Welcome to What's Up in the Night Sky

Home Page for Astra's Online Almanac

Hello Star Gazers, Astronomers and other Astro-friends! Welcome to "What's Up in the Night Sky!", the astronomical almanac, brought to you by Astra's Star Gate.This almanac is based on the original creation of Ronald A. Leeseberg, who wrote the monthly astronomy almanac written called, "What's Up" for fifteen years. Just like the original, this page favors astronomers in North America, on the eastern seaboard. Most of the information contained here can be extrapolated for observers in other areas. There will be some help in the articles because conversion factors are supplied. This page also contains links to Ron's Astronomy 101. There is currently a limited functionality on the new page, but it will soon be expanded fo a full feature that archives some of the important pages created for this site. Lessons for Beginners that Ron and Astra have written to help the people who received his monthly almanac. Topics are listed at the bottom of this page. More topics will be added from the past issues that Ron has given us. If you are interested in looking back, please feel free to click through the years to 2006, because the older pages will be removed as this part of the site is updated.

Health issues have caused Ron to give up writing the almanac, but nothing can stop him from watching the night sky!

Ron's Layout for What's Up? has been continued in Astra's version of the almanac, "What's Up in the Night Sky!", The volume and issue number have been extended. Astra can't take credit for Ron's development of the structure that serves the almanac to online visitors. This was Ron's original idea, Astra just added graphics and designed the html elements that has presented the almanac online for many years.

Ron set the stage for the format of "What's Up in the Night Sky!", Those features are outlined below. A summary of the monthly night sky, a daily calendar of events each month and a feature object.

Monthly Night Sky

A short summary of what to look for during the month, including a planetary roundup.

Calendar of Events

NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time.; Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.

DATE	EVENT
1	A table that highlights the days of the month of astronomical importance.

Lunar Almanac

Phases of the Moon	Phase and Date(s)	Best viewed before local midnight
	New	Deep Space Objects
	1st. Qtr	Planets & Moon
	Full	Moon
	Last	Deep Space & Planets

Topic of the month:

A featured object or item will usually be illustrated.

Installments of "What's Up?" from July 2006 to December 2011 were written by Ronald A.Leeseberg, and encoded by Dawn Jenkins for Astra's Stargate.

View Ron Leeseburg's Farewell Issue