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EYES TO THE SKY: Planet Mercury crosses Sun today, Venus and Jupiter meet on...
November 11 – 24, 2019 Mount Washington — Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system – slightly larger than Earth’s moon – and closest to the Sun, can be observed crossing the Sun today, Nov. 11,...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Moon at dusk. Mars, Mercury dawn
November 25 – December 8, 2019 Mount Washington — It is a jamboree, a planetary spree out there within the hour after sunset and, with different heavenly bodies, within the hour before sunrise. Venus...
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‘Everything was pointing in this direction’: Pathways to the Trades is...
Great Barrington — On a mild, sunny day in late November, 11 sophomore and junior boys sporting hoodies and baseball caps gathered around a conference table at Monument Mountain Regional High School...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Venus and Saturn, moon and meteors, Winter Solstice
December 9 – 22, 2019 Mount Washington — Today’s sunset, earliest of the year, down to the second, is at 4:21:14 p.m. Sunset time is seconds later beginning tomorrow, until it is nearly one minute...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Visit the wilderness – look up to the sky
December 23, 2019 – January 5, 2020 “In Wildness is the preservation of the World” — Henry David Thoreau, “Walking” Mount Washington — Find Venus, the brilliant Evening Star, low in the southwest...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Sun’s New Year, dawn and dusk planets
January 6 – 19, 2020 Mount Washington — I have been observing the Sun from my doorstep as it sets into a forested hilltop to the southwest. Here, sunset is close to an hour before horizon-view sunset...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Cygnus the Swan soars as Summer Triangle sets
January 20 – February 2, 2020 Mount Washington — The Summer Triangle’s long season in the evening sky ends this week, although one of its remarkable stars, Deneb, lingers for another month. The Summer...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Berkshires losing stars to light pollution, more each day:...
February 3 – 16, 2020 “I looked at your area and I calculate an increase [of light pollution] from year to year of about 5 percent — more than twice the national average! It is faster than the national...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Crescent moon, planets to bedazzle the dawn, dusk
February 17 – March 1, 2020 Watch the moon occult (cover over) Mars Feb. 18. Image courtesy EarthSky.org Mount Washington — The most alluring two weeks in the Moon’s cycle are about to begin. Each...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Spring stars rising, NEAF
March 2 – 15, 2020 Mount Washington — Spring stars appear in our evening sky as rhythmically as pussy willow and snowdrop blossoms emerge here on Earth in the northeast. As March begins, the...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Find Orion or Gemini and tell ‘Globe at Night’: Here’s how
March 16 – 29, 2020 Mount Washington — Tonight’s waning last quarter (half) moon rises at 2:21 a.m., well positioned for moonlight not to interfere with evening stargazing. From today, March 16,...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Field guide to nightly entertainment
March 30 – April 12, 2020 Mount Washington — Are you missing the buzz at gatherings in theaters and movie houses? Please find here a schedule of brilliant performances – from early bird to late show –...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Not to be missed: International Dark Sky Week programs reach...
April 20 – May 3, 2020 “Do you think that the amazingly bright night sky is related to the lack of pollution due to our current shut down state? I don’t remember ever seeing, especially, such a...
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Living Through History – Remembering what you’ve learned
Editor’s note: Jarice Hanson is Professor Emerita from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, where she was a member of the Department of Communication. To my graduating seniors at UMass: If I were...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Summer stars rise as winter stars set. Venus and Mercury...
May 18 – 31, 2020 Image courtesy EarthSky.org Mount Washington — One month before summer solstice, which occurs Saturday, June 20, we find two of summer’s brightest stars rising above the...
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Monument snags six-figure grant for reimagining teaching and learning
Great Barrington — Schools and nonprofits receive grants all the time, but Monument Mountain Regional High School just received a whopper, even as the school itself is currently shut down to all but...
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Chang-Chavkin Scholars: Program for first-generation college students sees...
No one is quite sure what education as a whole, or higher education specifically, will look like come September, but should colleges and universities open for students, five fortunate, hard-working...
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EYES TO THE SKY: Summer Solstice, June 20, 2020
June 15 – 28, 2020 Mount Washington — Every day is Sun day during the month of June, when the Sun is up for over 15 hours and darkness prevails for less than nine hours. The longest days of the year...
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Pandemic memoirs
The following essays (two printed below; two will appear tomorrow) were conceived and written by students in Steve Rubin’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute workshop this past June entitled “Writing...
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The following essays were conceived and written by students in Steve Rubin’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute workshop this past June entitled “Writing Your Pandemic Memoir.” The class was conducted...
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