View the August 2023 Nature Friend Magazine You’ve probably noticed that the Moon appears larger when it lies just above the horizon. This is just an optical illusion. However, the Moon actually...
Meteors
In Our Skies, July 2023: Perseid Meteor Shower
View the July 2023 Nature Friend Magazine The Perseid meteor shower is the most popular meteor shower of the year. This is partly because it always peaks during the warm nights of summer, and partly...
My “Star”
View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Meteor. Photo © Dreamstime.com. It was late in the day when I remembered. Weeks before, I had checked our November Nature Friend. The Geminid meteor shower...
In Our Skies, May 2023: Eta Aquarids
View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak on the night of May 5–6. Unfortunately, that’s also the night of Full Moon, so any faint meteors will be washed out...
In Our Skies, March 2023: Hybrid Solar Eclipse
View the March 2023 Nature Friend Magazine One of the closest planetary conjunctions of the year will occur on the first evening of March. On this evening, the two brightest planets, Jupiter and...
Mailbox, February 2023: Poetry Contest
View the February 2023 Nature Friend Magazine
In Our Skies, January 2023: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
View the January Nature Friend Magazine Comet Neowise 2020. Photo © Cheryl Shank. If you look over a list of the year’s best meteor showers, the Quadrantid meteor shower will likely catch your...
On a Starry Night in December
View the December 2022 Nature Friend Magazine “Papa! May Joshua, Michaela, and I sleep outside on Tuesday night to watch the Geminid meteor shower?” I questioned eagerly, looking up from the...
Many, Many Meteors
View the December 2022 Nature Friend Magazine My brother and I stepped excitedly out of the darkened house into the exhilarating night air. The sky showed no sign of dawn, but in the west an...
From the Editor’s Quill and Scavenger Hunt, November 2022
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine
457 Falling Stars
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine Geminid meteor shower. Photo © Dreamstime.com. The December night was clear and bitterly cold. The freezing winter air burned my lungs as I stepped...
In Our Skies, November 2023: Meteor Showers
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine The second total lunar eclipse of 2022 will take place on the night of November 7–8. The eclipse will be most visible from eastern Asia, Oceania, and...
In Our Skies, September 2023: Planet Oppositions
About once a year, Earth passes between the Sun and Neptune. This event is called an opposition because Neptune is on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun, rising around sunset and setting around...
In Our Skies, July 2022: Planets
Moon. Photo © Shaphan Shank. This month, nearly all the bright planets are strung across the early morning sky. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all easy to find, thanks to their brilliance....
Of Bolides and Birds
Bolide with Tau Herculid meteor shower and fireflies. Photo © Cheryl Shank. I didn’t know birds talk in their sleep, but they surely must. About 12:30 a.m. an Ovenbird began to talk. Before long, a...
