Explore every episode of the podcast Looking Up with Don

"Look for the Seeliger effect, when the rings brighten for a few days."

"We had quite a few people there to see it."

"So these next couple of weeks may be your best chance to see them."

"Start with the bright stars."

"The Summer Milky Way is now visible and with the warmer nights it is easy to stay out past midnight."

"At 2:47 AM I picked up a fuzzy object, about magnitude 10."

"This would be a good week to image the moon each night through a small telescope."

"Two globular clusters in Scorpius"

"Quite often, when I'm the smartest person in the room, I'm by myself."

"The stars twinkle, the planets do not."

"We have a meteor shower coming up this week that almost no one knows about, but it is one of the most active of the year.”

"It is a matter of watching and waiting."

"These were cataloged by Charles Messier in 1781."

When the moon is in the umbra, it is hidden from the sundra."

"Eyes, skies, and telescope."

"This week the hotspot is the evening sky."

"Set the alarm and bring the camera."

"I have been an amateur astronomer since I was about 8 years old and took an interest in astronomy."

"It is one of the most interesting features on the moon."

"And the colors should differ, especially when seen through binoculars or a telescope."

"The crescent moon makes a nice pattern with Venus, Mars, and Saturn on Monday morning, March 28"

"You won't find any of this stuff published anywhere."

"Yes, they have seen the moon before, but now they can see the craters."

"It is rich, very rich, with stars and star clusters."

"May our galaxy wrap its arms around you. I bet no one had ever said that to you before. In fact, it is already doing that."

“This was a sweet spot for such discoveries: after many visual comet hunters left the field, and before the government-funded sky surveys took over.”

"In Messier's case it was known comets leading to new Messier Objects. Centuries later it was known Messier Objects leading to new comets."

"This is how the Massive Marathon was invented."

"I believe that moonlight is the real reason why Charles Messier missed M65 and M66."

"I would rather be sweeping than sleeping".

"Is it a bird, is it a plane? No kitty, that is the moon!"

"This is a good week to look at the moon."

"In 1922 the IAU named 88 constellations; this must have been number 89."

"The winter constellations are here, ready for another season of viewing."

"This could produce a meteor shower on Venus."

“When Albert Einstein was a boy, if he ever did anything stupidly, did people say to him: ‘hey, way to go, Einstein!’?”

"Probably more penguins than people will see this eclipse. Those solar eclipse glasses will keep slipping off their ears."

"The Antarcitia solar eclipse is on December 4. If you intend to see it, you should be heading out the door about now."

Don Machholz

"Well, I'm an astronomer, and to me a beautiful sunset sky has no clouds at all."

"The moon could fit inside the earth's shadow if it wanted to."

"So now is a suitable time to see the gegenschein."

"Comets are scattered around the sky."

"Charles Messier lived some two hundred years ago in France,

from where he searched for comets, whenever he got the chance"

“Why stop with our moon? Show them Jupiter and Saturn and their moons too. A multi-moon evening.”

“We’ll know in two weeks, when communication with Mars resumes, if Martians have visited our rovers.”

“If you have a group of observers with you, take bets.  The winner gets to choose which will be the next object to observe.”

I'm a bit behind in reading my astronomy magazines. I just read that there will be a total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Did I miss it?

"Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Wow, who comes up with these names?"

"Nearly 90,000 days in one year, I wonder how many holidays they have?"

"It is there, but can you see it?"