I don't know about you, but I'm having flashbacks to October 2009, when the media went nuts about NASA "bombing" the moon. more ›

The fall weather may be appealing, but the gloomy skies the past couple of days haven't really helped anyone looking up for Comet Hartley 2, which made it's closest pass yesterday. It's still pretty darn close (just 11 million miles away!), so if the skies clear up you can find the icy comet to the left of Taurus in the constellation Auriga, starting a little after 10 p.m. Meanwhile, NASA's Deep Impact probe, on its EPOXI mission we discussed last week, ventures closer to Hartley every day, preparing for its fly-by on November 4. more ›

File this under Look Up: the International Space Station is going to make some incredibly bright passes overhead the next few days. SpaceWeather.com explains, "the behemoth spacecraft will be in constant sunlight as its orbit lines up with Earth's day-night terminator," which also means that most locations will see it pass overhead multiple times a night. Here in D.C. we'll see it first tonight at 10:04 p.m. followed by a second pass for the night-owls at 4:02 a.m. Saturday night, catch it at 8:56 p.m. and 4:29 a.m. Click over to the satellite tracker for where to look in the sky – for tonight's first pass, look towards the the West-Southwest and stack your outstretched fist about five times high from the horizon, which is about 50 degrees. If we have clear skies, the ISS will be brighter than Mars and Saturn, and nearly as bright as Venus – all three planets will be also be in the Western sky tonight. more ›

Look Up has discussed the Summer Triangle a couple of times before. The asterism (a pattern of stars that are not an official constellation) rises at dusk, just in time for the solstice on Monday, the time when the Northern Hemisphere tilts closest to the Sun, the longest day of the year, and, yes, the real first day of summer. Click through to philliefan99's photo above to see where he's marked the 'triangle' points -- the stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair -- in the 20 second exposure. more ›

The news is all about the planets this week. For fiery flashes on Jupiter, Mars and Venus aligning with stars, nearby comets, and possible alien life in our solar system, keep on reading. more ›

A slice of nostalgia for your Sunday afternoon: friend of DCist John Ulaszek sent Look Up this great copy of an old Weekly Reader magazine he dug up a couple weeks ago. The cover features the upcoming launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia on Mission STS-2 -- the second launch in the brand new space shuttle program and also the second launch for Columbia, with a crew of just two. As often happens, the launch was delayed twice and eventually went up on November 12, 1981, where the crew tested new capabilities, including the Remote Manipulator System, or as most of us call it, the CanadArm. Still working out the kinks, STS-2 was cut short when a fuel cell failed, and landed a little over two days after lift-off; this brings to mind the many NASA officials and supporters who've been saying over the past year that we're cutting the shuttle program right when we started getting really good at it. more ›

Once these pesky rainclouds clear out -- they should by Wednesday -- take a minute to enjoy a fantastic show at dusk. Venus and Mercury, the two planets closer to the Sun than Earth, are both visible about a half an hour after sunset right now. Sky and Telescope has a good visual, with Mercury trailing Venus to the lower right in the western sky. Wait until next Saturday to see them closest together in the sky. more ›

The Earth travels around the Sun at a brisk 18 miles per second. At the same time, the Sun, dragging the solar system with it, orbits around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at around 155 miles per second. The Milky Way orbits within our Local Group, which is being pulled by the gravity of the massive Virgo Cluster. And finally, we move relative to the expanding Universe at a speed of almost 400 miles per second. more ›

We mentioned last week that the two brightest planets in our sky would soon converge together with the crescent Moon in the early evening, making their final swoop towards each other tonight. Flickr user (and our reliable astro-photographer) philliefan99 took this image on Saturday night, when they were still fairly far apart, but knowing the rain would make it tough to photograph on Sunday. We're looking at partly to very cloudy skies tonight, but try to scope them out anyway. If it's clear, the three will be visible just after sunset -- as you can tell from the photo above -- so look up while you're leaving the office today. Venus, Jupiter and the Moon will be huddled in the southwestern sky near the horizon and will be so close that you can cover all three with your thumb at arms length. Enjoy the show! more ›