Header Image: Adler Planetarium graphic depicting the fall celestial event, Chicagohenge. If you like dark-sky viewing, you’ll get more opportunities for it this September 2021 as Earth’s Northern Hemisphere approaches an equinox. The autumnal equinox, marking the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere, falls on the 22nd, at 2:21 p.m. CDT. On the autumnal equinox […]

Header Image: Snapshot of the annual Perseids Meteor Shower in 2016 from West Virginia. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Of the three major meteor showers that occur each year, only one takes place when the weather is reliably warm. The Perseid meteor shower is a highlight of this month, August 2021! The Perseids peak around the […]

Header Image: The Moon surface as seen via the Adler’s Doane Observatory in April 2017. It may be the warmest time of the year for the Northern Hemisphere, but the Earth actually is at its furthest point away from the Sun this month, July 2021. Aphelion—the annual point in Earth’s orbit when it’s furthest from […]

Traditionally April’s Full Moon has been called the “Pink Moon,” for the flowers that begin to bloom in the warmer weather. However, some people will be calling it a “Supermoon” this month, April 2021. The Moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t a perfect circle; sometimes the Moon is further away from Earth, sometimes it’s closer. […]

Header Image: Mars can be seen here during its opposition in October 2020. Image Credit: Astrophotographer Nick Lake Is that bright “star” in the sky really a star, or could it be a planet?  There’s plenty of both to look for this month, February 2021! Shortly after sunset, look high in the south-southwest skies to […]

Header Image: Night photography set up with Comet NEOWISE in the background, taken in July 2020. Image Credit: Nick Lake It’s the beginning of 2021, stargazers! Earth is in the “just-right” zone for life to form—it orbits not too far from the Sun, and not too close. However, Earth’s distance from the Sun varies slightly […]

Header Image: Jupiter and two of its Moons, Io and Ganymede. Image Credit: NASA/Damian Peach To end this unprecedented year, we’ll all get to celebrate beneath a “Great Conjunction” in December 2020. For the past six months, the brilliant planet Jupiter and the dimmer (but still bright) planet Saturn have appeared several degrees away from […]

Header Image: The outside of the Adler Planetarium at night with the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn brightly lit in the background. Image Credit: Mike Smail Many of us lost an hour earlier this year, but we get back that hour this month, November 2020! Most of the United States uses Daylight Saving time, which starts […]

Header Image: Astrophotography picture of the Moon. Image Credit: Nick Lake What, exactly, is a blue moon, and how rare is it? This question seems like it should have a straightforward answer, but as with all things related to language, it’s complicated. Absurd, Impossible, or Rare? The phrase blue moon has been around for several […]

Header Image: Up close image of the Moon taken by an Adler Planetarium astronomer in June 2020. Image Credit: Michelle Nichols The “Red Planet” is at its closest and brightest for the year this month, October 2020. On the 6th, the planet Mars reaches its closest point to Earth for the next 15 years. In […]