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...
Meteors
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
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
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...
July 2022, End of the Trail: Bolides
Photos © Cheryl Shank.
Cool Night, Cozy Blankets, Hot Cocoa, &…
Once upon a cool August evening, our family happened to be camping in a dark, open area near Jasper, Alberta, Canada, where we had an amazing view of the sky.One evening, something caught our dad’s...
In Our Skies, May 2022: Lunar Eclipse
Meteor activity is divided quite unevenly between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, with the Northern Hemisphere getting a better view of nearly every meteor shower of the year. The Eta Aquarid...
Our Lunar Adventure
Lunar eclipse. Photo © Kevin Shank. It was November 16, 2021, and excitement was high for us siblings. Tonight was a lunar eclipse!It was cloudy, and we were a bit worried. But, it was windy, and we...
