skywatch

For people who don’t enjoy late nights, there’s a whole branch of astronomy that takes place during the day — it’s called solar astronomy.

The moon was new just after 8.30 Saturday morning.

The sun’s centre crosses the celestial equator moving from north to south at 1.30am on Wednesday. This marks the exact moment of the spring equinox in the southern hemisphere.

This week, instead of drawing your attention to something high up, I’d like to do quite the opposite. I want you to try to find the fifth and sixth brightest stars, which will be near the horizon...

The moon reaches the last quarter phase at 9.26pm on September 10. This means moonlight will be absent for the early part of the night, making the hours between sunset and midnight prime time for...

Compared to their daytime siblings, moonbows are rare, writes Ian Griffin.

David H. Levy knows a thing or two about comets. He has discovered or co-discovered more than a dozen of them during his comet-hunting career, writes  Ian Griffin.

Today (Sunday) marks the end of the Puaka Matariki Festival. Celebrations have been taking place across Dunedin this week with a wonderful programme of events. Before European contact, Maori looked...

If you do anything this week, get up early and enjoy the sight of Venus and Matariki in the pre-dawn sky, writes Ian Griffin.

For the past few weeks, I have had enormous fun observing Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, all of which are high in the sky in the run-up to dawn. While getting out of bed at 4am can be a bit tiring, any...

The moon is full a week today, on Saturday, June 6, at 7.12am. At that moment, as seen from Otago, our closest celestial neighbour will be 100% illuminated and will be visible low in the western...