by Shaphan Shank | Sep 1, 2023 | 2023, 09 September, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Exploring Our Skies, Nebulas, Star Clusters, Study Guide
View the August 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide Aquila, the Eagle, is a mid-sized constellation that lies right along the summer Milky Way. Aquila is always fairly easy to find, but locating it is especially easy this year because Jupiter and Saturn are currently about...
by Shaphan Shank | Jul 1, 2023 | 2023, 07 July, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, In Our Skies, Meteors, Moon, Planets
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 because it is the second-strongest shower of the year, with a zenith...
by Steven Smith | Jul 1, 2023 | 2023, 07 July, Astronomy, Galaxies, Study Guide, The Photo Focus
View the July 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide There are few things more beautiful than a breathtaking landscape or nightscape—especially one that includes the Lord’s incredible Milky Way! A panorama enhances everything we love about landscapes, because panoramas show...
by Morris Yoder | May 1, 2023 | 2023, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, The Heavens Declare God's Glory
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 direction—to us, at the speed of light. Light is essentially...
by Shaphan Shank | May 1, 2023 | 2023, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, In Our Skies, Meteors, Planets
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 by moonlight. On a year without moonlight interference, the Eta Aquarid...
by Shaphan Shank | May 1, 2023 | 2023, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Double Stars, Exploring Our Skies, Galaxies, Star Clusters, Study Guide
View the May 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide M64 On May evenings, our planet is turned so that we are looking out the side of the Milky Way instead of looking edgewise through its arms. This orientation means that there are few star clusters and nebulae in the evening...
by Morris Yoder | Mar 1, 2023 | 2023, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, The Heavens Declare God's Glory
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 were in Alaska, we were able to see Mt. Denali from the Kashwitna River...
by Shaphan Shank | Mar 1, 2023 | 2023, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Double Stars, Exploring Our Skies, Nebulas, Star Clusters, Study Guide
View the March 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide Canis Major, the Great Dog, lies in the southern sky just southeast of Orion. Like Orion, many of the stars that make up Canis Major are bright. The constellation’s brightest star, Sirius, is the brightest star in our...
by Shaphan Shank | Feb 27, 2023 | 2023, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Conjunctions, Eclipses, In Our Skies, Meteors, 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 Venus, will approach to about 0.5° from each other. The brilliant pair...
by Shaphan Shank | Feb 1, 2023 | 2023, 02 February, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Exploring Our Skies, Nebulas, Star Clusters, Study Guide
View the February 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide The Pleiades. Photo © Shaphan Shank. Taurus, the Bull, is a distinctive constellation that lies just northwest of Orion, high in the evening sky in late winter. A V-shaped group of stars forms the bull’s head, and two...
by Marcus Peachey | Jan 1, 2023 | 2023, 01 January, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Galaxies, Nebulas, Planets, Star Clusters, Telescopes & Accessories
View the January Nature Friend Magazine Andromeda Galaxy. Photo © Shaphan Shank. “Good night, Dad and Mom,” I said as I strode to the door, clad in a winter coat, hat, and boots.“Good night,” they replied—Mom with a sigh, glad she wasn’t so consumed with a desire to...
by Morris Yoder | Jan 1, 2023 | 2023, 01 January, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Nebulas, Star Clusters, The Heavens Declare God's Glory
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 crosses high in the southern sky, then sets in the west at sunrise. It’s...
by Shaphan Shank | Dec 1, 2022 | 2022, 12 December, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Double Stars, Exploring Our Skies, Galaxies, Nebulas, Study Guide
View the December Nature Friend Study Guide NGC 253. Photo © CC by 3.0. The southern sky is nearly devoid of bright stars on evenings in late autumn and early winter. Cetus, the Whale, is a relatively large constellation that lies in the middle of this star-poor...
by Kevin Shank | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022, 11 November, Astronomy, Covers, Nebulas
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine Tarantula Nebula. Photo by James Webb Space Telescope and the NIRCam instrument.
by Kevin Shank | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022, 11 November, Astronomy, Galaxies, Let's Take a Hike
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine Cartwheel Galaxy. Photo by James Webb Space Telescope and the NIRCam instrument.
by Anna Boggs, Rural Retreat, VA | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022, 11 November, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Meteors
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 outside shortly after 10:00 p.m. Expectantly, I turned my face to the sky...
by Morris Yoder | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022, 11 November, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Galaxies, Nebulas, Telescopes & Accessories, The Heavens Declare God's Glory
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 universe. Each time a bigger and better telescope was built, astronomers were...
by Kevin Shank | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022, 11 November, Astronomy, End of the Trail, Galaxies, Nebulas, Planets
View the November 2022 Nature Friend Magazine
by Fonda S. Eby | Oct 1, 2022 | 2022, 10 October Bonus Readers' Issue, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Galaxies, Nebulas, Star Clusters
Beehive Cluster, M44. Photo © CC-SA-4.0. It was a cold, clear 32° F (0° C) Sunday night as my dad and I left our cozy house, bundled in warm winter clothes. Shivering, we walked out to our stargazing spot behind the shop where we would be away from lights. Immediately...
by Shaphan Shank | Oct 1, 2022 | 2022, 10 October Bonus Readers' Issue, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Exploring Our Skies, Nebulas, Star Clusters, Study Guide
Helix Nebula, NGC 7293. Photo © Dreamstime.com. Aquarius is a sprawling constellation that stretches across nearly 40° of the southern sky on autumn evenings. This constellation lies south of the Great Square of Pegasus and north of the bright star Fomalhaut (the only...
by Kevin Shank | Sep 1, 2022 | 2022, 09 September, Astronomy, Galaxies, Mailbox, Nebulas
by Morris Yoder | Sep 1, 2022 | 2022, 09 September, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Black Holes, The Heavens Declare God's Glory
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” telescope in our observatory shows a jet surging out of the core of the...
by Shaphan Shank | Sep 1, 2022 | 2022, 09 September, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Eclipses, In Our Skies, Meteors, Moon, Planets, Sun
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 sunrise. Earth is closer to Neptune at opposition than at other times...
by Shaphan Shank | Aug 1, 2022 | 2022, 08 August, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Double Stars, Exploring Our Skies, Nebulas, Study Guide
Ring Nebula. Photo © NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScl/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Lyra, the Harp, is a small constellation that lies almost straight overhead on August evenings in the mid-northern latitudes. Lyra is outlined by just five stars. Four of...
by Kelsey, 8, and Blake, 6, Stoutjesdyk | May 1, 2022 | 2022, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Contest, Galaxies, Meteors, Story Contest
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 eye. He looked up to see a shooting star streak through the sky....
by Morris Yoder | May 1, 2022 | 2022, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Nebulas, The Heavens Declare God's Glory
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 brightest star that you see in this photo is named Alnitak, and it’s the...
by Shaphan Shank | May 1, 2022 | 2022, 05 May Story Contest, Astronomy, Eclipses, In Our Skies, Meteors
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 shower is the lone exception. This shower favors the south side of...
by Shaphan Shank | May 1, 2022 | 2022, 05 May Story Contest, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Constellations, Double Stars, Exploring Our Skies, Galaxies, Star Clusters, Study Guide
Canes Venatici is a small constellation, consisting of only two stars. However, it is quite easy to find due to its location just south of the Big Dipper. Like many of the surrounding constellations, Canes Venatici holds quite a few galaxies.M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy,...
by Joseph Mazelin, 12 | Mar 1, 2022 | 2022, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Contest, Meteors
Weasel. Photo © Dreamstime.com. “Don’t stay out longer than eight o’clock,” Mom reminded us as we headed out the door.This was the night of the Geminid meteor shower, and my brother and I were going out to watch it. Once outside, we found Dad gazing up...
by John Lapp,11 | Mar 1, 2022 | 2022, 03 March, Articles & Stories, Astronomy, Contest, Meteors
“Did you hear of the Geminid meteor shower tonight?” I asked my family at the supper table.“Yes,” came the answer.“Well, I want to go watch it tomorrow morning. Does anybody want to go with me?”A little silence, then…“I don’t know. I’d like to catch up on...
