Header Image: Venus by NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974 Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The brightest planet in the sky gets even brighter than usual this month, February 2022. The planet Venus reaches its greatest brilliance for the entire year this month. Look for Venus very low in the southeast at the start of morning twilight. […]

Header Image: The full Moon appearing right above the Willis Tower in Chicago. Image Credit: Nick Lake The brightest planet in the night sky gets a little brighter every night this month, October 2021. Venus is the brightest planet, and this month it’s easily spotted low in the southwest shortly after sunset. Though it’s bright, […]

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: 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 […]

Header Image: Total lunar eclipse seen in the United States on April 15th, 2014 in San Jose, California. Image Credit: NASA Ames Research Center/Brian Day A good chance to glimpse a hard-to-see planet, a lunar eclipse during Moonset, and the closest Supermoon of the year occur this month, May 2021. Planets To Spot This May […]

Header Image: Chicagohenge Image Credit: @cdats It’s the month named for the god of war, Mars; and the planet Mars is a great focus for the month of March 2021. Last month, NASA’s Perseverance Rover successfully landed on the planet Mars. It joined the still-operating Curiosity Rover already on the Martian surface. Perseverance allows NASA […]

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: The Jupiter-Saturn Great Conjunction happening in December 2020 can be viewed when lookin southwest after local sunset. In astronomy, we often tie a time period to something. “It’s been 50 years since this one thing happened,” or “it’s been 3 years since we saw this other event in the sky.” Every once in […]

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 […]