NASA Announcement About a Newly Discovered Moon...

The NASA Webb Mission Team has announced (↗) the peer-review pending discovery of a moon near the planet Uranus. Click or tap the link for more details, an image, and a video about this detection found by astronomers using the James Webb Telescope.

Since we are on the topics of moons, the Amazing Astronomy Blog's Moon Page (↗) is comprehensively updated! I did not include the moon above in my page update because the findings have not yet been analyzed through the peer review process. It is admittedly difficult to keep up with all the new cosmic and astronomical discoveries, but I try to keep you informed of particularly interesting current events!

Mesmerizing Milky Way "Ring" Photo

The Astronomy Photo of the Day for March 13th (↗), this image by astrophotographer Maroun Habib of moophz.com took some extensive traveling and photo editing capabilities. Mr. Habib first traveled to Kammouha, Lebanon to capture the Northern Hemisphere perspective of our Milky Way Galaxy — represented in the top half of this image. About half a year later, he flew down to the arid and sparsely-populated Atacama Desert in Chile to capture the bottom-half imagery. Some hours (or minutes?) of photographic appending and manipulating later, and voila! The world is gifted with a revolutionary, "well-rounded" (no pun intended) photo.

A Trio of Amazing Moon Events in January 2018

According to Space.com and elsewhere, this month provides a few spectacular moon sighting opportunities for avid selenographers (studiers of the moon), astronomers/stargazers, night owls, and early birds alike. Occurring on January 31st, a Total Lunar Eclipse will be "visible from anywhere it is nighttime." In many places, the timing is somewhat narrow because the moon will set below the horizon less than several hours after the eclipse's commencement. At least in the United States, hours of viewing are only ideal for people who are awake right before dawn, anywhere from 4 AM to 7 AM local time. Details of the total lunar eclipse — and also of this month's Supermoon (moon appears larger) and Blue Moon (second full moon of the month) — are provided from Space.com, linked below.

Super Blue Blood-Moon 2018: When, Where and How to See It This Month (↗)

Meteor Shower Guide

After seeking a comprehensive listing of meteor showers, I recommend the EarthSky Meteor Shower Guide (↗) page. This webpage contains plenty of details on meteor-shower dates and times, the number of shooting stars per hour, and where to look in the night sky.

Amazing Astronomy News ★ August 22nd, 2017

★ ★ ★ Colloquially known as the Great American Eclipse, a total or partial eclipse was visible for much of the United States and partly in other Northern Hemisphere countries. The path of totality stretched through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

★ ★ ★ Solar eclipses in recent years occurred mostly across the oceans, central Africa, and southern South America — a total eclipse in March 2015 came close to Iceland. The total eclipse of August 21st, however, crossed over millions of people in the United States — many folks came from other areas in the USA and beyond in hopes of witnessing a spectacular corona. Therefore, a myriad of photographs were captured ... and of course were posted on social media! Here are some photos of the eclipse (↗) from EarthSky.

★ ★ ★ The nearest Sun-like star to our planet, Tau (τ) Ceti, is believed to have four planets sized similarly to Earth! More details available in this EarthSky article (↗).

★ ★ ★ The Cassini spacecraft's last look at Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is expected to occur on September 11th. According to EarthSky (↗), "There are now fewer than five orbits left in the Grand Finale until Cassini’s awe-inspiring mission at Saturn comes to an end."

Mountains and Plains of Pluto

Fascinating images are being transmitted to Earth from the revolutionary New Horizons spacecraft, which came its closest to Pluto in July this year. This NASA Astronomy Photo of the Day shows never-before-seen detail of the dwarf planet's topography of mountains and plains. Very amazing!

Photo: Witch Head Nebula

Brightly illuminated by Rigel the star in the constellation ORION the Hunter, the Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118) was NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (link to larger image) for October 30th - right before Halloween! This stellar nebula should probably be better known as Witch Face Nebula. To the right of Rigel in the image below, you may see a face in the bright blue region and/or the star-studded background (distinct nose and chin) facing left towards the blue area. With the blue face, you could say that her hat is the much-fainter conical structure. Regardless of the interpretation, this is arguably one of the most interesting images of a nebula!

Small and original image © Jeff Signorelli

National Geographic has a Cosmic Blog

National Geographic is known for its yellow-edged magazines and fascinating photographs, but the organization also provides coverage on its website about scientific topics and a little bit of astronomy. In addition, National Geographic has a whole blog dedicated to the subject of astronomy. StarStruck provides an easy-to-read format to tell the latest astronomy news. The StarStruck contributors include Jon Brack, Andrew Fazekas, Marc Kaufman, Susan Poulton, and Luna Shyr.

Hubblesite's Social Media

Hubblesite, the official website for the Hubble Space Telescope and the latest developments of astronomy and astrophysics, keeps up to date with the the latest in social media. At the bottom of its website, located at www.hubblesite.org, Hubblesite social media pages, podcasts, and other services are conveniently listed. Hubblesite runs Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, and Twitter pages, in addition to a Youtube channel. Listed below are the two Twitter pages; both links open in a new window/tab.
Hubblesite's Twitter Pages
HUBBLE TELESCOPE - This twitter feed features the latest news regarding the HubbleSpace Telescope and astronomy in general.
HUBBLE DAILY IMAGE - This twitter feed posts magnificent photos of galaxies, nebulae, and more! Below are a few tweets from the Hubble Daily Image Twitter Page.

Omega Centauri - WFC3: hbbl.us/udOzk7
— Hubble Daily Image (@HubbleDaily) February 6, 2013

A String of 'Cosmic Pearls' Surrounds an Exploding Star : hbbl.us/Nm4Du— Hubble Daily Image (@HubbleDaily) February 3, 2013

The Ant Nebula (Menzel 3): Fiery Lobes Protrude From Dying, Sun-like Star: hbbl.us/5ksA
— Hubble Daily Image (@HubbleDaily) January 20, 2013

Great Astronomy Websites

In the Internet world, there are great sites pertaining to the subject of Astronomy everywhere - you just have to look! There is no need to look, since I have suggested the Top 4 Astronomy Sites (in my opinion), which are excellent in intriguing novice and advanced astronomers alike with vital resources and amazing photography of the universe's galaxies, nebulae, etc. Their links are provided below and open up in a new tab or window.
1. Hubblesite (hubblesite.org)
Hubblesite, a 'division' of NASA, is dedicated to revealing to visitors the amazing amount of discoveries that were found using the Hubble Space Telescope, which was first sent up in 1990. Also, I admire Hubblesite's photo gallery since it fascinates me the things that are in our universe. To top that off for those social media junkies out there, Hubblesite has a Facebook page, 2 (or possibly more) Twitter pages, and a YouTube channel!
2. NASA's main site (NASA.gov)
NASA is your one-stop shop for looking up a launch schedule for the next mission and looking back in time to the past space launches of America. Just like Hubblesite, NASA has many social media sites; it additionally has a Flickr photostream!
3. Kids Astronomy (kidsastronomy.com)
Fun, colorful website that caters towards kids with games, fun and simple facts, and more!
4. MSNBC.com Cosmic Log (cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com)
Interesting science, technology, and cosmic news updated by Alan Boyle.

2015 Update: MSNBC Cosmic Log is no longer available, but Alan Boyle has his own Cosmic Log blog and there is an NBC News Cosmic Log section