It’s night and you’re looking up into the night sky. What’s the first constellation you see? If you thought to yourself “the Big Dipper,” you’re not alone! In Western culture, it’s often one of the first things we learn to recognize in the night sky as children. For many people in the United States, this […]

From moon phases to meteor showers, the Adler Planetarium has got you covered when it comes to knowing what to look for in the sky. Read our list below to get started! At all times, half of our Moon is lit by the Sun, just as half of the Earth is always lit by the […]

Though the Sun sets later and later each evening this month, there are still plenty of fine night-sky sights in May 2019. After sunset, look about 25 degrees above the west-northwest horizon to see the planet Mars. It’s dimmer than first magnitude in brightness, but it’s still bright enough—and colorful enough—to be easily spotted. The […]

Header Photo: Overhead image of Kankakee/Bradley, IL from Far Horizons high-altitude balloon test flight 118 on April 29, 2018. The image was shot from 24.5 kilometers up into the stratosphere. This flight was the first successful NiteLite test flight, proving that mapping light pollution in Chicago would be a possibility. Since the dawn of humanity, […]

The Adler Planetarium’s Doane Observatory has had a bumpy right over the last 12 months. But it’s finally back in working condition. Learn about its journey to recovery!

Though Spring has begun in the Northern Hemisphere, some of the night sky’s brightest stars—usually associated with wintertime—can still be seen this month, April 2019. Look to the southwest during evening twilight, to see a rhombus-shaped pattern of bright stars—like a long, thin, horizontally-stretched-out square in the sky. The top point of the rhombus is […]

When was the last time you saw more than five stars in the night sky? More than ten? Twenty? How about the Milky Way? Ever looked up a vast, hazy band of light that trails from one end of the night sky to the other and felt as though the heavens were reaching down toward […]

The closest “Supermoon,” of the year and glimpses of all the naked-eye-visible planets can be expected during February 2019. About an hour after sunset, the planet Mars is about halfway up in the sky, between the zenith and the southwest horizon. It’s not as bright as some of the wintertime evening stars to its east, […]

Bright stars and planets, meteors, an eclipse, a “Supermoon,” and a close approach by the Sun are all expected during January 2019. In evening twilight this month, the planet Mars is high in the southern skies. The night of the 12th, it appears near a waxing crescent Moon. Each evening Mars appears higher in the […]