Astronomy Guide – Pajarito Environmental Education Center

This guide initially displays things that you may be able to see over the next few weeks. Use the selector below to find items by name, regardless of time of appearance.

For more local information join the Pajarito Astronomers and watch for Los Alamos County-sponsored Dark Nights.

Astronomy References

Archaeoastronomy (solstices and equinoxes)
MrEclipse
NASA (eclipses, transits, moon phases)

Subject Area Experts (all guides)

Steve Cary (butterflies)
Beth Cortright (insects)
Terry Foxx (invasive plants)
Leslie Hansen (mammals)
Richard Hansen (fish, mammals)
Dorothy Hoard (butterflies, trees)
Chick Keller (flowers, herbarium)
Shari Kelley (geology)
Kirt Kempter (geology)
Garth Tietjen (reptiles)
David Yeamans (birds)

Web Development and Content Management

Pat Bacha
Jennifer Macke
Graham Mark
Akkana Peck

Contact

Please contact us for local nature questions and sightings. We welcome comments, corrections, and additions to our guides.

For more information about local nature, please visit our Nature Blog or subscribe to PEEC This Week.

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Showing 8 of 179 items.

Photo: Till Credner	Great Square of Pegasus Visible with the naked eye Sep 15 - Jan 15 The Great Square of Pegasus forms the body of Pegasus, the flying horse. The horse flies upside down for most of its path across the sky. Pegasus's hind legs are part of the constellation Andromeda, named for the mythological daughter of Queen Cassiopeia.
Photo: Adam Evans	Andromeda Galaxy Visible with the naked eye Sep 15 - Jan 30 The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object (at about 2.5 million light years) that can easily be seen with the naked eye.
Photo: Rawastrodata	Double Cluster Visible with binocular Sep 01 - Apr 01 The Double Cluster in Perseus consists of two groups of young stars, with more than 300 blue-white super-giant stars in each cluster. They are easy to see in binoculars, though they are even prettier in a small telescope.
Photo: ESO"	Summer Milky Way Visible with the naked eye Jun 01 - Sep 01 Look for the summer Milky Way as a cloudy band streaming across the sky from north to south. That is our galaxy, with the core of it in Sagittarius in the south.
Photo: Eoghanacht	Scorpius and Sagittarius Visible with the naked eye Jun 01 - Sep 01 for Scorpius and Sagittarius in the southern sky. Sagittarius is shaped like a teapot, pouring tea onto the tail of the Scorpion. The brightest star in Scorpius is called Antares, the "Rival of Mars"
Photo: Filip Lolic	Hercules Cluster Visible with binocular Jul 15 - Oct 01 Hercules Cluster M13, the great Hercules globular cluster, is a tightly packed cluster of about 300,000 stars -- sort of like a mini-galaxy inside our own galaxy. It is visible in binoculars, or just barely with the naked eye.
Photo: Tomruen	Summer Triangle Visible with the naked eye Aug 25 - Oct 15 The Summer Triangle includes bright stars from three constellations: Vega (from Lyra, the Lyre), Deneb (from Cygnus, the swan, also known as the Northern Cross) and Altair (from Aquila, the Eagle).
Photo: Till Credner	Cassiopeia Visible with the naked eye Aug 01 - Dec 31 Cassiopeia, named after a queen of Greek mythology, looks like a big letter W in the northern sky. It is a "circumpolar" constellation, which means it is visible all year, but it is highest in winter.