astronomy

A new moon is a monthly lunar phase when the Moon is between Earth and the Sun, with its sunlit side facing away from Earth, making it largely invisible in the night sky. A luna...

During a Jupiter and Mars conjunction, the planets appear extremely close in the sky from Earth, creating a notable celestial alignment that is widely tracked in observational a...

The planet that is called the evening star is Venus . When Venus orbits to the east of the Sun, it appears in the western sky after sunset and shines with a steady, brilliant wh...

The new moon is the lunar phase when the Moon and Sun share the same ecliptic longitude, placing the Moon between Earth and the Sun. The side facing Earth remains largely dark,...

The crescent moon and Venus frequently draw attention in the evening or morning sky because their orbits and vantage points align in ways that bring them into the same patch of...

Starry names are the words used to identify stars and constellations, ranging from traditional proper names to scientific designations. This guide explains how astronomers assig...

The waxing moon describes the period when the visible illuminated portion of the Moon increases each night, progressing from the New Moon toward the Full Moon. During a waxing c...

Planets in retrograde are a predictable astronomical phenomenon, not a rare celestial event: they appear to move backward in the sky because Earth overtakes slower outer planets...

The longest day of the year in 2019 was the June solstice, which occurred on Tuesday, June 21, 2019. On that day, daylight reached its maximum extent for the year in each hemisp...

Venus is Earth’s closest planetary neighbor and the third-brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. When the Sun sets or rises, Venus often appears as a brilliant po...