Thrush Observatory

You look up at the night sky from your backyard, expecting to see a blanket of stars. Instead, you see a pale orange glow. A few of the brightest planets peek through, but the Milky Way is nowhere to …

You look up at a dark country sky and see a streak of light race across the stars. It lasts only a second. Maybe you make a wish. That flash is a meteor, and when you see a bunch of them in one night,…

Saturn hangs in the late summer sky like a perfect golden ornament. For anyone who has ever looked up and wondered what it would be like to see those rings up close, the good news is that 2026 offers …

The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant thing you can see without a telescope. It is a massive spiral of stars, dust, and gas located 2.5 million light years away. And you can spot it tonight with ju…

Your first overnight trip is a milestone. You have the spot picked out, the weather looks clear, and you are ready to trade city lights for a ceiling of stars. But somewhere between packing the tent a…

You step outside on a sunny afternoon and look up. The sky above you is a brilliant, almost piercing blue. Then, after the Sun goes down, you glance up again and see a deep, empty blackness dotted wit…

You step outside on a clear night, tilt your head back, and look up. At first, only the brightest stars punch through the darkness. A few minutes pass, and more appear. After a while, the Milky Way st…

The night sky in 2026 has a lot to offer. From the total solar eclipse that swept across North America in April 2024 to the planetary alignments expected later this year, there is always something hap…

Picture a cold March morning. You are standing outside before sunrise. The sky is still dark, but a faint, soft pyramid of light rises from the eastern horizon. It looks like the first glow of sunrise…

You want to look up at the stars more often. You just don’t have hours to spare. Between work, family, and everything else, the idea of setting up a telescope and learning the sky feels like another c…