Q-90.1's Backyard Astronomer

As the phase of the moon grows steadily from crescent to first quarter to full, it’s a good opportunity to explore the contrasts of light and dark on its surface.

While the stars of Hercules are not particularly bright, its most distinctive shape are the four stars in its center known as the Keystone.

As evening twilight fades into night, look for three bright stars high in the east that form a giant triangle in the sky. The Summer Triangle is a great way to “star hop” to areas of interest.

Every year on or about July 6, the Earth reaches aphelion, its farthest point from the sun in that elliptical orbit. How can we be at our farthest from the sun in summer?

Earth is at its farthest point from the Sun on July 6th, called Aphelion. Does our distance from the Sun have any effect on the weather?

Keep watching the upper left portion of the Moon all this week for one of its largest "seas." Mare Imbium, or "The Sea of Rains," spans over 700 miles.

As the planets drift very slowly among the stars, sometimes they appear close to each other in the sky – a meetup called a conjunction.

Are there any green stars? Astronomers say no, but observers insist that the brightest star in the constellation Libra the Scales, does look green.

During the month of June, about 90 minutes after sunset, look high in the east, almost overhead for a faint semi-circular pattern of stars. This is the constellation of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.

At the end of evening twilight, look about halfway up the northeast sky for a bright bluish star. This is Vega, and it’s another sign that summer is on its way.

The week of May 22 offers a perfect opportunity to follow the waxing crescent moon. In this case, “waxing” refers to the crescent shape growing larger each night. It's also a good time to identify some of the dark lava basins called Maria.

The early evening sky remains dark for longer periods as the moon rises later each night. This reveals a really nice target for binoculars called the Coma Star Cluster.

Look for the three stars in the handle of the Big Dipper and you’ll notice they form a curve or arc in the sky that you can use to find the star Arcturus.

This week you can see what’s called the Moon Illusion, that time when the full moon seems so much larger near the horizon than when it’s overhead.

Mid-April to mid-May is a good time to see a collection of bright stars in the west called "The Arch of Spring." Even though they’ve been around all winter, we notice these stars more when they get lower in the sky because they’re closer to the horizon.

After three months of what people call the meteor drought, the annual Lyrid meteor shower comes to a peak this week.

For weeks we’ve been treated to the brilliant planet Venus piercing the western sky after sunset, but during the week of April 10, you’ll have a rare opportunity to glimpse the elusive planet Mercury.

If you look high into the northeast after dark, you can find the seven bright stars of the Big Dipper. This is the time of year when the dipper climbs to its highest point in the north, appearing almost directly overhead by month’s end.

The waxing of quarter to gibbous to full is a good time to see details on the lunar surface. With nothing more than a pair of binoculars, you can make out craters, mountains, and the dark colored plains called "maria," or "seas." Probably the best known maria is the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 made the first manned lunar landing in 1969.

While you may know Cancer the Crab as one of the constellations of the zodiac, chances are you’ve never seen it because it’s the faintest of the twelve. But Cancer contains one of the best star clusters for binoculars and small telescopes - The Beehive!