SkyCaramba

By SkyCarambaScience Astronomy

SkyCaramba episodes

November 01 Davis's Dog
The moon passes by Mars, Jupiter, and Regulus.
The moon also passes Venus and Spica.
Uranus is by an asterism called Davis's Dog. Does it look like a dog to you?
6 min
October 25 Venus as a morning object
The moon passes in front of the Pleiades.
Mercury's harder to see in the evening.
Venus, known as the evening star, spends a lot of time in the morning sky too.
6 min
October 18 Finding the false dawn
Mercury is about to go retrograde.
Venus heads for conjunction with the sun.
Mars pursues Jupiter on the way to the lion.
In the right conditions, reflections off of cosmic dust could fool you into thinking dawn has begun.
5 min
October 11 What we learned when Venus crossed the sun
Venus is leaving the evening sky.
Mercury's at greatest elongation.
Saturn stays up all night.
Mars crosses the crab.
What we learn from transits of Venus.
6 min
October 04 Staying up all night with the fishes
Venus and Mercury pair up in the evening.
The moon passes by Mars and Jupiter.
The Draconid meteor shower peaks.
Several objects are at opposition or close to it. And they're in Cetus and Pisces.
6 min
September 27 Jupiter's jaunt behind the moon
Mars at equinox.
The moon hides the Pleiades.
Mercury farthest from the sun.
Venus goes retrograde.
And there's an upcoming occultation of Jupiter. The moon will pass in front of the big planet. But you can also see Jupiter's four brightest moons get hidden too.
6 min
September 20 Try to tune in to another meteor shower
Neptune at opposition.
Mercury passes Spica.
Another daytime meteor shower. You may see some meteors early in the morning. But these meteors are mostly entering the atmosphere by day. Maybe you can listen for them on the radio.
6 min
September 13 Equinox. Equal? NOT!
The moon passes by Venus.
Mercury makes headway into the evening.
Mars is closest to Pollux.
Southern lunistice and lunar apogee.
Not everywhere gets 12 hours of sunlight on the equinox. Some places don't get exactly 12 hours at all--ever.
6 min
September 06 What's in a name? History!
The moon at apogee and heading south.
Uranus goes retrograde.
Mercury moves toward Venus.
What's in a name? Maybe a few thousand years of human oral history. It doesn't seem so now, but Milky Way and galaxy go back to the same origin when people described what they saw in the sky.
6 min
August 30 Star spangled with Spica
The moon passes by Saturn.
Venus is at aphelion.
The moon reaches its farthest north.
Venus passes by Spica, whose light left the star around the time of the American Revolution.
6 min