Rick’s Picks
Transient Events That Can Give Us a Good Enough Reason to Get Outside and Do a Little Observing. Each month Rick Gering lists the sky events by date, from the planets and Jupiter’s moons to conjunctions, occultations, eclipses, meteor showers and comets, with charts to find them. For a guided tour of one area of the sky, see One Good Target.
- Focal Plane (26)
- One Good Target (31)
- Rick's Picks (32)
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October ‘25 – Rick’s Picks
All month: Mercury and Mars share the evening sunset this month, but neither of them will be an easy catch. Mercury begins October at…
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September ’25 – Rick’s Picks
All month: the early evening sky is still bereft of planets this month, other than unimpressive mag +1.6 Mars, now just 4” across, and…
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August ’25 – Rick’s Picks
All month: Mars continues to have the evening sky to itself this month, but it doesn’t make much use of it, setting just after…
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July ’25 – Rick’s Picks
All month: the evening sky belongs almost exclusively to Mars again this month, with Mercury playing a supporting role after sunset until mid-July, about…
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June ’25 – Rick’s Picks
All month: Mercury returns to the sunset sky as Jupiter departs, leaving Mars as the only planet on the evening stage, while the morning…
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May ’25 — Rick’s Picks
All month: the planets continue their exodus from the evening sky this month. Uranus is now lost in the solar glare – it will…
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April ’25 – Rick’s Picks
All month: the solar system balances morning and evening targets this month as Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Neptune move into the predawn sky, while…
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March ’25 – Rick’s Picks
All month: the evening sky becomes less dramatic this month, as Saturn and Neptune spend the entire month hidden in the Sun’s glare, reaching…
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February ’25 – Rick’s Picks
All month: the solar system overwhelmingly favors evening observers again this month, but very early risers can still spend quality time with Mars, and…
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January ’25 – rick’s picks
All month: the solar system is primarily an evening show again this month. Mercury is one of the exceptions: its gibbous disk graces the…
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December ’24 – Rick’s Picks
All month: the solar system continues to favor evening observers this month, leaving only Mars and Mercury for the sunrise crowd. Mercury is hidden…
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November’24 – Rick’s Picks
All month: After favoring the morning sky for much of the year, the planets’ transformation into evening targets is nearly complete as November opens,…