Astro Bob's Astronomy for Everyone

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Astro Bob's Astronomy for Everyone

For the latest on "what's up in the night sky" please go to duluthnewstribune.com/lifestyle/astro-bob

11/02/2026

Wonderstruck by water drop weirdness

I enjoy looking at water droplets up close. Yesterday I got down really low with my camera on a raindrop-covered aspen leaf. The leaf veins pressed into the bottom of each drop. Seen from just the right angle, the bottoms acted like tiny mirrors that reflected the veiny texture upward through the droplets, making them look like foil-wrapped eggs. I'd never noticed this before.

11/01/2026

Neat alignment of moon, planets and Regulus before dawn Monday morning, Nov. 2

Tomorrow morning the waning moon will join Mars, Jupiter and Regulus, Leo's brightest star, in a snaky arrangement in the eastern sky. The reptilian quartet clears the trees around 1 a.m. local time and reaches its highest altitude at dawn. Since the moon moves its own diameter to the east every hour, its position changes noticeably overnight in relation to Mars. The two will be closest at dawn at a little more than 1° apart.

If you're up early you'll notice the sun rises an hour earlier because we're back on standard time. What we gain in the morning, however, we lose in the evening. The sun sets an hour earlier Sunday night. Here in Duluth sundown is at 4:52 p.m. It's now dark without a trace of twilight by 6:30 p.m. Whoa — that's early!

10/31/2026

Small coronal hole aurora Friday night, Oct. 30 visible in Duluth

The aurora's been out low in the north this evening — a low green arc with a few small rays. It's still active and will likely simmer much of the night.

10/30/2026

Haunted nights and Halloween aurora

Meet the Jack o' lantern Nebula. Winds from a massive star inside NGC 3576 in Centaurus carve holes in the surrounding nebula, turning it into a creepy pumpkin face. The images are from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The colors change because different filters were used to create the image. I also added a couple of my own scary aurora photos — a green bat from 2017 and spooky corona from Oct. 2024. I love Halloween from its sweets to its terrors.

Observers in the border states and Canada have a good shot at seeing aurora Friday night, Oct. 30 and Halloween night. We're expecting a G1 (minor) storm from dual coronal hole blasts. Northern observers should watch for an arc and rays in the lower half of the northern sky as soon as nightfall. The sky will be dark until moonrise around 9;30 p.m.

10/27/2026

Moon occults the Pleiades Tuesday night, Oct. 27

You'll need a boost from binoculars or a small telescope, but tonight the moon cuts straight across the lovely Pleiades star cluster and occults a bunch of its stars. Optical aid is necessary because the moon is still very bright and washes out the cluster.

In northern Minnesota and NW Wisconsin we'll see 4 or 5 of the bright "Pleiads" covered and uncovered starting around 6:45 p.m. — with the moon very low in the northeastern sky — and finishing at 8:15 p.m.

Observers in eastern time zone, where the moon's higher up, can watch with ease from start to finish. In the mountain states the moon begins to exit the cluster shortly after moonrise. Farther west no occultations are visible.

10/25/2026

"Mini-moon" Venus tiptoes through the treetops

Yesterday Venus passed between the Earth and sun. Today, Oct. 25, it's still nearly in line. We had good skies so I poked around and found the paper-thin crescent. It was a sweet sight in blue skies. I took this photo with a long telephoto lens as the planet tickled the treetops. Photo made around 2 p.m. when just 0.7% of the Earth-facing side of the planet was illuminated by the sun.

We also were treated to occasional displays of iridescent clouds with intense colors caused by the diffraction of light around trillions of minute water droplets that compose the clouds. Colors are as is and not enhanced.

10/25/2026

Full Hunter's Moon Sunday night, Oct. 25

The traditional name refers to the time to stock up on food — wild game in the past — in preparation for winter. This evening the moon will shine opposite the sun and rise near the time of sunset. In the Duluth area moonrise occurs at 5:26 p.m. a little more than a half-hour before sunset. Look up your local moonrise time here: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/

The photo is from last night. Clouds swept past the nearly full moon creating small, colorful coronas. The trees are mostly bare now as we wait for winter's first blow.

10/24/2026

A leaf's perspective

Had a great walk in the woods a couple days ago. I stopped and listened to the leaves as they fell in a gentle clatter with each gust of wind. Were I a just-fallen leaf I wouldn't despair — the view looking back would be heavenly.

10/23/2026

Venus is (is not) an inferior planet!

Tonight Venus reaches inferior conjunction with the sun. That's when the inner planet passes BETWEEN Earth and the sun. Today (Oct. 23) Venus is a little less that a fist below our daytime star and swamped by its glare. The photo, taken by the ESA / NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, shows the planet very close to conjunction.

At inferior conjunction Venus and Earth are closest — just 25.4 million miles apart today. No other planet gets closer. Inferior refers to the fact that Venus orbits the sun interior to or "below" Earth. When it lines up with the sun and Earth on the far side of the sun it's in superior conjunction and at its most distant.

The Sun-Earth-Venus lineup isn't perfectly square during most inferior conjunctions due to the planets' slightly tilted orbits. A little bit of light shines over the top of Venus, illuminating a thin crescent's worth of its globe. My photo shows the planet during a previous inferior conjunction. Crescent Venus always makes a spectacular sight.

So what's next? Venus moves quickly into the morning sky after conjunction and becomes the Morning Star. Watch for it to return low in the southeastern sky in about 2 weeks, when you'll be able to see its sickle shape with just a pair of binoculars.

10/22/2026

Skimpy Orionids

It was wonderful to be out gazing up at the firmament this morning. I was comfortable, the aurora percolated low in the north, and Jupiter and Mars blazed in the east. All I had to do was watch and wait. Simple bliss.

In the end I only spotted a half-dozen Orionid meteors even under a very good sky. Most were faint. Two were wows. I had two cameras clicking away and captured a million satellites and 3 flaring grains of Halley's Comet. Still, there was much to see including a great showing of the zodiacal light in the east just before the start of dawn. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

How was your experience?

(Photos show a bright Orionid with aurora, a fisheye view of the aurora-zodiacal light-bright Jupiter, and a spooky "skeleton teeth" aurora).

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Duluth, MN

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