Header Image: Total lunar eclipse seen in the United States on April 15th, 2014 in San Jose, California. Image Credit: NASA Ames Research Center/Brian Day Thanks to a lunar eclipse, you can watch the full Moon fade away and reappear within the space of a few hours this month, November 2021. The eclipse occurs in […]

Header Image: The full Moon appearing right above the Willis Tower in Chicago. Image Credit: Nick Lake The brightest planet in the night sky gets a little brighter every night this month, October 2021. Venus is the brightest planet, and this month it’s easily spotted low in the southwest shortly after sunset. Though it’s bright, […]

Header Image: A person observing through a telescope in July 2021 at the ‘Scopes at the Adler small-group experience inside the Adler Planetarium’s Doane Observatory. I was in graduate school, working on a writing project about vision and light and the brain, when I looked through a real telescope for the first time.   The year […]

Header Image: Adler Planetarium graphic depicting the fall celestial event, Chicagohenge. If you like dark-sky viewing, you’ll get more opportunities for it this September 2021 as Earth’s Northern Hemisphere approaches an equinox. The autumnal equinox, marking the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere, falls on the 22nd, at 2:21 p.m. CDT. On the autumnal equinox […]

Header Image: Snapshot of the annual Perseids Meteor Shower in 2016 from West Virginia. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Of the three major meteor showers that occur each year, only one takes place when the weather is reliably warm. The Perseid meteor shower is a highlight of this month, August 2021! The Perseids peak around the […]

Header Image: The Moon surface as seen via the Adler’s Doane Observatory in April 2017. It may be the warmest time of the year for the Northern Hemisphere, but the Earth actually is at its furthest point away from the Sun this month, July 2021. Aphelion—the annual point in Earth’s orbit when it’s furthest from […]

Header Image: Total solar eclipse from August 21, 2017. An annular solar eclipse occurs—though it won’t be easy to see—and a new season starts this month, June 2021. An annular solar eclipse takes place on June 10; and technically, it is visible in the Chicago area. First off, never look directly at the Sun without […]

Header Image: Eclipse of the Sun illustration from the Adler Planetarium’s Collections Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in April 2021 and was updated in August 2023 with more current information. There are several topics in astronomy that get lots of people excited: naked-eye visible comets, bright planets, auroras…but eclipses are generally at the […]

Header Image: Total lunar eclipse seen in the United States on April 15th, 2014 in San Jose, California. Image Credit: NASA Ames Research Center/Brian Day A good chance to glimpse a hard-to-see planet, a lunar eclipse during Moonset, and the closest Supermoon of the year occur this month, May 2021. Planets To Spot This May […]

Traditionally April’s Full Moon has been called the “Pink Moon,” for the flowers that begin to bloom in the warmer weather. However, some people will be calling it a “Supermoon” this month, April 2021. The Moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t a perfect circle; sometimes the Moon is further away from Earth, sometimes it’s closer. […]