Header Image: Total lunar eclipse seen in Chicago.  Header Image Credit: Nick Lake  Eclipses don’t happen often. When they do, they come in pairs about two weeks apart. A partial solar eclipse on April 30 overshadows only a small portion of the Southern Hemisphere–but the eastern half of the U.S. gets the chance to see […]

Header Image: Hubble’s new portrait of Jupiter. Header Image Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley). Before dawn breaks each morning, take a look at what is rising before the Sun this month, April 2022.   The first week of the month, the brightest planet, Venus, and […]

Header Image: Adler Planetarium’s Lookup graphic depicting the spring and fall celestial event, Chicagohenge It’s time to “spring forward” and experience one of Chicago’s most picturesque sky highlights this month, March 2022. Daylight Saving time for 2022 starts March 13, at 2:00 am local time. On this morning we “spring-forward” by setting our clocks ahead […]

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 outside of the Adler Planetarium at night with the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn brightly lit in the background. Image Credit: Mike Smail If skies are clear, we’ll get a chance to see all the planets visible to the unaided eye—and, just maybe, a comet—this month, December 2021. Comet Leonard, discovered in January […]

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: 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 […]

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 […]