Fredericton Astronomy

07/23/2026

Gibbous moon tonight. Not that I'm playing a broken record, but the low gibbous moon tonight is a beaut! Courtesy the lunar standstill of 2025. When the solstice lined up with the full moon.

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07/08/2026

Live stream tonight! Stephan Hamel is doing a live stream of his astro imaging tonight. Questions and feedback are welcome. Come check out and enjoy one of Canada's premier astrophotography's. Start time 11:15pm

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06/05/2026

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 June 6 – June 13
Globular clusters are among the oldest and largest objects associated with our galaxy, with some being about 12 billion years old and containing tens to hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a compact sphere. There are more than 150 globulars orbiting in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy, and many more are known to be orbiting larger galaxies like M31 in Andromeda. Many can be seen in binoculars as a fuzzy patch of light, perhaps resembling those little white patches you see below bird feeders. A medium size telescope is able to resolve some of their stars. The larger globulars as seen from a dark location have been described as looking like granules of sugar against black velvet.

Summer is the season for observing globular clusters. M4 is just to the right of Antares in the constellation Scorpius and it is one of the closest globulars at 7000 light years. M13 in the Keystone of Hercules is relatively close at 25,000 light years. One that would outshine M13 if it were higher in our sky is M22, just left of the lid of the Teapot in Sagittarius. Another easy target is M3, located halfway between Arcturus and Cor Caroli, the brightest star in the small constellation Canes Venatici below the handle of the Big Dipper. Two other standouts are M92 in Hercules and M5 in Serpens.

From a dark sky, many dimmer globulars can be picked out in the region of Sagittarius and Ophiuchus. The concentration of globular clusters in this region of sky is not by accident, and it played a role in another lesson of humility for humanity. Harvard’s Harlow Shapley studied globular clusters a century ago and noticed that most were located around Sagittarius. If they were evenly distributed around the core of our galaxy, as believed, then the centre of the galaxy must lie in that direction. Just as Copernicus and Galileo demoted Earth from the centre of the solar system, Shapley showed that the Sun was not at the centre of the Milky Way.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Fredericton is at 5:37 and sunset will occur at 9:13, giving 15 hours, 36 minutes of daylight. Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:35 and set at 9:18, giving 15 hours, 43 minutes of daylight.

The Moon is at third quarter on Monday, rising at 1:36 am and setting at 1:26 pm. It is above Saturn Wednesday morning and Mars on Friday. A scenic conjunction of the two brightest planets is underway as Venus slides over Jupiter early in the week, coming as close as three Moon-widths. (Actually, Jupiter is nearly five times farther from us than is Venus.) They remain within a binocular view all week. Mercury moves to with a fist-width of Jupiter by the end of the week. On Tuesday telescope users might see the shadow of Jupiter’s moon Callisto join that of Europa on the planet’s atmosphere at 10:24 pm, a double shadow transit lasting until after Jupiter sets.

The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre this Saturday at 7 pm. Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and page of Astronomy by the Bay. The Fredericton Astronomy Club meets in the UNB Forestry-Earth Sciences building on Tuesday at 7 pm.

05/15/2026

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 May 16 – May 23

By 10 pm the zigzag constellation of Draco the Dragon is halfway up the northeastern sky to the right of the Little Dipper. Draco’s tail is a line of stars between the Big and Little Dippers. One of those stars is Thuban, which lies between the bowl of the Little Dipper and the middle of the Big Dipper’s handle. About 5000 years ago, when the Egyptian pyramids were built, Thuban was the North Star and entrances to the pyramids were designed with a descending passageway aligned to this star. Coincidentally, the inner two stars of the Big Dipper’s bowl point to Thuban, just as the outer pair points toward Polaris, the current North Star.

From the tail, Draco arcs around the bowl of the Little Dipper and then curves back toward Hercules, with its head being a quadrilateral of stars by the strongman’s foot. The two brightest stars in Draco’s head, Eltanin and Rastaban, are its eyes. They are the brightest and third brightest of the constellation. The faintest of the four is a treat in binoculars, showing matching white stars that resemble headlights or cat eyes. In mythology, the dragon was one of the Titans, rivals of the Olympians. In one of their battles, Athena slung the dragon high into the northern sky. Writhing to right itself, it struck against the northern sky and froze in that position.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Fredericton is at 5:53 and sunset will occur at 8:53, giving 15 hours of daylight. Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:46 and set at 9:01, giving 15 hours, 15 minutes of daylight.

The Moon is new and near perigee on Saturday so expect extreme tides early in the week. On its way to first quarter next Saturday the waxing crescent is very close to Venus on Monday evening, nearing Jupiter on Tuesday, lining up with the Gemini stars Pollux and Castor on Wednesday, and by Friday it leads Regulus toward the western horizon. On Sunday telescope and maybe binocular users might see Jupiter’s moon Europa emerge from the planet’s shadow at 9:50 pm followed by Io three minutes later. This weekend Saturn is rising 95 minutes before sunrise, followed by Mars half an hour later. If you need an excuse for a party, Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun next Friday.

The Kouchibouguac Star Party is this weekend, May 15-16. See the RASC NB website for details. Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and page of Astronomy by the Bay.

05/11/2026

UNB Forest & Geology building. 2 Bailey Drive. room #104 at 7pm.

Agenda
- Welcome
- Local events
- What's up for May
- Coffee break
- Photos/ observations
- The "Backyard Astronomer's Guide" A. Loerns
See you there !

05/11/2026

Reminder - meetup Tuesday night at UNB - May’s monthly meeting! See you there!

04/13/2026

Hi everyone there is an astronomy meeting tomorrow location: UNB Forest & Geology building. 2 Bailey Drive. room #104 at 7pm.
Here is what is on for the agenda
See y there !
-Welcome

-Local events

-What’s up

-Artemis II discussion – Maria DiCarlo.

Bring your space memories and reflections on the historic Artemis II mission. What struck you… well maybe not physically? Did it spark excitement about returning to space, did it bring flashbacks of the Apollo era, are we going to Mars!

-Coffee Break

-Photos and observing

-Ursa Major talk, Ted D.

04/06/2026

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 April 4 – April 11
In April we can start a long goodbye to the winter constellations. Orion and Ta**us are setting together, which makes it easier to imagine their eternal battle. The bull is protecting the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) from the amorous advances of Orion, who is about to strike a downward blow to the bull’s head with his upraised club. The bull’s long horns, one tip of which is the bottom left star of Auriga (Elnath - officially the second brightest star of Ta**us), are not to be taken lightly. It is difficult to tell which of the two combatants is more dangerous.

The winter constellations of Auriga and Gemini are still up past midnight but Rigel, in the knee of Orion and the low point of the Winter Circlet of bright stars, is setting around 11 pm. With the Pleiades sinking in the western twilight, through a thicker layer of our atmosphere, they will twinkle more. I have a pleasant memory of seeing them with binoculars when they were low in the west, flickering wildly like candles on a birthday cake. I had the urge to make a wish and blow them out. In a few weeks Venus will be beside the Pleiades, perhaps to cast a love spell on the sisters.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise is at 7:00 and sunset will occur at 7:59, giving 12 hours, 59 minutes of daylight. Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:47 and set at 8:08, giving 13 hours, 21 minutes of daylight.

The Moon is near Antares on Monday and it is at third quarter next Friday. Venus dominates the western sky in the evening, setting around 9:45 this weekend. This week telescope users can get an idea of how quickly its moon Io orbits. On Tuesday it begins to transit the face of Jupiter at 10:29 pm, followed by its shadow at 11:46, and the following evening it disappears behind the planet at 11:21. Still a challenging binocular target, Mercury brightens slightly over the week, rising about 45 minutes before sunrise this weekend and 40 minutes next weekend. Rural observers might see the subtle glow of zodiacal light in the west 60 to 90 minutes after sunset.
The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre at 7 pm on this Saturday. Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and page of Astronomy by the Bay.

03/08/2026

Hi everyone there is an astoronomy meeting march 10th at UNB Forest & Geology building. 2 Bailey Drive. room #104

- WBJ Observatory heritage video. D. Kelly
- Sky conditions / discussion.
- Coffee Break
- Photos / Observing.
- Space Tidbits News.