fantasia and friend Wiggle!

stargazer, what a memory! And to think it was in Canada.

The past few nights have been unusually clear and cold, so we have had the privilege of observing the close proximity of Venus and Mercury in the rosy twilight of the western sky. Absolutely gorgeous.

And how I love to see Orion high in the SE early each cloudless evening. I never tire of that wonderful sight, with his belt pointing directly at bright Sirius below. ♥

Your view of Mercury and Venus in the west sounds wonderful, Jo. To me there is something special about the winter twilight, those rosy colors promising grand views of dark starlit skies later in the evening.

I haven't seen the pair yet, due mainly to lots of clouds of late (not to mention three significant snowfalls, counting the one later today). Trees in that direction would also complicate things.

The first Chinese space station, Tiangong 1, is expected to reenter the atmosphere sometime in the next 6 weeks or so. In the meantime it can still be viewed on its occasional night passes. From this far north it is always low in the south and not nearly as bright as the ISS, so I've found it much more of a challenge to spot. As with the ISS and other satellites, heavens-above will provide viewing predictions for your own location.

Night owls may have noticed a bright orange light low in the southeast or south after midnight of late. This is Mars, a planet which much of the time is fairly unimpressive visually. But every 2 years or so, it comes to opposition - opposite the sun in the sky, visible all night, and generally at its brightest and best.

Every 15 or 17 years, Mars is especially big and bright, and this is one of those years (the last was 2003). Mars is already brighter than any star in the night sky and will soon surpass Jupiter to become the 4th brightest object visible.

It will continue to brighten and rise a little earlier each night until July 28, when it rises at sunset and shines all night. It will remain bright into September, but by then will be fading just as fast as it is brightening now.

These really favorable appearances come at a time when Mars is always low in the southern sky as seen from mid-northern latitudes, but from Down Under the view must be spectacular. Mars passes almost overhead as seen from the latitude of Sydney, Australia.

No matter where you live, Mars will be impressive the next couple months.

I'm a little behind on this post, but I've really been enjoying the lineup of planets lately right after the sun goes down. Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars all in a row. We vacationed in Colorado last week and had pretty decent views, particularly if you were willing to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning after the haze had cleared.
We also stepped out several nights to watch the Perseids and saw several meteors streak across the sky.
I also chuckled at how many satellites we saw.

Glad you got to see some Perseids, fantasia. It so smoky here it was hard to see much more than even the Moon.

We vacationed in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park some years back and we were all impressed with how spectacular the night sky is there.

Due in part to my more-northerly latitude, our view of the evening planets probably isn't quite as good as yours - Venus is close to the horizon even at sunset (usually hidden by trees), and none of the planets get very high in the sky.

Doing some camping this weekend with friends. I hope to have at least some clear skies. I might even fit my telescope into the van.
The spot we go is away from most lights so the Milky Way should be not hard to make out if there isn't any haze from smoke.
Only drawback might be the pesky mosquitos

I tried spotting our green comet buddy tonight with no luck. There were high clouds and I didn't quite know where to look. (Though I know it was close to the Pleiades.)
Has anybody else seen it?

I have been wanting to spot the comet, fantasia, but we have had so much cloud cover lately that there has not been a chance. Sky & Telescope has an informative article on Comet *looks up its name again * 46P/Wirtanen.

I was really wanting to see some Geminids at the shower peak a few nights ago, but alas ... clouds! This shower can yield up to 120 meteors an hour! The only disadvantage is that this time of year up here can be rather chilly (to put it mildly), so one has to bundle up to be meteor-gazing, versus the Perseids in August when not even a sweater is needed, usually.

The very few times there has been a break in the clouds in early morning, I have loved to see the bright eye of Venus shining in the south-east in the dawn hours. What a sight. I never tire of it.

Clouds have also hindered my attempts to look for 46P. In addition to the every-increasing moonlight there's also all the city lights here. I've seen a few comets from the suburbs, but it's usually a challenge.

I went out with 10x50 binoculars early this evening but didn't see it. If it were a small point source instead of a blob I might have had a chance with all the lights. I may wait until the moon is out of the picture to try again, but for a good look I'd have to drive to the country.

I've also enjoyed the spectacular view of Venus in the morning (with dawn not coming until close to 8 am, it means I can observe without having to get up too early ). The ISS may approach it in brightness (and Iridium flares can surpass it), but there's something about its constant brightness that is special.

We went out and looked the following night and I thought I might, maybe, possibly, could have seen it? It looked kind of fuzzy and greenish through my binoculars but we were also in town and I couldn't hold my binoculars perfectly steady.

That sure sounds like other comet reports I've seen.

The clouds are back in these days and it even rained overnight. Now that's rare...

Even with clouds and thick fog, however, there were a number of sightings of a bright fireball over the area around 2 am this morning, from observers spread out over about 100 miles. The reports on the American Meteor Society page give magnitude estimates of -15 to -21 (brighter than the full moon) even under those conditions. There is a video here and many observers reported sounds as well.

Alas, I was fast asleep at the time.

That fireball sighting is so cool, stargazer! Why can't they come more often when we're awake and just happen to be looking out the window or outside at the time?

I'm eager for the total lunar eclipse for the Americas this Sunday night ... as long as the weather keeps its "clear" forecast, which is after a potential snowstorm, so time will tell.

The sky was perfect here last night for the Full Wolf Moon eclipse. The only thing was the frigid temperature, near -40 F or C, including windchill. I went to sleep early (8:30 pm), to awaken around midnight, in the midst of totality. I bundled myself up and headed outside to that awesome, utterly quiet sight. Our village was still and sleeping, so my time alone reveling in the eclipse was unforgettable. Because of the bitter cold, I was in and out a fair bit from just after midnight until 2:15 a.m., when the penumbra was last visible. What a treat! I then went back to sleep for another 3 hours, even awakening in time to go for an early morning swim (didn't think I'd get that in, with being up a couple of hours in the night ). It was SO worth getting up in the middle of the night for that marvelous celestial sight!

What/how were your respective experiences?

Glad you were able to enjoy the view, jo!

Yesterday was perfectly clear during the day, if chilly. We had some friends over in the evening so I was able to share eclipse viewing with about half a dozen friends (several were eclipse veterans).

The night was brisk (air temperature around 0F with a little wind chill), but not as invigorating as Jo's temperatures.

Clouds were predicted to move in overnight in advance of snow today (which has arrived), so by the time the umbral phases started (9.34pm local time), the sky was slightly hazy with some bands of very thin clouds. We were able to observe out on the deck, which faces east and south.

We also were in and out of the house a lot due to the temperature. By the time we reached totality, the sky was hazy and it even seemed foggy in the south (in the area of Sirius and Orion, which is also the direction of the Minneapolis city light glare). The surroundings were darker, not only due to the eclipse but the haze overhead. The moon was dark orange and quite pretty.

By the time totality ended (11.44pm), the moon was in a relatively clear area of the sky, though the rest of the sky was pretty hazy. We watched until the moon was about half uncovered and then called it a night. Very impressive!

Haven't had a chance to post in this thread yet, but I bundled up with coats and blankets and headed outside about 20 minutes before totality. My husband and I enjoyed some views through our telescope and got one pretty decent photograph. But the cold chased me back in so I didn't watch much more after that.