saturn.
But … it is expected to be only 8th magnitude, making it a binocular object at best, looking like a fuzzball, not the spectacular object depicted here in this exaggerated view of its brightness and tail length.
May 28 — Mercury and Venus less than 1/2° apart
Look low in the northwest evening sky for a very close conjunction of the two inner worlds. A telescope will frame them well, with Mercury a tiny crescent and Venus an almost fully illuminated disk.
June
While eastern North America misses the total lunar eclipse, two weeks later observers in the east do get to see a partial solar eclipse.
May 10, 1994 Annular Eclipse taken from a site east of Douglas Arizona Showing “reverse” Bailey’s Beads — lunar mountains just touching Sun’s limb 4-inch f/6 apo refractor at f/15 with Barlow lens, and with Ektachrome 100 slide film !
June 10 — Annular eclipse of the Sun
Should you manage to get yourself to the path of the Moon’s anti-umbral shadow you will see the dark disk of the Moon contained within the bright disk of the Sun but not large enough to cover the Sun completely. You see a ring of light, as above from a 1994 annular eclipse.
The Moon is near apogee, so its disk is about as small as it gets, in contrast to the perigee Moon two weeks earlier. During the maximum of 3 minutes 51 seconds of annularity the sky will get unusually dark, but none of the dramatic effects of a total eclipse will appear. The annulus of sunlight that remains is still so bright special solar filters must be used at all times, covering the eyes and lenses.
The region with the best accessibility to the path is northwestern Ontario north and east of Thunder Bay. However, the annular phase of the eclipse there occurs at or just after sunrise, so clouds are likely to obscure the view, as are trees!
The eastern seaboard of the U.S. and much of eastern Canada can see a partial eclipse of the Sun, as can most of Europe. For details of times and amount of eclipse see Fred Espenak’s EclipseWise website.
Summer officially begins for the northern hemisphere, winter for the southern, as the Sun reaches its most northerly position above the celestial equator. The Sun rises farthest to the northeast and sets farthest to the northwest, and the length of daylight is at its maximum.
June 22 — Mars passes through the Beehive star cluster
Mars, now at a modest magnitude +1.8, appears amid the Beehive star cluster, aka M44, tonight and tomorrow evening, but low in the northwest in the twilight sky. Use binoculars or a telescope for the best view.
July
Venus and Mars put on a show low in the western twilight.
July 2 — Venus passes through the Beehive star cluster
Venus (at a brilliant magnitude -3.9) follows Mars through the Beehive cluster this evening, but with the pairing even lower in the sky, making it tough to pick out the star cluster.
July 4 — Mercury at a good morning elongation
Though not at its best for a morning appearance from northern latitudes, Mercury should still be easy to spot and photograph in the pre-dawn sky in Taurus, outshining bright Aldebaran.
July 11 — Grouping of Venus, Mars and waxing crescent Moon
Look low in the evening sky for the line of the thin crescent Moon, bright Venus and dim Mars all in the same binocular field. Venus passes 1/2° above Mars on the next two nights, July 12 and 13.
July 21 — Grouping of Venus, Mars and Regulus
The two planets appear with bright Regulus in Leo, all within a binocular field, but again, low in the northwest twilight. The colour contrast of red Mars with white Venus and blue-white Regulus should be apparent in binoculars.
August
The popular Perseid meteors peak, and we can see (maybe!) the extremely close conjunction of Mercury and Mars.
The core of the Milky Way in Sagittarius low in the south over the Frenchman River valley at Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan.
August 1 — Milky Way core season opens
For southerly latitudes, the first two weeks of May and June are also good, but from the northern U.S. and much of Canada, the nights don’t get dark enough to see and shoot the bright galactic centre until August. The rich star clouds of Sagittarius now shine due south as it gets dark each night over the next two weeks.
August 2 — Saturn at opposition
Saturn is at its closest and brightest for 2021 tonight, rising at sunset and shining due south in Capricornus in the middle of the night.
A composite of the Perseid meteors over Dinosaur Provincial Park on the night of August 12/13, 2017.
August 12 — Perseid meteor shower peaks
The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight with a waxing crescent Moon that sets early, to leave most of the night dark and ideal for watching meteors. Look for the crescent Moon 5° above Venus on August 10.
August 18 — Mars and Mercury only 0.06° apart!
Now this is a very close conjunction, with Mercury passing only 4 arc minutes from Mars (compared to the 6 arc minute separation of the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21, 2020). But the planets will be very low in the west at dusk and tough to sight. This will be a conjunction for skilled observers blessed with clear skies and a low horizon.
August 20 — Jupiter at opposition
Jupiter, now in Aquarius, reaches its closest and brightest for 2021 tonight, also rising at sunset and shining due south in the middle of the night. On the night of August 21/22, the Full Moon, also at opposition — as all Full Moons are — appears 4° below Jupiter, as shown above.
September
It’s Harvest Moon time, with this annual special Full Moon occurring close to the equinox this year for an ideal geometry, making the Moon rise due east.
Zodiacal Light at dawn on September 24, 2009. Taken from home in Alberta, with a Canon 5D MkII and 15mm lens at f/4 and ISO 800 for 6 minutes, tracking the sky so the ground is blurred.
September 5 — Zodiacal light “season” begins in the morning
With no Moon for the next two weeks, from sites away from light pollution look to the pre-dawn sky for a faint glow of light rising out of the east before twilight brightens the morning sky.
September 20 — Full “Harvest” Moon
Occurring two days before the equinox, this Full Moon will rise nearly due east (a little to the south of east) at sunset and set nearly due west at sunrise at dawn on September 21, for some fine photo ops.
September 22 — Equinox at 3:21 p.m. EDT
Autumn officially begins for the northern hemisphere, spring for the southern, as the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south. Today, the Sun rises due east and sets due west for photo ops.
October
Mercury adorns the dawn while Venus shines bright but low at dusk.
October 4 — Zodiacal light “season” begins in the morning
With the Moon out of the way for the next two weeks, the zodiacal light will again be visible in the east in the pre-dawn hours.
October 9 — The Moon 2.5° from Venus
The crescent Moon passes close to Venus this evening, with the pair not far from the star Antares. The low altitude of the worlds lends itself to some fine photo ops. Look for a similar close conjunction on the evening of November 7.
October 25 — Mercury at its most favourable morning elongation
The high angle of the ecliptic — the path of the planets — on autumn dawns swings Mercury up as high as it can get in the morning sky, making this week the best for sighting Mercury as a “morning star” in 2021 from northern latitudes.
October 29 — Venus at its greatest angle away from the Sun
While now farthest from the Sun in our sky, its low altitude at this time of year makes this an unfavourable evening appearance of Venus.
November
The second lunar eclipse brings a mostly red Moon to the skies over North America.
November 3 — Moon and Mercury 2° apart, then a daylight occultation
Before dawn, with Mercury still well-placed in the morning sky, the waning crescent Moon shines 2° above the planet, with Mars below and the star Spica nearby. Later in the day, about noon to early afternoon (the time varies with your location), the Moon will occult (pass in front of) Mercury. This will be a challenging observation even with a telescope, with the pale and thin Moon only 14° east of the Sun. A very clear sky will be essential!
Total lunar eclipse November 8, 2003. Taken through Astro-Physics 5″ Apo refractor at f/6 with MaxView 40mm eyepiece projection into a Sony DSC-V1 5 megapixel digital camera, mounted afocally.
November 19 — 97% Partial Eclipse of the Moon
Though not a total eclipse, this is the next best thing: a 97% partial! And unlike the May 26 eclipse, all of North America gets to see this one.
Mid-eclipse, when the Moon is most deeply embedded in Earth’s umbral shadow, occurs at 4:04 a.m. EST (1:04 a.m. PST) on November 19. While not convenient timing, it ensures that all of the continent can see the entire 3.5-hour long eclipse. The partial umbral phase begins at 3:18 a.m EST (12:18 a.m. PST).
At mid-eclipse, the Moon will resemble Mars — a red world with a bright south “polar cap” caused by the small 3% of the southern edge of the Moon outside the umbra. Its position near the Pleiades and Hyades clusters will make for a great wide-field image.
Remember — this occurs on the night of November 18/19! So don’t miss it thinking the eclipse starts on the evening of November 19. You’ll be a day late!
The year ends with a chance to see four planets together at dusk.
Nov. 23, 2003 total solar eclipse over Antarctica on Qantas/Croydon Travel charter flight out of Melbourne, Australia. Sony DSC-V1 camera. 1/3 sec, f/2.8, 7mm lens, max wide-angle.
December 4 — Total Eclipse of the Sun
I include this for completeness, but this total solar eclipse (TSE) could not be more remote, as the path of totality lies over Antarctica. Only the most intrepid will be there, in expedition ships and in aircraft. (I took this image over Antarctica at the November 23, 2003 total eclipse one 18-year Saros cycle before this year’s TSE.) Even the partial phases are visible only from southernmost Australia and Africa.
December 6 — Moon 2.5° below Venus
With Venus just past its official December 3 date of “greatest brilliancy” (at magnitude -4.7), the waxing crescent Moon appears close below it, with Saturn and Jupiter further along the line of the ecliptic in the southwest. The Moon appears below Saturn on December 7 and below Jupiter on December 8.
A single bright meteor from the Geminid meteor shower of December 2017, dropping toward the horizon in Ursa Major.
December 13 — Geminid meteor shower peaks
The most prolific meteor shower of the year peaks with a waxing 10-day-old gibbous Moon lighting the sky, so not great conditions. But with luck it will still be possible to see and capture bright fireballs.
December 21 — Solstice at 10:59 a.m. EST
Winter officially begins for the northern hemisphere, summer for the southern, as the Sun reaches its most southerly position below the celestial equator. The Sun rises farthest to the southeast and sets farthest to the southwest, and the length of daylight is at its minimum.
December 31 — Four planets in view
As the year ends the same three planets that adorned the evening sky in early January are back, with the addition of Venus. So on New Year’s Eve we can see four of the naked eye planets (only Mars is missing) at once in the evening sky.
My free Amazing Sky Calendar for 2018 is now available for download! Plan your astronomical year!
As in recent years, I have prepared a free 12-month Calendar listing loads of celestial events, Moon phases, highlighted space events, and with small charts to show what’s happening in the sky for the coming year. The monthly pages are illustrated with my favourite images from 2017.
You can download it as a 25-megabyte PDF at my website at
The Amazing Sky 