Astronomy & Sky
What is really happening overhead: meteor showers, solar storms, auroras, comets and missions — with times, visibility and what tradition made of it.
21 stories in this topic
NOAA's New 27-Day Outlook Puts a G1-Level Kp 5 on Halloween Night and November 1, One Solar Rotation After the October 4 Storm
NOAA's 27-day outlook of October 19 lists Kp 5, the G1 storm line, on October 31 and November 1, 27 days after the October 4 G2 storm; the...
Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks Wednesday, October 21: Moonset-to-Dawn Windows for U.S. Cities as NOAA Moves Its G1 Aurora Call to Tuesday Evening
The Orionids peak at 18 UTC Wednesday, October 21; USNO moonset-to-dawn windows for four U.S. cities, and NOAA's shifted G1 aurora forecast for Tuesday evening.
Euclid Telescope Discovers Its First Comet, C/2026 S1, ESA Announces October 19: A Visitor 810 Million Miles Out
The European Space Agency announced Monday, October 19, that its Euclid space telescope has discovered its first comet, C/2026 S1 (Euclid), spotted as a faint streak in September...
NOAA Issues G1 Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Tonight, October 19–20: Auroras Possible Over the Northern U.S. as the Orionids Build
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G1 geomagnetic storm watch on October 18 for October 19 and 20. A coronal hole high-speed stream is expected to reach...
Japan's MMX Probe Launches Monday, October 19, to Bring Home a Piece of Mars's Moon Phobos
Japan's MMX probe lifts off Monday, October 19, at 3:41 p.m. ET for Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos, carrying NASA instruments and a French-German rover, and will return...
World's Timekeepers Vote on October 15 to End Leap Seconds in 2027 and Call for a Clock for the Moon
The 28th General Conference on Weights and Measures voted on October 15, 2026 to end leap seconds from May 20, 2027 and called for an international lunar reference...
The Wow! Signal of 1977: What the New Data Show
The Wow! signal is a 72-second narrowband radio signal near the hydrogen line at 1420 megahertz, recorded by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope at 11:16 p.m....
New Sunspot 4549 Fires Two M-Class Solar Flares Before Dawn on October 6; Forecasters Check for a CME
Updated: October 6, 2026, 8:21 AM ET · Sky desk A sunspot group that emerged only in the past few days fired two M-class solar flares within two...
Hubble Finds Signs of a Planet Born From a Dead Star's Ashes, NASA Announces October 5
Updated: October 5, 2026, 2:20 PM ET · Sky desk NASA announced on Monday, October 5, that the Hubble Space Telescope has found chemical evidence of a planet...
Moon to Hide Jupiter Before Dawn on Tuesday, October 6: City-by-City Times for the Rare U.S. Occultation
Before dawn on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, the 20 percent waning crescent Moon passes in front of Jupiter for about an hour across the eastern and central United...
G2 Geomagnetic Storm Hits Earth on October 4: Coronal Hole Wind Outruns the Forecast, Auroras Across the Northern U.S.
On Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 4:57 PM ET, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center recorded a G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storm, Kp 6, caused by a fast solar wind...
NASA's October Sky Guide Goes Spooky: Algol the "Demon Star" and the Witch Head Nebula (Published September 28)
On September 28, NASA's Night Sky Network published its October 2026 Night Sky Notes, "Spooky Stargazing": Algol, the Demon Star in Perseus that dims about every three days,...
Moon magic for the nights you watch the sky
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