This interesting video is a recreation of Voyager 1 and its 1980 passage near Saturn and several of its moons:

https://youtu.be/5zjkxeL5wTo?si=2LskQnjRTrIzG

Enjoy! 🙂

If your sky is clear on Tuesday, March 3, check out a total lunar eclipse. The Pacific basin is well-placed to see it all, with it happening before and near dawn in North America and around sunset/moonrise in eastern Australia and Asia. Europe and Africa will miss out.

The next total lunar eclipse is September 7 and favors Asia.

More about this one: March eclipse

@stargazer 

I saw part of the lunar eclipse early yesterday morning.  It was the first 45 minutes of the earth’s shadow covering the moon, which turned grayish red. After that time clouds completely covered the moon.  It was worth getting up at 4:00 AM to see the event even for only part of it. Solar eclipses are much more rare and spectacular, and I remember seeing the one that occurred almost two years ago. 

'Though our forecast was for mostly clear skies the morning of the lunar eclipse, the clouds moved in earlier than anticipated. I was walking from 5:45 to nearly 7 am, with hardly any night sky visible. But I did see, briefly, the eclipse through lighter clouds just before totality, lower in the west, with only the bottom right crescent still white. After that, even thicker cloud cover blanketed the sky. Disappointing. But I was grateful even for that wee beautiful glimpse (whilst hoping for much more).

However, the sunrise in the eastern sky was really lovely and colourful, so that was a bonus.  

Glad you both got to see a little of the eclipse. I was up most of the night, but the overcast remained thick with no view of the moon at all.

The sky cleared yesterday, offering a nice view of the moon in our warmer weather (the temperature was 37F/3C when I was out last night).

The next lunar eclipse for North America is a very deep (96% covered) partial one in August.

I saw eclipse here in Victoria, Australia.  It was a clear night and very impressive here! It was a lovely night to see it here, mid-teens evening temperature (Celsius).  The time when the moon was completely in earth's shadow was at approximately 10.30pm AEDST.

Apparently the next total lunar eclipse visible here in Australia will welcome in the new year on January 1, 2029.

Wonderful that you were able to see the lunar eclipse, Pete! 

After all the clouds and snow we have had for the past four+ months, the night sky is finally showing itself again periodically. The last two mornings were a couple of those times. I am out for my walk about 6:15 am each morning, when the dawn is barely beginning in the eastern sky. 'Though it would have been darker a half hour before, at least I was able to see a few major constellations:

*The Big Dipper higher in the north, with its handle pointing to clear, ruddy Arcturus, then down much further to Spica in the lower west

*Scorpius with prominent Antares in the lower southern sky

*Cygnus/the magnificent summer triangle high above

And in this crisp, clear air (it was a comfortable -8C / 17.6F, with a fairly stiff wind), the night sky was so-o-o beautiful!

Each Friday, the S&T website publishes "This Week's Sky at a Glance," listing daily highlights for the week including moon phases along with the planets and constellations that dominate the night sky.

This week's entry for Wednesday simply says, totally deadpan, "On this special date only, Orion flips upside down. Think photo opportunity."

Yeah, I get it.   

Posted by: @stargazer

This week's entry for Wednesday simply says, totally deadpan, "On this special date only, Orion flips upside down. Think photo opportunity."

Yeah, I get it.   

Oh yes, the same date on which the BBC once treated viewers to the spectacle of spaghetti being harvested from trees. (Seriously, Google "BBC spaghetti tree hoax" — it is quite possibly the best April Fool's prank ever. )

On the other hand, I would argue that Orion always IS upside down on this strange side of the world. Just like the Moon. It still looks totally wrong to me, even after all these years.  

@courtenay, after I recognized the joke on that page, one of my first thoughts was of you and others Down Under who might think Orion is always upside down here. 🙂