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Stargazing to Star Charts: Engaging Students in the Wonders of Astronomy

Space nerds, take the giant leap! Designing a celestial wedding for star struck lovers

APOD:Comet 220P in Outburst
Image Credit & Copyright: Spilios Asimakopoulos

Explanation: Comet 220P is unexpectedly bright. Normally, periodic Comet 220P/McNaught is so dim that to see it requires a telescope. Two surprising outbursts this year, however, have made it about 20,000 times brighter than usual, so that it is now visible with binoculars and long-duration camera exposures. As expected, Comet 220P continues to orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter with a period of over 5 years. The featured long duration exposure, taken 10 days ago from South Africa, shows the comet's bright green head and short dust tail. Reasons for Comet 220P's impressive outbursts are unknown but could be caused by the release of built-up subsurface gas or comet quakes. Comet 220P will pass about one Earth-Sun distance from the Earth in October, after which it is expected to fade quickly as it begins its return to the far part of its orbit.

APOD:JWST Images The Lion's Head Nebula

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)

Explanation: Are we looking at the future of our Sun? The James Webb Space Telescope captured today's composite image of the Lion's Head Nebula (NGC 2392) with its NIRCam and MIRI instruments. The Lion's Head Nebula is the remnant of a Sun-like star. This star was unable to sustain the nuclear fusion in its core needed to remain stable. It began to shed layers of gas and dust into space, forming this planetary nebula. A hot stellar core, called a white dwarf, is left behind within the lion's nose. Do not boop this nose! Intense radiation from the white dwarf is ionizing the gas as it expands, creating the irregular bubble that makes up the lion's face. Dust clumps that have survived the white dwarf's radiation and a cloud of ionized gas make up the lion's mane. This new and more detailed view of the nebula will help humanity learn more about how the gas and dust interact with each other and the white dwarf radiation.

APOD:Eclipse Pair
Image Credit & Copyright: Gwenaël Blanck

Explanation: Eclipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can nearly align. Then the new and full phases of the Moon, separated by just over 14 days, create a solar and a lunar eclipse. But only rarely is the alignment at both new moon and full moon during a single eclipse season close enough to produce a pair with both total solar and lunar eclipses. More often, partial eclipses are part of any eclipse season. But, the last eclipse season of 2026 did produce this fortnight-separated pairing of a total solar eclipse on August 12 (top) and an almost total lunar eclipse on the night of August 27/28. At New Moon, the solar eclipse was captured at Peñafiel, Spain near the begining of totality in this HDR composite image, revealing a flash of Bailey's beads and a golden solar corona. At the following Full Moon, the deep partial lunar eclipse was recorded from Sèvres, France. Also an HDR composite, the image shows this partial eclipse at closer to half its 93 percent maximum phase, so about half the visible lunar disk appears darkened and reddened within Earth's umbral shadow. The coming eclipse season will see an annular solar eclipse on 2027 February 6 paired with a penumbral lunar eclipse on February 20/21.