The most distant object obersvable with the unaided eye is visible in our current night time sky. It is the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, M31. There are many ways to find this object. I prefer to use the constellation Cassiopeia.
Cassiopeia was the Queen of Ethiopia. She is commonly depicted as a lady on a throne, [...]
Grab your party hats and telescopes, it’s time to celebrate 400 years of observational heliocentrism.
You have a good opportunity this week to observe Venus and see the dynamic geometry of the solar system in action.
While you are looking at Venus, appearing like a diminutive first-quarter moon in your telescope’s eyepiece, consider this:
Last year several Clark Planetarium staff members had the opportunity to watch the DM-1 test firing of the Ares solid rocket motor in Promontory, Utah. I was there, watching the visual representation of what 3.6 million pounds of thrust (22 million horsepower) looks like and it was pretty incredible.
Next Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010, at 9:05 a.m. [...]
One of the most reliable and memorable meteor showers of the year will peak on August 12. That’s when the Earth will collide with a stream of particles left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle. While these particles will hit Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds of 130,000 miles per hour, there is no need for Earthlings to [...]
The Perseid meteor shower peaks at 6:00 pm, MDT, on Thursday, August 12, 2010. Predictions are for a healthy 90 meteors per hour at peak. A waxing crescent Moon will set early and give meteor watchers a good dark sky on the nights of the 11th and the 12th.
Regardless of the predicted peak hour, the [...]
20% chance of an aurora visible tonight. Look to the north from a dark location!
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn are all visible in the evening skies this week. Mercury sits alone near the Sun, but Venus, Mars and Saturn are grouping together. Mercury is 25 degrees away from the Sun and 20 degrees away from the other planets. Venus, Mars and Saturn are all within 10 degrees of each [...]
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn are all visible in the evening skies this week.
Mercury will be the most difficult to see, being only about 20 degrees away from the Sun at the beginning of the week, and 23 degrees away from the Sun by end of week. However, it is a bright magnitude 0 object.
Venus [...]
Clark Planetarium and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts have partnered to present you with the complete Mayan cultural experience at an amazing discount. Visit Clark Planetarium’s facebook page for a buy one get one free coupon to both Tales of the Maya Skies at Clark Planetarium and Las Artes de México at the Utah Museum of Fine [...]
In our first season’s discussion we learned how the Earth’s distance from the Sun has very little effect on the seasons. In this discussion, we will dispel another common misconception about the seasons.
Misconception #2: There are two days in the year when the Sun is directly over the North or South Poles of Earth.
During the [...]
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