Cincinnati Astronomical Society

06/09/2026

Conjunction alert: Last week we told you about a nice three planet conjunction between Jupiter, Venus and Mercury. Jupiter and Venus have been getting closer to each other in the evening sky with each passing day. While tonight will be their closest approach to each other, the clouds are going to spoil any viewing opportunities.

Not to worry, Wednesday night the forecast looks clear and they will still be really close to each other, only about 2 degrees apart.

Head on out to where you have anice view of the Western sky and check it out. Mercury is also close but will set earlier. You will also be able to catch Gemini twins Castor and Pollus to the right of Venus.

06/04/2026

Unlikely we will see much in the immediate Cincinnati area. We'll keep you posted if things change. We have members out aurora chasing tonight.

06/03/2026

CAS Observing Alert:

Tonight at sunset a nice mini-parade of planets Jupiter, Venus and Mercury framed by stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini and Procyon in Canis Minor.

Venus and Jupiter will continue their march toward each other each day until their very close conjunction on the 8th through the 10th.

Weather looks good for this evening. If you have access to a westerly view this will be nice to watch at sunset.

06/01/2026

A few great conjunctions, a daytime planetary lunar transit, and Summer arrives all in June.

05/18/2026

Observing alert. If the clouds move out this evening, check out this nice Lunar/Venus conjunction in the West at sunset. Venus will be within a few moon widths of the beautiful waxing crescent moon.

Check it out if you can.

(a wider field map is in the comments below with the Moon / Venus, with Jupiter to the upper left. Also Gemini twins Castor and Pollux are a nice observation tonight)

05/11/2026

Today CAS hosted the Manchester Elementary School 5th grade class at The Moeller Observatory in Adams County for some daytime astronomy fun. The kids got to hear all about the mission of The Moeller Observatory and CAS, learn about telescopes, and even got in some safe solar observing, and some views of the waning crescent moon.

05/10/2026

Nights like tonight were made for astronomy, and observing from dark locations. Photos of CAS members enjoying the evening at The Moeller Observatory in Adams County.

To find out how you can visit The Moeller Obervatory through a membership with CAS, visit cinastro.org and to learn more about The Moeller Observatory, visit moellerobservatory.org

photos: Cat Behrmann

05/05/2026

Happy Star Wars Day 2026 everyone. One of our favorite Star Wars themed astronomy observations is that of a moon orbiting Saturn which looks just like the Death Star.

Saturn's moon Mimas (pronounced like mee-muss) is roughly 250 miles in diameter and orbits Saturn every 23 hours. Its distinctive main impact crater measures roughly 80 miles across and gives it its stark resemblance to a large planet-killing space station.

May the 4th Be With You.

05/03/2026

It's hard to believe it has been a month since Artemis 2 launched. The mission brought back a trove of data which will aid future missions, and increased our knoweldge of the moon. As part of the mission, the crew documented the journey, and the moon, through a large number of photos and videos.

There are so many images it can be difficult to understand what you're seeing or when in the mission the photos were taken. Now science communicator and YouTube personality Hank Green has put together a tool to line up the photos with the mission timeline. This is a great resource to relive the mission and see what the crew experienced along the way.

To see Hank's YouTube video on the making of this tool check out his YouTube page here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyZE9VWJjDA

To see the image tool itself visit this page:
https://artemistimeline.com/

An interactive photo timeline of NASA's Artemis II mission — scrub through every crew moment, lunar flyby shot, and audio clip from April 1–10, 2026.

05/01/2026

ALCON 2026 is coming this Summer and for anyone interested in learning more, we will be on the Astronomical League LIVE (AL LIVE) tonight talking about it. Also on the podcast will be one of our featured speakers for ALCON 2026, Pranvera Hyseni. She will be on tonight presenting on "Chasing Asteroid Shadows: The Science of Stellar Occultations."

Check us out tonight at 7PM

The event will be posted on The Astronomical League's page tonight just before the podcast begins.

https://www.facebook.com/Astronomical.League/