When skies do clear this month, we will be treated to excellent views of Saturn, the Leonid meteor shower, and a nice conjunction between Jupiter and Mars.
Welcome to October, our first full month of autumn. Days are becoming shorter and nights longer. Sunrise is now after 7 a.m., and sunset is before 7 p.m. By the end of the month, sunset will come before 6 p.m.
In September we’ll see the return of Saturn to the evening sky, the harvest full Moon, some nice passes of the International Space Station, and the opposition of the planet Neptune.
Three things in particular interest me this August, those being a partial lunar eclipse, an excellent year for the Perseid meteor shower, and the return of Saturn to the evening sky.
Welcome to the first full month of summer, and the start of the second half of 2026. Warm summer nights make for excellent stargazing. Venus will again be the one bright planet that is easy to see in July.
June is here, with our longest days and shortest nights. At the start of June, sunset occurs at about 8:50 p.m. On the summer solstice, June 21, the sun will set at about 9 p.m. Sunset will remain at about 9 p.m. for the rest of June. Darkness will obviously come late — on June 21 it will not get completely dark until after 11:30 p.m.
Welcome to April! If you were not able to view the March 3 Lunar eclipse, check it out on the Goldendale Observatory website, at www.goldendaleobservatory.com. Look under “special events” and you can watch a video of the entire eclipse, or a two-minute timelapse.
