Tag: Celestial News

By Jimmy Westlake, professor of physical science, Alpine Campus There are a number of star clusters visible to the unaided eye, like the well-known Pleiades and the Beehive clusters, but there is only one star cluster that forms a constellation all by itself.  You can see it high in the eastern sky on April evenings…

By Jimmy Westlake, professor of physical science, Alpine Campus After Monday’s full Paschal Moon, the stage is set for Easter Sunday on April 4.  According to ancient tradition, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the Paschal Moon, so the date of Easter can come as early as March 22 or as late as April…

By Jimmy Westlake, professor of physical science, Alpine Campus While the debate rages on about what is and what isn’t a planet in our solar system, astronomers continue to discover planets orbiting other stars.  As of March 20, the official count of extrasolar planets stood at 443.  When you stop to consider that only fifteen…

  By Jimmy Westlake, professor of physical science, Alpine Campus It’s been nearly a year since the planet Venus graced our evening sky.  Venus spent last spring, summer, and fall, as our morning star, rising in the east an hour or two before the sun.  Then, on January 11, Venus passed behind the sun as…

By Jimmy Westlake, professor of physical science, Alpine Campus After a remarkable two-year hiatus, sunspots are coming back.  This prolonged sunspot minimum is the longest in a century and has kept solar astronomers on the edge of their seats.  If recent activity is any indicator, then the sunspot minimum may be over at last.