Comet Leonard to Appear in the Norfolk Skies
The Celestial Sphere By Matthew Johnson We begin the month of December and continue into January with long nights, reaching a maximum on the evening of the winter solstice on Dec. 21—with 14 hours and 56 minutes of darkness and only 9 hours and 4 minutes of daylight. After the 21st, each day grows a […]
Over Half a Century of Spaceflight
The Celestial Sphere by Matthew Johnson Sixty years ago, in 1961, the Russian Yuri Gagarin and the American Alan Shepard rocketed into space, beginning a competition between their two nations and an adventure in space that continues today. Gagarin was born in 1934 in the Russian village of Klushino, a peasant village that suffered severely […]
New Space Telescope Made in America
The Celestial Sphere by Matthew Johnson The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch in December. The concept for the telescope was conceived in 1995, and construction started a decade later. Many of the components have been built using multiple technologies, with the work done by hundreds of engineering corporations in America, Canada and […]
Looking Into Our Universe’s Past
The Celestial Sphere by Matthew Johnson The James Webb Space Telescope, weighing more than seven tons, is scheduled to be launched in late September or October by a European Ariane 5 rocket from the European spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana, very close to the earth’s equator. The most important aspect in the telescope’s name […]
A Great Year for the Perseids
The Celestial Sphere By Matthew Johnson The upcoming Perseid meteor shower may prove to be one of the best meteor showers of the year. At its peak on the night of Aug. 11, it may display as many as 60 to 100 meteors per hour. Comets leave behind particles as they travel through our solar […]
Micrometeorites in Norfolk
Celestial Sphere by Matthew Johnson A meteor is a small body of matter from outer space that becomes incandescent and appears as a streak of light due to friction when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. A meteorite is a meteor that survives the Earth’s atmosphere and strikes the ground. Most are of rocky matter, however, […]
In June, the Sun Rules the Celestial Sphere
The Celestial Sphere by Matthew Johnson Summer officially begins on the longest day of the year in our hemisphere. On June 20 at 11:32 p.m. the Earth will have traveled in its elliptical orbit around the sun to the point where we are most directly in line with the sun’s rays. This marks the summer solstice […]
May Viewing
The Celestial Sphere by Matthew Johnson The planet Mercury is always a challenge to view, but this May will be the best month to see it during the year 2021. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, so it can only be viewed at dusk just after the sun sets or at dawn just […]
April (Meteor) Showers and a Pink Moon
Text and Sketch By Matthew Johnson Naked-eye observing of the planets in April will take place during early morning or just after sunset. At dawn on April 5, the crescent moon, Jupiter and Saturn form a line along the southeast skyline. At dawn on the 6th, the moon will be just below Saturn, forming a […]
Another Jupiter Conjunction and a Mars Landing
The Celestial Sphere by Matthew Johnson Viewers on NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory website on February 18 witnessed telemetry history—the Mars rover, Perseverance, ferrying its small helicopter companion, Ingenuity, entered Mars’s thin atmosphere at 52 kilometers per second, slowed its descent with retro-thrusters and, after deploying a parachute, touched down in the Jezero crater landing site. […]
