View the November 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Leo Triplet. Photo © Morris Yoder. As always when we learn more about God’s wonderful creation, we face mysteries that are hard to explain. It reminds...
The Heavens Declare God’s Glory
Measuring the Universe—How Astronomers Try
View the August 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Stellar parallax diagram. The claims that modern-day astronomers make about the size of the universe seem almost unbelievable. To better understand the...
Rocket Signs
View the July 2023 Nature Friend Magazine The January 2022 article for this column showed ways to tell the difference between meteors, airplanes, and satellites in the night sky. This month we are...
The Enlightenment of Light
View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Double slit experiment—see article below. We often tend to think of our vision as reaching out to observe things. However, in reality, views flow the other...
The False Dawn
View the March 2023 Nature Friend Magazine False dawn. Photo CC-SA 4-0. We consider air to be invisible, but, in reality, it is filled with molecules of air and vapor that fog our vision. When we...
The Rosette Nebula
View the January Nature Friend Magazine Rosette Nebula. Photo © Morris Yoder. For most observers in the United States at this time of the year, the Rosette Nebula rises in the east at sunset and...
A Webb of Discovery
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine Outer space features. Photo © James Webb Space Telescope and the NIRCam instrument. Engineers have built telescopes that can see far across the...
Black Hole Photography
M87 is a huge galaxy over 50 million light years away with approximately one trillion stars, but these facts are not the most interesting part about the galaxy. A photo taken through the 10”...
Dusty, Milky—Beautiful
Milky Way over Matterhorn. Photo © iStock. Our home galaxy is called the Milky Way because people have long had the idea that it looks like spilled milk drifting across the sky. It’s believed the...
The Horsehead Nebula
Horsehead Nebula. Photo © Morris Yoder. If you’ve ever found the constellation Orion, there’s a good chance you looked right through this complex cloud of dust and gas without realizing it. The...
The Big Dipper
Most people who can pick out at least two constellations in the night sky can point out the Big Dipper. As it turns out, the Big Dipper is not a constellation. It’s an asterism within the...
Satellites
I enjoy relaxing and watching the darkness of night extinguish the distractions of daytime, as the tranquil beauty of the silent stars appears. We’re used to those stars holding still, but at times...
Two Are Better Than One!
Binoviewer. Photo © Morris Yoder. A contractor once told me to always wear safety glasses when appropriate because life with only one eye is difficult. He was talking from experience; he’d lost an...
The Unequal Equinox
I’ve heard it’s possible to balance an egg, or even a broom, on its end on the date of the equinox. There’s a good chance you’ve heard the same thing. It sounds incredible, but it’s true.There’s...
The Great Conjunction: Saturn and Jupiter
Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Photo © Morris Yoder. Jupiter and Saturn appear to pass each other in the sky about once every twenty years. When this happens, astronomers call it a great...
