Bob Drieslein

The ancient Greeks tell us about a royal couple that formerly ruled the mythical kingdom of Aethiopia. Cassiopeia the queen, and her not-so-well-known husband, Cepheus, have now been immortalized into two of the modern, 88 constellations.
As one of the circumpolar constellations, Cepheus can be found circling the northern celestial pole all night.

Sometimes, bad things just kind of sneak up on us. We look around in surprise and wonder “how and when did that happen?”
Those of us born more than 60 years ago, and maybe even younger folks, can remember a time, depending on where you lived, when you could look up at the sky on a clear, dark night and see stars, lots of stars – and they were bright!

Until recently, most of us probably thought there were only eight planets, all of which orbit the Sun in our solar system. But now, scientists using advanced telescopes tell us they have discovered planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.

A debate continues among scientists about what to call, and how to classify, those recently-discovered, planet-like objects found moving around in our solar system.
Here’s the latest from NASA: Our solar system includes eight planets and five dwarf planets.

There have been several news items lately about an asteroid the size of a football field that might be headed our way. Now, scientists at NASA are certain that will miss Earth, but it may strike our Moon instead, possibly in December 2032.
Wow, this is beginning to sound like a sci-fi movie!

Designed and built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, Voyager 1 is now the farthest human-made object from Earth. Wikipedia.org reports that as of May 2025, this spacecraft was 15.5 billion miles away after 48 years in space!

There’s a lot to see before the Sun comes up and brightens the night sky during the month of August 2025. The good news is that temperatures are usually warm this time of year, and you won’t need a telescope, or even binoculars, to enjoy what’s coming.

There are eight planets orbiting the Sun in our solar system but, to the best of our knowledge, only one supports life as we know it.
Our Earth is sometimes referred to as the “goldilocks” planet because it orbits our Sun at a distance (93 million miles) where temperatures are not too hot, and not too cold, but just right!