The July full moon is the beautiful Buck Moon

The July full moon will lie low above the horizon in the late evening on July 28, 2026, for observers in North America. It will look full this evening, even though the exact moment of the full moon occurs at 9:36 CDT (14:36 UTC) on July 29, 2026. Chart via EarthSky.

When to watch in 2026: The moment of full moon comes on July 29 for the Americas, Europe and Africa. And it falls on July 30 for Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Same full moon for all of Earth … but different time zones.
Crest of the full moon: will fall at 9:36 a.m. CDT (14:36 UTC) on July 29, 2026. That’s 2:36 a.m. New Zealand Standard Time on July 30. So, if you live in either North or South America, your fullest moon hangs low above the western horizon at sunrise on July 29. But it will also look full as it rises on the evenings of July 28 and 29.
Where to look: Full moons are always opposite the sun. They must be, in order to look full. For all of us on Earth, the full moon will rise in the east just after sunset on those evenings. And it will appear highest in the sky in the middle of the night and set in the west at dawn.

EarthSky isn’t powered by billionaires. We’re powered by you. Support EarthSky’s 2026 Donation Campaign and help keep science accessible.

At full moon, the sun, Earth and moon are aligned with Earth in the middle. The moon’s day side – its fully lighted hemisphere – directly faces us. Chart via EarthSky.

July’s full moon is the Buck Moon

All the full moons have names. Popular nicknames for the July full moon include the Thunder Moon and Hay Moon … and there are lots more.

But the Buck Moon is the most common name for us in North America for the July full moon. Male deer start growing their antlers when they are about a year old. The antlers take about 120 days, or about 4 months, to mature.

By July, for us in the Northern Hemisphere, the antlers of male deer are growing fast. Sometimes they grow as fast as several inches per day. They are fully mature in fall. So, to honor the deer and the July full moon, the July full moon is the Buck Moon.

This July full moon mimics the late January sun

All full moons throughout the year have their own unique characteristics, often related to their paths across the sky. The full moon’s nighttime path mimics the sun’s daytime path from six months ago, or in six months from now. So, for all of us on Earth, the July full moon will follow the path the sun took in January. And, for us in the Northern Hemisphere, the January sun arched low, so we see the July full moon riding low in the sky.

In fact, in most years, again for us in the Northern Hemisphere, the path across the sky of July’s full moon is lower than any other, except the path of the full moon of June. Because it is lower, it also spends less time in the sky.

Even north of the Arctic Circle, the July full moon follows the path of the low Arctic January sun. As seen from the Arctic, the July full moon appears above the horizon only briefly. In regions closer to the North Pole, it never rises at all.

For observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the low arc across the sky of the July full moon nearly matches that of the January sun. The arc of the July sun is always much higher than the arc of the July full moon. Chart via EarthSky.

Arc of the July full moon in the Southern Hemisphere

For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the July full moon’s arc across the sky matches the path of the January sun.

For observers in the Southern Hemisphere, the high arc across the sky of the July full moon nearly matches that of the January sun. The arc of the July sun is always much lower than the arc of the July full moon. Chart via EarthSky.

July full moon lies in Capricornus in 2026

And what of our whole-Earth perspective on the moon?

The orderliness of the heavens is such that in July the full moon always lies in front of one of two constellations of the zodiac. In most years, the July full moon appears in front of Sagittarius the Archer. This year, though, the July full moon is in front of the neighboring constellation to the east, Capricornus the Sea Goat. It is found in a dark sky in the shape of an arrowhead.

The 2026 July full moon lies in the constellation Capricornus. Chart via EarthSky.

Will you recognize the arrowhead shape among the stars near the full moon? Probably not, because the full moon’s bright light will wash fainter stars from view. But you don’t need to see Capricornus’ arrowhead to know it’s there … or to know that the stars lie beyond the moon in space. As Earth orbits the sun, our planet’s night side points out on a shifting panorama of stars. And so the moon returns year after year to this quiet corner of the heavens. This is not by chance, but by the rhythms of Earth and sky.

July’s full Buck Moon near the stars of Capricornus. Chart via EarthSky.

Bottom line: July’s full moon – the Buck Moon – falls on the morning of July 29, but will also appear full when it rises in the evening on July 28 and 29.

Read more: Full moon names of the month and by the season

Read more: Why do female caribou have antlers unlike other female deer?

The post The July full moon is the beautiful Buck Moon first appeared on EarthSky.

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The July full moon will lie low above the horizon in the late evening on July 28, 2026, for observers in North America. It will look full this evening, even though the exact moment of the full moon occurs at 9:36 CDT (14:36 UTC) on July 29, 2026. Chart via EarthSky.

When to watch in 2026: The moment of full moon comes on July 29 for the Americas, Europe and Africa. And it falls on July 30 for Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Same full moon for all of Earth … but different time zones.
Crest of the full moon: will fall at 9:36 a.m. CDT (14:36 UTC) on July 29, 2026. That’s 2:36 a.m. New Zealand Standard Time on July 30. So, if you live in either North or South America, your fullest moon hangs low above the western horizon at sunrise on July 29. But it will also look full as it rises on the evenings of July 28 and 29.
Where to look: Full moons are always opposite the sun. They must be, in order to look full. For all of us on Earth, the full moon will rise in the east just after sunset on those evenings. And it will appear highest in the sky in the middle of the night and set in the west at dawn.

EarthSky isn’t powered by billionaires. We’re powered by you. Support EarthSky’s 2026 Donation Campaign and help keep science accessible.

At full moon, the sun, Earth and moon are aligned with Earth in the middle. The moon’s day side – its fully lighted hemisphere – directly faces us. Chart via EarthSky.

July’s full moon is the Buck Moon

All the full moons have names. Popular nicknames for the July full moon include the Thunder Moon and Hay Moon … and there are lots more.

But the Buck Moon is the most common name for us in North America for the July full moon. Male deer start growing their antlers when they are about a year old. The antlers take about 120 days, or about 4 months, to mature.

By July, for us in the Northern Hemisphere, the antlers of male deer are growing fast. Sometimes they grow as fast as several inches per day. They are fully mature in fall. So, to honor the deer and the July full moon, the July full moon is the Buck Moon.

This July full moon mimics the late January sun

All full moons throughout the year have their own unique characteristics, often related to their paths across the sky. The full moon’s nighttime path mimics the sun’s daytime path from six months ago, or in six months from now. So, for all of us on Earth, the July full moon will follow the path the sun took in January. And, for us in the Northern Hemisphere, the January sun arched low, so we see the July full moon riding low in the sky.

In fact, in most years, again for us in the Northern Hemisphere, the path across the sky of July’s full moon is lower than any other, except the path of the full moon of June. Because it is lower, it also spends less time in the sky.

Even north of the Arctic Circle, the July full moon follows the path of the low Arctic January sun. As seen from the Arctic, the July full moon appears above the horizon only briefly. In regions closer to the North Pole, it never rises at all.

For observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the low arc across the sky of the July full moon nearly matches that of the January sun. The arc of the July sun is always much higher than the arc of the July full moon. Chart via EarthSky.

Arc of the July full moon in the Southern Hemisphere

For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the July full moon’s arc across the sky matches the path of the January sun.

For observers in the Southern Hemisphere, the high arc across the sky of the July full moon nearly matches that of the January sun. The arc of the July sun is always much lower than the arc of the July full moon. Chart via EarthSky.

July full moon lies in Capricornus in 2026

And what of our whole-Earth perspective on the moon?

The orderliness of the heavens is such that in July the full moon always lies in front of one of two constellations of the zodiac. In most years, the July full moon appears in front of Sagittarius the Archer. This year, though, the July full moon is in front of the neighboring constellation to the east, Capricornus the Sea Goat. It is found in a dark sky in the shape of an arrowhead.

The 2026 July full moon lies in the constellation Capricornus. Chart via EarthSky.

Will you recognize the arrowhead shape among the stars near the full moon? Probably not, because the full moon’s bright light will wash fainter stars from view. But you don’t need to see Capricornus’ arrowhead to know it’s there … or to know that the stars lie beyond the moon in space. As Earth orbits the sun, our planet’s night side points out on a shifting panorama of stars. And so the moon returns year after year to this quiet corner of the heavens. This is not by chance, but by the rhythms of Earth and sky.

July’s full Buck Moon near the stars of Capricornus. Chart via EarthSky.

Bottom line: July’s full moon – the Buck Moon – falls on the morning of July 29, but will also appear full when it rises in the evening on July 28 and 29.

Read more: Full moon names of the month and by the season

Read more: Why do female caribou have antlers unlike other female deer?

The post The July full moon is the beautiful Buck Moon first appeared on EarthSky.

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Meet Shaula and Lesath, the Scorpion’s Stinger stars

View larger. | The constellation Scorpius by Daniel McVey. The bright red star Antares represents the Scorpion’s Heart. The Scorpion’s Stinger stars – Shaula and Lesath – can be found at the end of the Scorpius’s curved tail. Used with permission.

Scorpius and the Scorpion’s Stinger stars

The zodiacal constellation Scorpius the Scorpion is one of the few constellations that truly looks like its name.

That’s because it has a graceful, J-shaped pattern of stars resembling a real scorpion’s curved tail. And at the end of this line of stars are two stars noticeable for their nearness to each other. They are Shaula and Lesath. Together, these stars represent the Scorpion’s Stinger.

Although Shaula and Lesath appear close together, they’re only close along our line of sight. In reality, these two stars are separated by about 5 light-years.

Shaula, the second brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, is a triple star system that shines at magnitude +1.62.

Lesath, the fainter star of the Stinger pair, doesn’t have any known companions. Its magnitude is +2.7.

In addition to being known as the Scorpion’s Stinger, these two noticeable stars are sometimes called the Cat’s Eyes. That’s because if you look at them through binoculars, they resemble the eyes of a cat in the dark.

A map of Scorpius showing the location of the Stinger stars, Shaula and Lesath, at the tip of the Scorpion’s curved Tail. Image via IAU/ Sky & Telescope/ Wikimedia Commons.

How to see Shaula and Lesath

Scorpius is thought of as a summer constellation in the Northern Hemisphere, as that’s when it’s highest in the sky. And in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s considered a winter constellation. But it’s also visible in early northern autumn, or early southern spring.

For both hemispheres, Scorpius and its Stinger stars are highest in the sky around midnight local time in mid-June. Then by mid-July, Lesath and Shaula are at their highest in the sky around 10 p.m. When mid-August arrives, they are highest in the sky around 8 p.m. And by mid-September, at 6 p.m. The time will vary by up to an hour, depending on how far east or west you are in your time zone.

At mid-northern latitudes, Lesath and Shaula never climb very high in the sky. They are highest in the sky when they’re due south. Even then, from the northern U.S., Scorpius’ Stinger stars are barely a fist-width above your horizon if you hold your fist an arm’s length away. They are higher in the sky as seen from the southern U.S., where Scorpius becomes a glorious sight. And from the Southern Hemisphere, all of Scorpius arcs prominently high overhead.

Shaula is the 2nd-brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, after Antares. Shaula is also the 24th-brightest star in the sky. But it’s hard to think of Shaula without its partner Lesath. These two stars are very noticeable on the sky’s dome, glittering brighter than most other stars.

From the Northern Hemisphere, Scorpius will be in your southern sky. In that case, Shaula – the brighter of the two – will be the star on the left of the pair.

The red arrows point to Shaula and Lesath – the Stinger Stars – that mark the 2 stars at the end of the curved tail of Scorpius. Chart via EarthSky.

Science of Shaula and Lesath

Although these two stars look like a close-knit pair, they’re far apart in space. Shaula is about 571 light-years distant, whereas Lesath lies some 576 light-years away. Like all individual stars we see in our night sky, these two are members of our Milky Way galaxy.

Shaula, also known as Lambda Scorpii, is a triple system. The largest star, which has a blue-white color, is about nine times the sun’s diameter in size and has 14 times the sun’s mass. It is a Beta Cephei variable star, a class of stars characterized by rapid but small variations in brightness. There’s another blue-white star in that system. Its diameter is almost five times that of the sun and it has over 10 times the sun’s mass.

The third object in the system is what’s known as a pre-main sequence star. That’s an object that has enough mass from the surrounding dust and gas to become a star, but has not yet started nuclear fusion at its core, which would make it as a star.

Lesath’s other name is Upsilon Scorpii. It is also a hot blue-white star, with about six times the sun’s diameter and 11 times the sun’s mass.

The Milky Way runs through the stinger

On a dark, moonless night, you can see a glowing band of stars running from Scorpius’ Tail and upward through the Summer Triangle. It’s the Earth-viewed Milky Way, a roadway of stars arcing across the sky from horizon to horizon in the northern summer. What you are seeing is the edgewise view of our galaxy’s flat disk. The “haze” is really the combined light of millions upon millions of stars.

The Milky Way galaxy has an equator, just like Earth does. The galactic equator runs through Scorpius and also its neighboring constellation to the east, Sagittarius the Archer.

View larger. | A whole-sky map of the Milky Way overlaid on the constellations. Image via Tfr000/ Wikimedia Commons.

The ecliptic is nearby

And now shift your perspective from our great galaxy to our own local solar system, our sun’s family in space. The ecliptic is our sun’s annual path in front of the background stars. It also runs through Scorpius and Sagittarius. Check out the star chart below to see the whereabouts of the ecliptic with respect to this constellation.

A map of the constellation Scorpius with a red dashed line showing the position of the ecliptic. The areas shaded in blue represent the Milky Way. Image via Torsten Bronger/ Wikimedia Commons.

History of the names Shaula and Lesath

Shaula is an Arabic name meaning the Scorpion’s Stinger. Lesath’s name is less straightforward. According to Paul Kunitach and Tim Smart, authors of A Dictionary of Modern Star Names, the name Lesath is the final result of a long and convoluted history, initially derived from a Greek word meaning a foggy conglomeration.

Shaula and Lesath, the stinger stars in Scorpius, are prominent in the lower right. In a dark sky, you’ll see 2 famous star clusters – M6 and M7 – in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. In this photo, Messier 7 – aka Ptolemy’s Cluster – is above the tree on the left. Messier 6, the Butterfly Cluster, is a bit smaller, positioned near the center top of the image. Image via Tom and Jane Wildoner/ The Dark Side Observatory. Used with permission.

Bottom line: Shaula and Lesath, known as the Stinger of the Scorpion, are easy to see at the end of Scorpius’s tail.

The post Meet Shaula and Lesath, the Scorpion’s Stinger stars first appeared on EarthSky.

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View larger. | The constellation Scorpius by Daniel McVey. The bright red star Antares represents the Scorpion’s Heart. The Scorpion’s Stinger stars – Shaula and Lesath – can be found at the end of the Scorpius’s curved tail. Used with permission.

Scorpius and the Scorpion’s Stinger stars

The zodiacal constellation Scorpius the Scorpion is one of the few constellations that truly looks like its name.

That’s because it has a graceful, J-shaped pattern of stars resembling a real scorpion’s curved tail. And at the end of this line of stars are two stars noticeable for their nearness to each other. They are Shaula and Lesath. Together, these stars represent the Scorpion’s Stinger.

Although Shaula and Lesath appear close together, they’re only close along our line of sight. In reality, these two stars are separated by about 5 light-years.

Shaula, the second brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, is a triple star system that shines at magnitude +1.62.

Lesath, the fainter star of the Stinger pair, doesn’t have any known companions. Its magnitude is +2.7.

In addition to being known as the Scorpion’s Stinger, these two noticeable stars are sometimes called the Cat’s Eyes. That’s because if you look at them through binoculars, they resemble the eyes of a cat in the dark.

A map of Scorpius showing the location of the Stinger stars, Shaula and Lesath, at the tip of the Scorpion’s curved Tail. Image via IAU/ Sky & Telescope/ Wikimedia Commons.

How to see Shaula and Lesath

Scorpius is thought of as a summer constellation in the Northern Hemisphere, as that’s when it’s highest in the sky. And in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s considered a winter constellation. But it’s also visible in early northern autumn, or early southern spring.

For both hemispheres, Scorpius and its Stinger stars are highest in the sky around midnight local time in mid-June. Then by mid-July, Lesath and Shaula are at their highest in the sky around 10 p.m. When mid-August arrives, they are highest in the sky around 8 p.m. And by mid-September, at 6 p.m. The time will vary by up to an hour, depending on how far east or west you are in your time zone.

At mid-northern latitudes, Lesath and Shaula never climb very high in the sky. They are highest in the sky when they’re due south. Even then, from the northern U.S., Scorpius’ Stinger stars are barely a fist-width above your horizon if you hold your fist an arm’s length away. They are higher in the sky as seen from the southern U.S., where Scorpius becomes a glorious sight. And from the Southern Hemisphere, all of Scorpius arcs prominently high overhead.

Shaula is the 2nd-brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, after Antares. Shaula is also the 24th-brightest star in the sky. But it’s hard to think of Shaula without its partner Lesath. These two stars are very noticeable on the sky’s dome, glittering brighter than most other stars.

From the Northern Hemisphere, Scorpius will be in your southern sky. In that case, Shaula – the brighter of the two – will be the star on the left of the pair.

The red arrows point to Shaula and Lesath – the Stinger Stars – that mark the 2 stars at the end of the curved tail of Scorpius. Chart via EarthSky.

Science of Shaula and Lesath

Although these two stars look like a close-knit pair, they’re far apart in space. Shaula is about 571 light-years distant, whereas Lesath lies some 576 light-years away. Like all individual stars we see in our night sky, these two are members of our Milky Way galaxy.

Shaula, also known as Lambda Scorpii, is a triple system. The largest star, which has a blue-white color, is about nine times the sun’s diameter in size and has 14 times the sun’s mass. It is a Beta Cephei variable star, a class of stars characterized by rapid but small variations in brightness. There’s another blue-white star in that system. Its diameter is almost five times that of the sun and it has over 10 times the sun’s mass.

The third object in the system is what’s known as a pre-main sequence star. That’s an object that has enough mass from the surrounding dust and gas to become a star, but has not yet started nuclear fusion at its core, which would make it as a star.

Lesath’s other name is Upsilon Scorpii. It is also a hot blue-white star, with about six times the sun’s diameter and 11 times the sun’s mass.

The Milky Way runs through the stinger

On a dark, moonless night, you can see a glowing band of stars running from Scorpius’ Tail and upward through the Summer Triangle. It’s the Earth-viewed Milky Way, a roadway of stars arcing across the sky from horizon to horizon in the northern summer. What you are seeing is the edgewise view of our galaxy’s flat disk. The “haze” is really the combined light of millions upon millions of stars.

The Milky Way galaxy has an equator, just like Earth does. The galactic equator runs through Scorpius and also its neighboring constellation to the east, Sagittarius the Archer.

View larger. | A whole-sky map of the Milky Way overlaid on the constellations. Image via Tfr000/ Wikimedia Commons.

The ecliptic is nearby

And now shift your perspective from our great galaxy to our own local solar system, our sun’s family in space. The ecliptic is our sun’s annual path in front of the background stars. It also runs through Scorpius and Sagittarius. Check out the star chart below to see the whereabouts of the ecliptic with respect to this constellation.

A map of the constellation Scorpius with a red dashed line showing the position of the ecliptic. The areas shaded in blue represent the Milky Way. Image via Torsten Bronger/ Wikimedia Commons.

History of the names Shaula and Lesath

Shaula is an Arabic name meaning the Scorpion’s Stinger. Lesath’s name is less straightforward. According to Paul Kunitach and Tim Smart, authors of A Dictionary of Modern Star Names, the name Lesath is the final result of a long and convoluted history, initially derived from a Greek word meaning a foggy conglomeration.

Shaula and Lesath, the stinger stars in Scorpius, are prominent in the lower right. In a dark sky, you’ll see 2 famous star clusters – M6 and M7 – in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. In this photo, Messier 7 – aka Ptolemy’s Cluster – is above the tree on the left. Messier 6, the Butterfly Cluster, is a bit smaller, positioned near the center top of the image. Image via Tom and Jane Wildoner/ The Dark Side Observatory. Used with permission.

Bottom line: Shaula and Lesath, known as the Stinger of the Scorpion, are easy to see at the end of Scorpius’s tail.

The post Meet Shaula and Lesath, the Scorpion’s Stinger stars first appeared on EarthSky.

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What’s an airplane glory? Here’s how to spot one

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eliot Herman caught this wonderful airplane glory on June 29, 2022, while flying over Bristol Bay, Alaska. Thank you, Eliot!

Have you seen an airplane glory?

I was looking out the window of an airplane recently, and I saw the airplane’s shadow on a cloud. A rainbow seemed to surround it. What was it?

It sounds like the beautiful optical phenomenon known as the glory, also called an anti-corona or pilot’s bow.

Glories are surprisingly common. People traveling in airplanes see them all the time. You need the sun to be directly behind your head. In front, you need an ordinary cloud. As you look toward the cloud, look for the shadow of the airplane. A multi-colored circle of light will surround the plane’s shadow. That light is the glory.

The plane’s shadow doesn’t have anything to do with making the glory. The glory and the shadow both simply come from the same source: the sun behind you.

A glory is made of sunlight scattered back toward you. It’s much smaller than a rainbow. It’s made by light scattered from the droplets of a cloud, rather than falling raindrops. Image via Wikipedia.

Here’s what makes a glory

Like a rainbow, a glory is centered on the antisolar point – the point opposite the sun – which coincides with your head’s shadow. And it coincides with the larger shadow of an airplane, if you’re looking out of an airplane window. So this point – the point where you’ll see the glory – must be opposite the sun’s position in the sky.

You might see that, when the sun is high in the sky and you’re on the ground, the antisolar point always lies below your horizon. That’s why, in order to see a glory, the clouds or fog causing it have to be located below the observer, in a straight line with the sun and the observer’s eye.

Want to know more about what makes a glory? Try this page from Les Cowley of the great website Atmospheric Optics.

Just before landing in #Vienna, we hit the clouds and the sun behind us cast a perfect halo around the plane’s shadow! One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen from a plane! ????

— Dr Catherine Russell (@seddyrocks.bsky.social) 2025-05-20T11:36:36.367Z

Where else you might see a glory?

Nowadays, most people see glories from airplanes. But they’re also commonly observed from very tall buildings. And, before the days of air travel, people spoke of glories they’d seen while mountain climbing. The same conditions – the sun behind and a cloud ahead – can also cast your shadow onto a mist while you’re scaling a tall peak. Then it’s possible to see a glory around the shadow of your own head. That type of glory is called a brocken spectre.

The glory is round, like the halo you sometimes see around the sun or moon. And it comes in muted rainbow colors.

Some glory photos from our EarthSky Community

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Sell of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, captured this image on January 8, 2023, and wrote: “I was able to capture this on my flight from Florida to Wisconsin. After doing some research, I found that this is sometimes referred to as Pilot’s Glory or Pilot’s Halo. If you look close enough, you can even see that there are two rainbows surrounding the shadow.” Thank you, Michael!

Karthik Easvur took this image of an airplane glory on May 7, 2019, over India. Karthik wrote: “The most interesting thing about this phenomenon is that one can find the position of the person on the airplane who took the photo. The point where the center of the glory is on the airplane shadow corresponds to the position of the person who took the photo. I took this photo sitting on the 5th-row seat from the cockpit.” Thank you, Karthik!

Bottom line: An airplane glory is easy to see if you watch for it while traveling by air. The sun has to be behind your head. You’ll see the plane’s shadow cast on a cloud. And a halo of light will surround the shadow.

The post What’s an airplane glory? Here’s how to spot one first appeared on EarthSky.

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View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Eliot Herman caught this wonderful airplane glory on June 29, 2022, while flying over Bristol Bay, Alaska. Thank you, Eliot!

Have you seen an airplane glory?

I was looking out the window of an airplane recently, and I saw the airplane’s shadow on a cloud. A rainbow seemed to surround it. What was it?

It sounds like the beautiful optical phenomenon known as the glory, also called an anti-corona or pilot’s bow.

Glories are surprisingly common. People traveling in airplanes see them all the time. You need the sun to be directly behind your head. In front, you need an ordinary cloud. As you look toward the cloud, look for the shadow of the airplane. A multi-colored circle of light will surround the plane’s shadow. That light is the glory.

The plane’s shadow doesn’t have anything to do with making the glory. The glory and the shadow both simply come from the same source: the sun behind you.

A glory is made of sunlight scattered back toward you. It’s much smaller than a rainbow. It’s made by light scattered from the droplets of a cloud, rather than falling raindrops. Image via Wikipedia.

Here’s what makes a glory

Like a rainbow, a glory is centered on the antisolar point – the point opposite the sun – which coincides with your head’s shadow. And it coincides with the larger shadow of an airplane, if you’re looking out of an airplane window. So this point – the point where you’ll see the glory – must be opposite the sun’s position in the sky.

You might see that, when the sun is high in the sky and you’re on the ground, the antisolar point always lies below your horizon. That’s why, in order to see a glory, the clouds or fog causing it have to be located below the observer, in a straight line with the sun and the observer’s eye.

Want to know more about what makes a glory? Try this page from Les Cowley of the great website Atmospheric Optics.

Just before landing in #Vienna, we hit the clouds and the sun behind us cast a perfect halo around the plane’s shadow! One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen from a plane! ????

— Dr Catherine Russell (@seddyrocks.bsky.social) 2025-05-20T11:36:36.367Z

Where else you might see a glory?

Nowadays, most people see glories from airplanes. But they’re also commonly observed from very tall buildings. And, before the days of air travel, people spoke of glories they’d seen while mountain climbing. The same conditions – the sun behind and a cloud ahead – can also cast your shadow onto a mist while you’re scaling a tall peak. Then it’s possible to see a glory around the shadow of your own head. That type of glory is called a brocken spectre.

The glory is round, like the halo you sometimes see around the sun or moon. And it comes in muted rainbow colors.

Some glory photos from our EarthSky Community

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Sell of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, captured this image on January 8, 2023, and wrote: “I was able to capture this on my flight from Florida to Wisconsin. After doing some research, I found that this is sometimes referred to as Pilot’s Glory or Pilot’s Halo. If you look close enough, you can even see that there are two rainbows surrounding the shadow.” Thank you, Michael!

Karthik Easvur took this image of an airplane glory on May 7, 2019, over India. Karthik wrote: “The most interesting thing about this phenomenon is that one can find the position of the person on the airplane who took the photo. The point where the center of the glory is on the airplane shadow corresponds to the position of the person who took the photo. I took this photo sitting on the 5th-row seat from the cockpit.” Thank you, Karthik!

Bottom line: An airplane glory is easy to see if you watch for it while traveling by air. The sun has to be behind your head. You’ll see the plane’s shadow cast on a cloud. And a halo of light will surround the shadow.

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Meet Delta Scorpii, aka Dschubba. It’s a variable star

Delta Scorpii, also known as Dschubba, is in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. It’s the middle star in the little arc of 3 stars above the bright red star Antares, the Scorpion’s Heart. These 3 stars are called the Crown of the Scorpion. Chart via Wikimedia.

We live in uncertain times. Look up! It’s peaceful. And please help EarthSky keep going. Donate today.

Finding (and pronouncing) Dschubba

Delta Scorpii – aka Dschubba – is easy to spot as the middle star in the “forehead” or Crown of Scorpius the Scorpion. And it’s an extremely interesting star – well worth watching – unpredictably variable in a way that you can watch with your eyes alone.

On these northern summer evenings, we in the Northern Hemisphere see Scorpius and Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) in our southern sky. For Southern Hemisphere viewers, they are closer to overhead. Scorpius is an easy constellation to find, because of its curved “tail” of stars. And the brightest star in Scorpius, Antares, will catch your eyes.

To the west of Antares, you’ll find a little arc of three stars. They are tiny, but noticeable. Dschubba, the middle star, is usually the brightest of the three.

How do you pronounce Dschubba? The “D” is silent. So now we are left with “schubba”. It is two syllables, emphasizing the first: SCHUB ba. Something like “shoe ba”. Hear some pronunciations of Dschubba here.

You can also simply call the star Delta Scorpii.

A closer look at the Scorpion’s Crown. It consists of Acrab, Delta Scorpii or Dschubba, and Fang. Also notice Antares. Image via Stellarium. Used with permission.

Delta Scorpii: Forehead, Claw or Crown?

Delta Scorpii derives its name from the Arabic phrase meaning “the forehead” of the Scorpion. This part of the constellation is also sometimes called “the claws” of the Scorpion.

But most stargazers know that the Scorpion’s true claws once extended well beyond the boundaries of Scorpius and into the constellation of Libra the Scales. At some point, far back in the history of our sky, they clipped Scorpion’s claws to make room for Libra. Thus, we now have 12 constellations of the zodiac.

The little arc of 3 stars above Antares is also called the Crown of the Scorpion.

How big and bright?

Dschubba is a moderately bright star in our sky. But it’s relatively distant at 491 light-years away. The light you see beaming from Dschubba tonight left the star in the year 1533. A lot has happened here on Earth since 1533. What has the starlight been doing? Some of it has been kidnapped. There is so much dust and gas between us and the star that half of the light has been reflected and absorbed in the past 491 years. So, what we see is only half as bright as it would be if we had a clear view.

Dschubba is a type B0 star, meaning it is hot, about 22,000 Kelvin (40,000 degrees Fahrenheit or 21,700 degrees C). That’s 4 times hotter than our sun. It’s a massive star too, with 13 times more mass than our sun. It’s about 7 times larger than our sun. And it’s about 14,000 times brighter than the sun.

The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, a plot of stars’ luminosities (true brightness) against their color. You’ll see the high-temperature blue-white stars on the left side of the diagram, and the low-temperature red stars on the right side. Near the top of the heap, Delta Scorpii, identified in the chart with an “X,” is larger, hotter, more massive and shines far brighter than our sun. It lives among the giants. H-R diagram via Wikimedia Commons.

2 types of variability

Dschubba has not one but two types of variability. First, it shows irregular, small brightness variations. Those variations happen every few days and are probably due to bright spots or clouds of gas between us and the star.

The second type of variability is eruptive and unpredictable.

Dschubba is a Gamma Cassiopeiae variable star. That means it behaves like the star Gamma Cassiopeiae, the poster child for a star with these eruptive brightness changes.

Gamma Cassiopeiae – the middle star in the “W” of constellation Cassiopeia – is what’s known as an eruptive variable star. Its magnitude, or brightness, has in the past varied between a bright magnitude 1.6 and a fainter magnitude 3.0. And it spins so rapidly that it occasionally flings off material. This material forms a disk of hot gas surrounding the star near its equator.

And thus, Gamma Cass brightens, not quickly, but slowly, over a few weeks to a few months. In 1937, Gamma Cassiopeiae brightened from magnitude 2.2 to 1.6 (the smaller the number, the brighter the star), then dimmed to magnitude 3.4. In the decades since, the star has slowly brightened to magnitude 2.3 again. But it has not repeated its behavior of 1937.

Only a few other such stars are known to exist, one being the star Dschubba.

An eruption disruption for Dschubba

Like Gamma Cass, Dschubba rotates quickly. At the equator, it reaches a rotational speed of 112 miles per second (180 km/s). This is 90 times faster than our sun.

Astronomers believe that, occasionally, the star throws off material that forms a disk around its equator. This would be a big disk, 150 times larger than our sun. It’s this disk that causes changes in the brightness of Delta Scorpii.

At one time, Dschubba was a spectroscopic standard for the B0 IV star classification. But this variability in brightness got it removed from being a standard. You see, even stars misbehave and get kicked out of the class.

It has a companion

Dschubba is also part of a multiple-star system. It has a companion that is 10 times fainter, orbiting it every 20 days. And there is another star in this system, which might also trigger the brightness outbursts.

The 2nd star gets as far away from the main star as our planet Saturn is from our sun. And it takes 10.8 years to orbit the main star. Every 10.8 years, the second star passes very close to Dschubba, and this passage might stir up the atmosphere of the main star, causing the main star to brighten. Or maybe not. Scientists are not sure about this; the star had an outburst that began in 2000 which may have been related to the close passage of the star. However, its passage in 2011 and 2022 didn’t have a significant outburst.

See for yourself

With the unaided eye, and within minutes, you can estimate the brightness of Delta Scorpii.

Simply compare its brightness to other stars nearby. The non-variable stars are marked on the map below. While it might be tempting to use the star Antares in your estimations, avoid it because it also varies in brightness. Typically, Delta Scorpii is about magnitude 2.3, but it has been known to brighten up to magnitude 1.6. Remember, the higher the number, the fainter the object. So how bright is it tonight?

Map showing Delta Scorpii and the surrounding stars, with the magnitudes indicated. Map via Don Machholz.

A few tips

Take your time. Compare the subject star (Delta Scorpii) to each of the labeled stars on the map. Is it brighter or fainter? Keep doing that, comparing the subject star to the other stars on the map. Avoid using stars near your horizon as extinction will make them appear fainter than they are.

When you have arrived at a number, write it down, along with the date and time. Then go out again tomorrow night and do it again. After four or five nights, you will feel comfortable making magnitude estimates. You can even send in your results to the clearinghouse for star magnitude estimates: the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). You can submit data for free or pay a fee, join the organization, and receive a cartload of benefits. Plus, you have the satisfaction of contributing to the science of Delta Scorpii.

Bottom Line: Delta Scorpii, also known as Dschubba, is a variable star in the constellation Scorpius. With your eyes alone, you can check its brightness for yourself, and for science.

The post Meet Delta Scorpii, aka Dschubba. It’s a variable star first appeared on EarthSky.

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Delta Scorpii, also known as Dschubba, is in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. It’s the middle star in the little arc of 3 stars above the bright red star Antares, the Scorpion’s Heart. These 3 stars are called the Crown of the Scorpion. Chart via Wikimedia.

We live in uncertain times. Look up! It’s peaceful. And please help EarthSky keep going. Donate today.

Finding (and pronouncing) Dschubba

Delta Scorpii – aka Dschubba – is easy to spot as the middle star in the “forehead” or Crown of Scorpius the Scorpion. And it’s an extremely interesting star – well worth watching – unpredictably variable in a way that you can watch with your eyes alone.

On these northern summer evenings, we in the Northern Hemisphere see Scorpius and Delta Scorpii (Dschubba) in our southern sky. For Southern Hemisphere viewers, they are closer to overhead. Scorpius is an easy constellation to find, because of its curved “tail” of stars. And the brightest star in Scorpius, Antares, will catch your eyes.

To the west of Antares, you’ll find a little arc of three stars. They are tiny, but noticeable. Dschubba, the middle star, is usually the brightest of the three.

How do you pronounce Dschubba? The “D” is silent. So now we are left with “schubba”. It is two syllables, emphasizing the first: SCHUB ba. Something like “shoe ba”. Hear some pronunciations of Dschubba here.

You can also simply call the star Delta Scorpii.

A closer look at the Scorpion’s Crown. It consists of Acrab, Delta Scorpii or Dschubba, and Fang. Also notice Antares. Image via Stellarium. Used with permission.

Delta Scorpii: Forehead, Claw or Crown?

Delta Scorpii derives its name from the Arabic phrase meaning “the forehead” of the Scorpion. This part of the constellation is also sometimes called “the claws” of the Scorpion.

But most stargazers know that the Scorpion’s true claws once extended well beyond the boundaries of Scorpius and into the constellation of Libra the Scales. At some point, far back in the history of our sky, they clipped Scorpion’s claws to make room for Libra. Thus, we now have 12 constellations of the zodiac.

The little arc of 3 stars above Antares is also called the Crown of the Scorpion.

How big and bright?

Dschubba is a moderately bright star in our sky. But it’s relatively distant at 491 light-years away. The light you see beaming from Dschubba tonight left the star in the year 1533. A lot has happened here on Earth since 1533. What has the starlight been doing? Some of it has been kidnapped. There is so much dust and gas between us and the star that half of the light has been reflected and absorbed in the past 491 years. So, what we see is only half as bright as it would be if we had a clear view.

Dschubba is a type B0 star, meaning it is hot, about 22,000 Kelvin (40,000 degrees Fahrenheit or 21,700 degrees C). That’s 4 times hotter than our sun. It’s a massive star too, with 13 times more mass than our sun. It’s about 7 times larger than our sun. And it’s about 14,000 times brighter than the sun.

The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, a plot of stars’ luminosities (true brightness) against their color. You’ll see the high-temperature blue-white stars on the left side of the diagram, and the low-temperature red stars on the right side. Near the top of the heap, Delta Scorpii, identified in the chart with an “X,” is larger, hotter, more massive and shines far brighter than our sun. It lives among the giants. H-R diagram via Wikimedia Commons.

2 types of variability

Dschubba has not one but two types of variability. First, it shows irregular, small brightness variations. Those variations happen every few days and are probably due to bright spots or clouds of gas between us and the star.

The second type of variability is eruptive and unpredictable.

Dschubba is a Gamma Cassiopeiae variable star. That means it behaves like the star Gamma Cassiopeiae, the poster child for a star with these eruptive brightness changes.

Gamma Cassiopeiae – the middle star in the “W” of constellation Cassiopeia – is what’s known as an eruptive variable star. Its magnitude, or brightness, has in the past varied between a bright magnitude 1.6 and a fainter magnitude 3.0. And it spins so rapidly that it occasionally flings off material. This material forms a disk of hot gas surrounding the star near its equator.

And thus, Gamma Cass brightens, not quickly, but slowly, over a few weeks to a few months. In 1937, Gamma Cassiopeiae brightened from magnitude 2.2 to 1.6 (the smaller the number, the brighter the star), then dimmed to magnitude 3.4. In the decades since, the star has slowly brightened to magnitude 2.3 again. But it has not repeated its behavior of 1937.

Only a few other such stars are known to exist, one being the star Dschubba.

An eruption disruption for Dschubba

Like Gamma Cass, Dschubba rotates quickly. At the equator, it reaches a rotational speed of 112 miles per second (180 km/s). This is 90 times faster than our sun.

Astronomers believe that, occasionally, the star throws off material that forms a disk around its equator. This would be a big disk, 150 times larger than our sun. It’s this disk that causes changes in the brightness of Delta Scorpii.

At one time, Dschubba was a spectroscopic standard for the B0 IV star classification. But this variability in brightness got it removed from being a standard. You see, even stars misbehave and get kicked out of the class.

It has a companion

Dschubba is also part of a multiple-star system. It has a companion that is 10 times fainter, orbiting it every 20 days. And there is another star in this system, which might also trigger the brightness outbursts.

The 2nd star gets as far away from the main star as our planet Saturn is from our sun. And it takes 10.8 years to orbit the main star. Every 10.8 years, the second star passes very close to Dschubba, and this passage might stir up the atmosphere of the main star, causing the main star to brighten. Or maybe not. Scientists are not sure about this; the star had an outburst that began in 2000 which may have been related to the close passage of the star. However, its passage in 2011 and 2022 didn’t have a significant outburst.

See for yourself

With the unaided eye, and within minutes, you can estimate the brightness of Delta Scorpii.

Simply compare its brightness to other stars nearby. The non-variable stars are marked on the map below. While it might be tempting to use the star Antares in your estimations, avoid it because it also varies in brightness. Typically, Delta Scorpii is about magnitude 2.3, but it has been known to brighten up to magnitude 1.6. Remember, the higher the number, the fainter the object. So how bright is it tonight?

Map showing Delta Scorpii and the surrounding stars, with the magnitudes indicated. Map via Don Machholz.

A few tips

Take your time. Compare the subject star (Delta Scorpii) to each of the labeled stars on the map. Is it brighter or fainter? Keep doing that, comparing the subject star to the other stars on the map. Avoid using stars near your horizon as extinction will make them appear fainter than they are.

When you have arrived at a number, write it down, along with the date and time. Then go out again tomorrow night and do it again. After four or five nights, you will feel comfortable making magnitude estimates. You can even send in your results to the clearinghouse for star magnitude estimates: the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). You can submit data for free or pay a fee, join the organization, and receive a cartload of benefits. Plus, you have the satisfaction of contributing to the science of Delta Scorpii.

Bottom Line: Delta Scorpii, also known as Dschubba, is a variable star in the constellation Scorpius. With your eyes alone, you can check its brightness for yourself, and for science.

The post Meet Delta Scorpii, aka Dschubba. It’s a variable star first appeared on EarthSky.

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Can sharks smile? It’s Shark Week! Enjoy these shark videos

Photo by Brian Skerry

A great white shark seems to be smiling as he swims with a school of jacks in the waters of South Australia.#photography #underwater #whiteshark #australia pic.twitter.com/Ibvrolx8Ec

— Henry Söderlund (@henrysoderlund) July 3, 2023

It’s shark week on the Discovery Channel! It will run from July 66 and will end on August 1, 2026. We have some shark videos for you to celebrate it:

Wrangling A Predator: Science and Community Protecting Tiger Sharks

What Happened When 2 Shark Species Shared a Feast?

Can sharks smile?

Many animals show feelings. We’ve all seen examples of animals showing happiness, anger or fear. And dogs, monkeys and dolphins, for example, all show expressions akin to human smiles. But sharks? Sharks do sometimes look as if they’re smiling. They’re often portrayed in books and movies as smiling. But scientists say it’s not likely sharks can or do smile. Unlike dogs, monkeys and dolphins, sharks are fish. And, in sharks and other fish, the parts of the brain related to feelings aren’t developed enough to produce a smile, according to scientists.

JAW-SOME! Shark cracks a smile and looks hilariously like Bruce from Finding Nemo – https://t.co/MBBMCw4GVq pic.twitter.com/G5N2xHs21U

— Caters Media Group (@catersmediagrp) March 22, 2016

Yet sharks do communicate, by twisting their bodies into certain positions. And they act differently from day to day, depending on how much food they’ve eaten or how cold the water is. Scientists call those things behaviors, not emotions.

And even though a shark’s body is made of flexible cartilage, its jaws are rigid and calcified. A strong jaw lets a shark pulverize its food. But the same rigidity makes a true shark smile impossible.

Did you see the Disney film Finding Nemo? Then you know Bruce, who is almost always smiling and whose refrain is: “I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food.” Cute, but not science!

In Finding Nemo (2003) the Great White shark, Bruce, is a reference to the mechanical shark(s) used to make Jaws (1975) whom Spielberg called Bruce. The Jaws score is played during his scenes as well.#Movies #MovieDetails pic.twitter.com/G2JDp959We

— KSP Movies (@KSPMovies) February 15, 2022

Smiles are a form of communication

Smiling seems to be instinctual in people as a basic form of communication. When someone smiles, we usually read the smile as happiness. Likewise, in humans, a frown signals sadness or possibly anger.

And scientists can’t possibly know everything. Maybe we just don’t understand how to read the emotions of a fish. Marine biologist Steven Webster, now retired from Monterey Bay Aquarium and currently head of Sea Studios Foundation, once told EarthSky:

We don’t know if fish or turtles have emotions. And we’ll never know. It could be that sharks are out there chuckling and writing poetry every day, and they just don’t share it with us.

But for now, as far as scientists understand it, sharks and other fish aren’t capable of smiling. That’s despite the fact that some really look as if they’re smiling.

Dolphins always look happy. Can they smile? Maybe they can, as they are mammals. But according to scientists, sharks, as they are fish, they probably don’t have that capability. Yet they can communicate in their own ways. Image via Pexels/ Hamid Elbaz.

What do scientists say?

So, according to scientists, it’s not likely that sharks can smile. And scientists warn against reading too much into animal faces and behaviors. That sort of anthropomorphizing – attributing human form or behavior to animals – can get in the way of scientific objectivity.

Still, future scientists are sure to discover more about sharks’ relationship with their world, giving us all a better glimpse into the lives of the creatures who co-inhabit planet Earth with us.

Of course many other animals – including our beloved pets – appear to smile.

Congratulations to the winners of our Best Smile Photo Contest – Thank you to all who participated! Wow – beautiful pets, beautiful smiles. Enjoy and share in the happiness of the smiling pets of Las Vegas. https://t.co/WIPW3yF6Fj pic.twitter.com/5WF5DID7Wn

— Las Vegas Pet Scene (@LVPetScene) July 12, 2023

Bottom line: Can sharks smile? Not likely. But dogs, monkeys and dolphins all show expressions akin to human smiles. Learn more about sharks during Shark Week.

Shark Week on the Discovery channel starts on July 26, 2026. Click in for info

Read more: Bull sharks choose companions and form lasting bonds

Read more: Sharkcano, an undersea volcano where sharks live

The post Can sharks smile? It’s Shark Week! Enjoy these shark videos first appeared on EarthSky.

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Photo by Brian Skerry

A great white shark seems to be smiling as he swims with a school of jacks in the waters of South Australia.#photography #underwater #whiteshark #australia pic.twitter.com/Ibvrolx8Ec

— Henry Söderlund (@henrysoderlund) July 3, 2023

It’s shark week on the Discovery Channel! It will run from July 66 and will end on August 1, 2026. We have some shark videos for you to celebrate it:

Wrangling A Predator: Science and Community Protecting Tiger Sharks

What Happened When 2 Shark Species Shared a Feast?

Can sharks smile?

Many animals show feelings. We’ve all seen examples of animals showing happiness, anger or fear. And dogs, monkeys and dolphins, for example, all show expressions akin to human smiles. But sharks? Sharks do sometimes look as if they’re smiling. They’re often portrayed in books and movies as smiling. But scientists say it’s not likely sharks can or do smile. Unlike dogs, monkeys and dolphins, sharks are fish. And, in sharks and other fish, the parts of the brain related to feelings aren’t developed enough to produce a smile, according to scientists.

JAW-SOME! Shark cracks a smile and looks hilariously like Bruce from Finding Nemo – https://t.co/MBBMCw4GVq pic.twitter.com/G5N2xHs21U

— Caters Media Group (@catersmediagrp) March 22, 2016

Yet sharks do communicate, by twisting their bodies into certain positions. And they act differently from day to day, depending on how much food they’ve eaten or how cold the water is. Scientists call those things behaviors, not emotions.

And even though a shark’s body is made of flexible cartilage, its jaws are rigid and calcified. A strong jaw lets a shark pulverize its food. But the same rigidity makes a true shark smile impossible.

Did you see the Disney film Finding Nemo? Then you know Bruce, who is almost always smiling and whose refrain is: “I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food.” Cute, but not science!

In Finding Nemo (2003) the Great White shark, Bruce, is a reference to the mechanical shark(s) used to make Jaws (1975) whom Spielberg called Bruce. The Jaws score is played during his scenes as well.#Movies #MovieDetails pic.twitter.com/G2JDp959We

— KSP Movies (@KSPMovies) February 15, 2022

Smiles are a form of communication

Smiling seems to be instinctual in people as a basic form of communication. When someone smiles, we usually read the smile as happiness. Likewise, in humans, a frown signals sadness or possibly anger.

And scientists can’t possibly know everything. Maybe we just don’t understand how to read the emotions of a fish. Marine biologist Steven Webster, now retired from Monterey Bay Aquarium and currently head of Sea Studios Foundation, once told EarthSky:

We don’t know if fish or turtles have emotions. And we’ll never know. It could be that sharks are out there chuckling and writing poetry every day, and they just don’t share it with us.

But for now, as far as scientists understand it, sharks and other fish aren’t capable of smiling. That’s despite the fact that some really look as if they’re smiling.

Dolphins always look happy. Can they smile? Maybe they can, as they are mammals. But according to scientists, sharks, as they are fish, they probably don’t have that capability. Yet they can communicate in their own ways. Image via Pexels/ Hamid Elbaz.

What do scientists say?

So, according to scientists, it’s not likely that sharks can smile. And scientists warn against reading too much into animal faces and behaviors. That sort of anthropomorphizing – attributing human form or behavior to animals – can get in the way of scientific objectivity.

Still, future scientists are sure to discover more about sharks’ relationship with their world, giving us all a better glimpse into the lives of the creatures who co-inhabit planet Earth with us.

Of course many other animals – including our beloved pets – appear to smile.

Congratulations to the winners of our Best Smile Photo Contest – Thank you to all who participated! Wow – beautiful pets, beautiful smiles. Enjoy and share in the happiness of the smiling pets of Las Vegas. https://t.co/WIPW3yF6Fj pic.twitter.com/5WF5DID7Wn

— Las Vegas Pet Scene (@LVPetScene) July 12, 2023

Bottom line: Can sharks smile? Not likely. But dogs, monkeys and dolphins all show expressions akin to human smiles. Learn more about sharks during Shark Week.

Shark Week on the Discovery channel starts on July 26, 2026. Click in for info

Read more: Bull sharks choose companions and form lasting bonds

Read more: Sharkcano, an undersea volcano where sharks live

The post Can sharks smile? It’s Shark Week! Enjoy these shark videos first appeared on EarthSky.

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Wildfires in Spain and France: 200,000 forced to flee

Wildfires in Spain and France. Tourists watch from the roof of a hotel in Madrid on Friday afternoon, July 24, 2026. Fires are burning both southwest and north of the Spanish capital. Image via Ayana Christensen. “The smell of smoke was strong,” she reported. Used with permission.

Firefighters race to control wildfires in Spain and France

Wildfires raging in Spain and France have caused the evacuation of some 200,000 people, some fleeing by boat. Both Spain and France have recently been experiencing severe heat waves. Extreme temperatures topping 102°F (39°C), combined with hot winds, have fueled the intense wildfires across central Spain (near Madrid and Ávila) and southwestern France (in the Gironde and Landes departments around Bordeaux), leading to the massive evacuations and multiple regional emergency declarations.

AP reported:

Firefighters and authorities in both European countries were caught off guard by the virulence of the fires, which were fueled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change. Firefighters in Spain admitted the fires were so fast and violent that they could not be tackled head on. Some people even fled by boat when flames swept through the touristic area on France’s Atlantic coast.

Some 141,000 fled homes in the Gironde and Landes departments in France, the French interior ministry said. In central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes, according to the Spanish interior ministry.

Dozens of French firefighters were injured, authorities said, but no deaths were reported in either country despite the scenes of panic as townsfolk fled by car and police went door to door to tell people to leave as large plumes of smoke rose from the neighboring woodlands.

As of this morning, these wildfires in Spain and France aren’t the ‘worst on record,’ as some are claiming on social media. But Spain has declared its first national wildfire emergency, reflecting the exceptional scale and complexity of the crisis. And authorities are describing the ongoing fires as highly unpredictable, fueled by record heat, drought, and strong winds

Fire locations and evacuations

The fires are burning near towns like Navas del Rey and Cenicientos, approximately 50 km (30 miles) southwest of the Spanish capital of Madrid. These blazes have caused smoke to drift directly into Madrid and prompted the temporary shutdown of NASA’s Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, about 60–65 km (37–40 miles) west of the city center. Staff were fleeing, and fires were threatening the big telescope, as of last night. More about that below.

Meanwhile, roughly 100 km (62 miles) north of Madrid, another major wildfire is burning in the neighboring Guadalajara province.Across both countries, more than 200,000 people have been forced to flee or have been ordered to lock down/shelter in place due to the massive wildfires.

In Spain overall, roughly 60,000 to 63,000 people were evacuated or confined to their homes after the government declared a national emergency due to fierce blazes spreading near Madrid and the Ávila province.

In France, approximately 141,000 people were evacuated across the Gironde and Landes departments (including massive coastal evacuations on the Cap Ferret peninsula near Bordeaux, where thousands had to escape by boat).

Deep Space Network telescope damage being assessed

??? UPDATE: Madrid Wildfires Force Shutdown of NASA Deep Space Communications Complex

The wildfires west of Madrid have reached NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex, prompting the temporary shutdown of one of the agency's key deep-space tracking facilities.

? NASA… pic.twitter.com/YrYJ9s31DY

— Emmanuel – Big Tech & AI Investor (@EmmanuelInvest) July 25, 2026

When was the last time this happened?

While mass wildfire evacuations of this magnitude are rare, evacuations reaching or exceeding 200,000 people have occurred a handful of times in recent history. Here is a breakdown of major historic precedent for mass wildfire evacuations:

1. Southern California Wildfires (October 2007). Largest recorded
Scale: ~900,000 to 1,000,000 people displaced. Fierce Santa Ana winds and extreme dry conditions drove dozens of simultaneous fires across Southern California (including San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange counties). It remains the largest single wildfire evacuation in modern global history.

2. Canadian Wildfire Season (summer 2023). Scale: ~185,000+ people total across multiple provinces. During Canada’s record-breaking 2023 fire season, entire capital cities like Yellowknife (20,000 residents) were evacuated. Throughout the season, sequential evacuations across Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories combined to force nearly 200,000 Canadians from their homes.

3. Northern California Wildfires (October 2019 / Kincade Fire).
Scale: ~180,000–200,000 people. When the Kincade Fire ignited in Sonoma County under hurricane-force wind gusts, authorities issued massive precautionary evacuation orders covering large towns like Healdsburg and Santa Rosa to avoid a repeat of the deadly 2017 Tubbs Fire.

4. Alberta, Canada (Fort McMurray Fire, May 2016). Scale: ~88,000 people. While under the 200,000 mark, it is worth noting as the largest single-city wildfire evacuation in North American history, where the entire population of the city was forced onto a single highway as flames engulfed neighboring subdivisions.

Bottom line: Raging wildfires in Spain and France have forced over 200,000 to evacuate or shelter as extreme heat and winds push uncontained blazes across both regions.

The post Wildfires in Spain and France: 200,000 forced to flee first appeared on EarthSky.

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Wildfires in Spain and France. Tourists watch from the roof of a hotel in Madrid on Friday afternoon, July 24, 2026. Fires are burning both southwest and north of the Spanish capital. Image via Ayana Christensen. “The smell of smoke was strong,” she reported. Used with permission.

Firefighters race to control wildfires in Spain and France

Wildfires raging in Spain and France have caused the evacuation of some 200,000 people, some fleeing by boat. Both Spain and France have recently been experiencing severe heat waves. Extreme temperatures topping 102°F (39°C), combined with hot winds, have fueled the intense wildfires across central Spain (near Madrid and Ávila) and southwestern France (in the Gironde and Landes departments around Bordeaux), leading to the massive evacuations and multiple regional emergency declarations.

AP reported:

Firefighters and authorities in both European countries were caught off guard by the virulence of the fires, which were fueled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change. Firefighters in Spain admitted the fires were so fast and violent that they could not be tackled head on. Some people even fled by boat when flames swept through the touristic area on France’s Atlantic coast.

Some 141,000 fled homes in the Gironde and Landes departments in France, the French interior ministry said. In central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes, according to the Spanish interior ministry.

Dozens of French firefighters were injured, authorities said, but no deaths were reported in either country despite the scenes of panic as townsfolk fled by car and police went door to door to tell people to leave as large plumes of smoke rose from the neighboring woodlands.

As of this morning, these wildfires in Spain and France aren’t the ‘worst on record,’ as some are claiming on social media. But Spain has declared its first national wildfire emergency, reflecting the exceptional scale and complexity of the crisis. And authorities are describing the ongoing fires as highly unpredictable, fueled by record heat, drought, and strong winds

Fire locations and evacuations

The fires are burning near towns like Navas del Rey and Cenicientos, approximately 50 km (30 miles) southwest of the Spanish capital of Madrid. These blazes have caused smoke to drift directly into Madrid and prompted the temporary shutdown of NASA’s Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, about 60–65 km (37–40 miles) west of the city center. Staff were fleeing, and fires were threatening the big telescope, as of last night. More about that below.

Meanwhile, roughly 100 km (62 miles) north of Madrid, another major wildfire is burning in the neighboring Guadalajara province.Across both countries, more than 200,000 people have been forced to flee or have been ordered to lock down/shelter in place due to the massive wildfires.

In Spain overall, roughly 60,000 to 63,000 people were evacuated or confined to their homes after the government declared a national emergency due to fierce blazes spreading near Madrid and the Ávila province.

In France, approximately 141,000 people were evacuated across the Gironde and Landes departments (including massive coastal evacuations on the Cap Ferret peninsula near Bordeaux, where thousands had to escape by boat).

Deep Space Network telescope damage being assessed

??? UPDATE: Madrid Wildfires Force Shutdown of NASA Deep Space Communications Complex

The wildfires west of Madrid have reached NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex, prompting the temporary shutdown of one of the agency's key deep-space tracking facilities.

? NASA… pic.twitter.com/YrYJ9s31DY

— Emmanuel – Big Tech & AI Investor (@EmmanuelInvest) July 25, 2026

When was the last time this happened?

While mass wildfire evacuations of this magnitude are rare, evacuations reaching or exceeding 200,000 people have occurred a handful of times in recent history. Here is a breakdown of major historic precedent for mass wildfire evacuations:

1. Southern California Wildfires (October 2007). Largest recorded
Scale: ~900,000 to 1,000,000 people displaced. Fierce Santa Ana winds and extreme dry conditions drove dozens of simultaneous fires across Southern California (including San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange counties). It remains the largest single wildfire evacuation in modern global history.

2. Canadian Wildfire Season (summer 2023). Scale: ~185,000+ people total across multiple provinces. During Canada’s record-breaking 2023 fire season, entire capital cities like Yellowknife (20,000 residents) were evacuated. Throughout the season, sequential evacuations across Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories combined to force nearly 200,000 Canadians from their homes.

3. Northern California Wildfires (October 2019 / Kincade Fire).
Scale: ~180,000–200,000 people. When the Kincade Fire ignited in Sonoma County under hurricane-force wind gusts, authorities issued massive precautionary evacuation orders covering large towns like Healdsburg and Santa Rosa to avoid a repeat of the deadly 2017 Tubbs Fire.

4. Alberta, Canada (Fort McMurray Fire, May 2016). Scale: ~88,000 people. While under the 200,000 mark, it is worth noting as the largest single-city wildfire evacuation in North American history, where the entire population of the city was forced onto a single highway as flames engulfed neighboring subdivisions.

Bottom line: Raging wildfires in Spain and France have forced over 200,000 to evacuate or shelter as extreme heat and winds push uncontained blazes across both regions.

The post Wildfires in Spain and France: 200,000 forced to flee first appeared on EarthSky.

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Oldest Mars meteorite reveals Mars lost its water early

View larger. | Closeup of the Teghaza 001 Mars meteorite. A new analysis of this ancient piece of the red planet reveals it was starting to lose its water over 4 billion years ago. Image via NASA.

• Teghaza 001 is a meteorite that came from Mars. Prospectors found it in the Sahara Desert in 2022.
• Analysis of this rock suggests Mars began to lose its water very early in its history.
• Plus, it reveals Mars had a crust similar to granite, which is surprising given the planet lacks plate tectonics.

We’ve never needed good science more than we do right now. Support EarthSky in 2026 and help us keep it going strong.

Teghaza 001, the oldest known Mars meteorite

Many pieces of Martian material have been ejected from the red planet and reached Earth as meteorites. And one of the more recently discovered Martian meteorites might be the oldest yet.

That’s what a team of scientists, led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said on July 16, 2026. Prospectors found the meteorite – named Teghaza 001 – in the Sahara Desert in September 2022. And researchers have identified the piece of Mars’ crust as being over 4.1 billion years old.

The meteorite hints that the planet was already losing its water at that early stage in its life. Plus, it points to a granite-like crust on ancient Mars. That’s surprising, as the formation of granite on Earth is associated with tectonic activity … and Mars lacks plate tectonics.

The not-yet peer-reviewed paper is available as a preprint on the ESS Open Archive (April 14, 2026). Additional papers are also expected.

This meteorite, called Teghaza 001, “will revolutionize the way that we think about early Mars.”Learn more: https://scim.ag/4yDBSYK

— Science Magazine (@science.org) 2026-07-21T22:40:01.528162083Z

A view into Mars’ past

Paper co-author Lee Saper is a geochemist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He gave a talk at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Montreal, Canada, on July 14. He said that the meteorite:

… will revolutionize the way that we think about early Mars.

And he’s likely right.

Teghaza 001 is only the second known Martian meteorite from the Martian crust in the earliest period of the planet’s history. The other one is Allan Hills 84001. So now, scientists have two meteorites to work with instead of just one. Lydia Hallis, a planetary scientist at the University of Glasgow, said:

We’ve doubled our old meteorites. There will be a lot of people, including me, who want to get a piece of this.

So what does the meteorite show?

Tegzaza is rich in both zircons and silicon. Zircon minerals contain tiny amounts of uranium. The uranium decays into lead over time. Since it decays at a known rate, scientists can use it to determine the age of the meteorite.

If the zircon minerals melt or are exposed to fluids, though, then their “clocks” are reset to zero. This means that the meteorite might be even older than 4.1 billion years. Christopher Herd, a geologist at the University of Alberta, said:

There’s more of a story to this rock than most other Martian meteorites.

View larger. | NASA’s Perseverance rover found this unusual speckled white rock called Atoko Point last year. It has a granite-like appearance and contains feldspar, one of the key components of granite on Earth. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ ASU/ MSSS/ LiveScience.

Mars meteorite hints at granite-like crust on ancient Mars

But there was another surprise in the meteorite: it contained a lot of silicon. This hinted at granite-like rocks on ancient Mars. As Eva Scheller, a planetary scientist at Stanford University, noted:

It’s very strange; we don’t expect that.

Scientists never expected Mars to have much granite since it lacks plate tectonics (the division of a planet’s upper crust into multiple different pieces, or plates). On Earth, granite forms from cooling magma. And most of that magma is generated by the movement of tectonic plates. Meanwhile, most of Mars’ crust is composed of solid basalt.

But it’s starting to look like Mars did once have at least some granite, or granite-like rock. Impacts from meteorites have exposed some deposits. And last year, the Perseverance rover discovered a rock outcrop, called Plankeholmane, that looks a lot like granite on Earth. It contained quartz, a key component of granite.

And last year, the rover found an odd speckled white rock called Atoko Point that also appeared quite granite-like. It contained pyroxene and feldspar. Feldspar is also a component of granite on Earth.

How was Mars able to produce such deposits without plate tectonics? Scientists don’t know yet. This evidence also points to complex magma systems on early Mars, as does this other recent study.

Yang liu at Caltech is the lead author of the new study about the Teghaza 001 meteorite from Mars. Image via Caltech.

When Mars dried up

The meteorite also provides valuable clues about past water on Mars. Both it and the Allan Hills meteorite show that Mars had more water early in its history. But they also indicate that Mars began to lose its water early on, as the planet’s magnetic field disappeared and the atmosphere thinned and became much colder. Considering that these meteorites are at least 4.1 billion years old, and Mars – like Earth – formed some 4.5 billion years ago, this loss of water seems to have come in the planet’s infancy.

The clues come from the ratios of hydrogen in the meteorites. When Mars began to lose its water, the higher ratio of hydrogen – the primary component of water – to deuterium dropped. Super said:

This is the product of rapid hydrogen loss from the juvenile Martian atmosphere.

The new analysis of Teghaza 001 has provided new clues about Mars’ ancient past. And it also raises new questions. It will be interesting to see what else it and similar Mars meteorites reveal!

Bottom line: A new analysis of the the oldest known Mars meteorite, Teghaza 001, reveals evidence for a granite-like crust and the start of the loss of water on early Mars.

Source: Teghaza 001: An ancient Martian gabbroic diorite derived from previously unsampled Martian crust and mantle

Via Science

Read more: A famous Mars meteorite, now with nitrogen

Read more: Methane in Mars meteorites = life?

The post Oldest Mars meteorite reveals Mars lost its water early first appeared on EarthSky.

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View larger. | Closeup of the Teghaza 001 Mars meteorite. A new analysis of this ancient piece of the red planet reveals it was starting to lose its water over 4 billion years ago. Image via NASA.

• Teghaza 001 is a meteorite that came from Mars. Prospectors found it in the Sahara Desert in 2022.
• Analysis of this rock suggests Mars began to lose its water very early in its history.
• Plus, it reveals Mars had a crust similar to granite, which is surprising given the planet lacks plate tectonics.

We’ve never needed good science more than we do right now. Support EarthSky in 2026 and help us keep it going strong.

Teghaza 001, the oldest known Mars meteorite

Many pieces of Martian material have been ejected from the red planet and reached Earth as meteorites. And one of the more recently discovered Martian meteorites might be the oldest yet.

That’s what a team of scientists, led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said on July 16, 2026. Prospectors found the meteorite – named Teghaza 001 – in the Sahara Desert in September 2022. And researchers have identified the piece of Mars’ crust as being over 4.1 billion years old.

The meteorite hints that the planet was already losing its water at that early stage in its life. Plus, it points to a granite-like crust on ancient Mars. That’s surprising, as the formation of granite on Earth is associated with tectonic activity … and Mars lacks plate tectonics.

The not-yet peer-reviewed paper is available as a preprint on the ESS Open Archive (April 14, 2026). Additional papers are also expected.

This meteorite, called Teghaza 001, “will revolutionize the way that we think about early Mars.”Learn more: https://scim.ag/4yDBSYK

— Science Magazine (@science.org) 2026-07-21T22:40:01.528162083Z

A view into Mars’ past

Paper co-author Lee Saper is a geochemist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He gave a talk at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Montreal, Canada, on July 14. He said that the meteorite:

… will revolutionize the way that we think about early Mars.

And he’s likely right.

Teghaza 001 is only the second known Martian meteorite from the Martian crust in the earliest period of the planet’s history. The other one is Allan Hills 84001. So now, scientists have two meteorites to work with instead of just one. Lydia Hallis, a planetary scientist at the University of Glasgow, said:

We’ve doubled our old meteorites. There will be a lot of people, including me, who want to get a piece of this.

So what does the meteorite show?

Tegzaza is rich in both zircons and silicon. Zircon minerals contain tiny amounts of uranium. The uranium decays into lead over time. Since it decays at a known rate, scientists can use it to determine the age of the meteorite.

If the zircon minerals melt or are exposed to fluids, though, then their “clocks” are reset to zero. This means that the meteorite might be even older than 4.1 billion years. Christopher Herd, a geologist at the University of Alberta, said:

There’s more of a story to this rock than most other Martian meteorites.

View larger. | NASA’s Perseverance rover found this unusual speckled white rock called Atoko Point last year. It has a granite-like appearance and contains feldspar, one of the key components of granite on Earth. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ ASU/ MSSS/ LiveScience.

Mars meteorite hints at granite-like crust on ancient Mars

But there was another surprise in the meteorite: it contained a lot of silicon. This hinted at granite-like rocks on ancient Mars. As Eva Scheller, a planetary scientist at Stanford University, noted:

It’s very strange; we don’t expect that.

Scientists never expected Mars to have much granite since it lacks plate tectonics (the division of a planet’s upper crust into multiple different pieces, or plates). On Earth, granite forms from cooling magma. And most of that magma is generated by the movement of tectonic plates. Meanwhile, most of Mars’ crust is composed of solid basalt.

But it’s starting to look like Mars did once have at least some granite, or granite-like rock. Impacts from meteorites have exposed some deposits. And last year, the Perseverance rover discovered a rock outcrop, called Plankeholmane, that looks a lot like granite on Earth. It contained quartz, a key component of granite.

And last year, the rover found an odd speckled white rock called Atoko Point that also appeared quite granite-like. It contained pyroxene and feldspar. Feldspar is also a component of granite on Earth.

How was Mars able to produce such deposits without plate tectonics? Scientists don’t know yet. This evidence also points to complex magma systems on early Mars, as does this other recent study.

Yang liu at Caltech is the lead author of the new study about the Teghaza 001 meteorite from Mars. Image via Caltech.

When Mars dried up

The meteorite also provides valuable clues about past water on Mars. Both it and the Allan Hills meteorite show that Mars had more water early in its history. But they also indicate that Mars began to lose its water early on, as the planet’s magnetic field disappeared and the atmosphere thinned and became much colder. Considering that these meteorites are at least 4.1 billion years old, and Mars – like Earth – formed some 4.5 billion years ago, this loss of water seems to have come in the planet’s infancy.

The clues come from the ratios of hydrogen in the meteorites. When Mars began to lose its water, the higher ratio of hydrogen – the primary component of water – to deuterium dropped. Super said:

This is the product of rapid hydrogen loss from the juvenile Martian atmosphere.

The new analysis of Teghaza 001 has provided new clues about Mars’ ancient past. And it also raises new questions. It will be interesting to see what else it and similar Mars meteorites reveal!

Bottom line: A new analysis of the the oldest known Mars meteorite, Teghaza 001, reveals evidence for a granite-like crust and the start of the loss of water on early Mars.

Source: Teghaza 001: An ancient Martian gabbroic diorite derived from previously unsampled Martian crust and mantle

Via Science

Read more: A famous Mars meteorite, now with nitrogen

Read more: Methane in Mars meteorites = life?

The post Oldest Mars meteorite reveals Mars lost its water early first appeared on EarthSky.

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Vulpecula the Fox lies inside the Summer Triangle

In the east on June, July and August evenings, you’ll find the large pattern of the Summer Triangle, made of 3 bright stars. And from a dark sky, you can also spot Vulpecula the Fox inside the triangle. Chart via EarthSky.

Your support = more science, more stars, more wonder. Donate to EarthSky and be part of something bigger.

Vulpecula the Fox is not an ancient constellation. Instead, it’s one of many created by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. Hevelius carved a lot of new constellations out of dim regions of sky next to better-known constellations. Vulpecula is one of the small constellations that lies inside the famous asterism of the Summer Triangle. And it contains two favorite targets of amateur astronomers.

Locating Vulpecula the Fox

Although Vulpecula the Fox is a dim constellation, you can find it easily under dark skies because of its location within the Summer Triangle. Only Vulpecula and Sagitta the Arrow reside within the boundaries of this star pattern.

If you don’t know how to find the Summer Triangle, look for three bright stars rising in the east after dark. These stars are Altair in Aquila the Eagle, Deneb in Cygnus the Swan and Vega in Lyra the Harp. Vulpecula lies near the head of Cygnus the Swan, near the colorful double star Albireo.

Stars in Vulpecula

Vulpecula is small in size (ranking 55th out of 88 constellations) and contains no bright stars of note. But that doesn’t mean it has little to offer!

The star grouping that brings amateur astronomers to Vulpecula is the Coathanger. The Coathanger has a few other names, such as Brocchi’s Cluster and Collinder 399. Although it’s called a cluster, studies have shown that it’s not a cluster in the formal sense – a group of gravitationally connected stars – but instead just a chance alignment of stars. This becomes more clear when you learn that the distances to its 10 or so stars span a vast range, including 218 light-years, 400 light-years, 760 light-years, 901 light-years and 1,132 light-years.

The Coathanger consists of stars of magnitude 5 and 6. They are arranged in a horizontal row with a hook shape sticking out from its middle, meaning they very much resemble a coathanger. You can see this best through binoculars or a low-power telescope. Through binoculars in the Northern Hemisphere, the Coathanger will appear upside down, but through the inverted view of a telescope, it appears right side up. And it’s the opposite for those in the Southern Hemisphere.

You can find the Coathanger about halfway between Albireo and Zeta Aquilae, the wingtip of Aquila the Eagle.

The Coathanger Cluster looks like its namesake. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The stars of Vulpecula the Fox. Image via IAU.

The Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula

The Dumbbell Nebula is another favorite target of amateur astronomers in Vulpecula.

This nebula lies about 8 1/2 degrees east of Albireo. Also known as M27, it glows at magnitude 8.1.

The Dumbbell Nebula became the first known planetary nebula when Charles Messier discovered it in 1764.

You can see the Dumbbell in binoculars, and even a small telescope can bring out its slight hourglass shape. The nebula, which lies about 1,360 light-years away, was created when the central star blew off its envelope of gas at the end of its life.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Mario Rana in Hampton, Virginia, captured the Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27) in the constellation Vulpecula on October 16, 2025. Thank you, Mario!

Bottom line: Vulpecula the Fox is a small constellation that lies inside the Summer Triangle. Amateur astronomers go here to spot the Coathanger Cluster and the Dumbbell Nebula.

The post Vulpecula the Fox lies inside the Summer Triangle first appeared on EarthSky.

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In the east on June, July and August evenings, you’ll find the large pattern of the Summer Triangle, made of 3 bright stars. And from a dark sky, you can also spot Vulpecula the Fox inside the triangle. Chart via EarthSky.

Your support = more science, more stars, more wonder. Donate to EarthSky and be part of something bigger.

Vulpecula the Fox is not an ancient constellation. Instead, it’s one of many created by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. Hevelius carved a lot of new constellations out of dim regions of sky next to better-known constellations. Vulpecula is one of the small constellations that lies inside the famous asterism of the Summer Triangle. And it contains two favorite targets of amateur astronomers.

Locating Vulpecula the Fox

Although Vulpecula the Fox is a dim constellation, you can find it easily under dark skies because of its location within the Summer Triangle. Only Vulpecula and Sagitta the Arrow reside within the boundaries of this star pattern.

If you don’t know how to find the Summer Triangle, look for three bright stars rising in the east after dark. These stars are Altair in Aquila the Eagle, Deneb in Cygnus the Swan and Vega in Lyra the Harp. Vulpecula lies near the head of Cygnus the Swan, near the colorful double star Albireo.

Stars in Vulpecula

Vulpecula is small in size (ranking 55th out of 88 constellations) and contains no bright stars of note. But that doesn’t mean it has little to offer!

The star grouping that brings amateur astronomers to Vulpecula is the Coathanger. The Coathanger has a few other names, such as Brocchi’s Cluster and Collinder 399. Although it’s called a cluster, studies have shown that it’s not a cluster in the formal sense – a group of gravitationally connected stars – but instead just a chance alignment of stars. This becomes more clear when you learn that the distances to its 10 or so stars span a vast range, including 218 light-years, 400 light-years, 760 light-years, 901 light-years and 1,132 light-years.

The Coathanger consists of stars of magnitude 5 and 6. They are arranged in a horizontal row with a hook shape sticking out from its middle, meaning they very much resemble a coathanger. You can see this best through binoculars or a low-power telescope. Through binoculars in the Northern Hemisphere, the Coathanger will appear upside down, but through the inverted view of a telescope, it appears right side up. And it’s the opposite for those in the Southern Hemisphere.

You can find the Coathanger about halfway between Albireo and Zeta Aquilae, the wingtip of Aquila the Eagle.

The Coathanger Cluster looks like its namesake. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The stars of Vulpecula the Fox. Image via IAU.

The Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula

The Dumbbell Nebula is another favorite target of amateur astronomers in Vulpecula.

This nebula lies about 8 1/2 degrees east of Albireo. Also known as M27, it glows at magnitude 8.1.

The Dumbbell Nebula became the first known planetary nebula when Charles Messier discovered it in 1764.

You can see the Dumbbell in binoculars, and even a small telescope can bring out its slight hourglass shape. The nebula, which lies about 1,360 light-years away, was created when the central star blew off its envelope of gas at the end of its life.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Mario Rana in Hampton, Virginia, captured the Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27) in the constellation Vulpecula on October 16, 2025. Thank you, Mario!

Bottom line: Vulpecula the Fox is a small constellation that lies inside the Summer Triangle. Amateur astronomers go here to spot the Coathanger Cluster and the Dumbbell Nebula.

The post Vulpecula the Fox lies inside the Summer Triangle first appeared on EarthSky.

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Delta Aquariid meteor shower: All you need to know in 2026

The radiant point for the Delta Aquariid meteor shower – the point in the sky that these meteors seem to fly from – is near the faint star Skat, or Delta Aquarii. It rises in mid-evening, is highest around 2 a.m. and low in the sky by dawn. Use the bright, nearby star Fomalhaut to guide you to the Delta Aquariid radiant point. Find Fomalhaut by drawing a line southward through the stars on the west side of the Great Square of Pegasus. This chart shows a wide area, from overhead to southward, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. From the Southern Hemisphere, the radiant is closer to overhead.

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Delta Aquariid meteor shower

Predicted peak: The peak is predicted** for 10 UTC on July 30, 2026. But this shower doesn’t have a noticeable peak. It rambles along steadily from late July through early August, joining forces with the August Perseids.
When to watch: Watch late July through early August, mid-evening to dawn.
Duration of shower: July 18 to August 21.
Radiant: Rises in mid-evening, highest around 2 a.m. and low in the sky by dawn. See chart below.
Nearest moon phase: In 2026, the full moon falls at 14:36 UTC on July 29. Take advantage of the moon-free mornings – after midnight – the week before this date to see the most Delta Aquariids (and early Perseids).
Expected meteors at peak, under ideal conditions: The Delta Aquariids’ maximum hourly rate can reach 15 to 20 meteors in a dark sky with no moon. You’ll typically see plenty of Delta Aquariids mixed in with the Perseids if you’re watching in early August.
Note: Like May’s Eta Aquariids, July’s Delta Aquariids favors the Southern Hemisphere. Skywatchers at high northern latitudes tend to discount it. But the shower can be excellent from latitudes like those in the southern U.S. Delta Aquariid meteors tend to be fainter than Perseid meteors. So a moon-free dark sky is essential. About 5% to 10% of the Delta Aquariid meteors leave persistent trains, or glowing gas trails that last a second or two after the meteor has passed.

Read more: Meteors in moonlight: 6 tips for watching

Report a fireball (very bright meteor) to the American Meteor Society: it’s fun and easy!

The Delta Aquariid’s parent comet

From the late, great Don Machholz (1952-2022), who discovered 12 comets …

The Delta Aquariid meteor shower’s parent comet comes from the 96P/Machholz Complex.

The 96P/Machholz Complex is a collection of eight meteor showers, including the Delta Aquariids, plus two comet groups (Marsden and Kracht), and at least one asteroid (2003 EH1). These meteor showers, and these comets, appear to share a common origin (although they’ve now diverged slightly in their orbits around the sun).

They are all related to the comet known as 96P/Machholz, which I discovered on May 12, 1986, from Loma Prieta Mountain in California.

At discovery, the comet was magnitude 10 and 2 degrees south of the Andromeda galaxy. I was using my 6-inch homemade binoculars for this find. Read the story of the discovery.

As a matter of fact, scientists had suspected the existence of the 96P/Machholz Complex in 2003. Finally, they fully described it in 2005, after conducting more studies.

A changing orbit

Comet 96P/Machholz orbits the sun every 5.3 years and gets eight times closer to the sun than we are. That is, its perihelion distance is 0.12 astronomical units (AU). One AU is the distance between the Earth and the sun. So, this comet comes well inside the orbit of Mercury. Over the course of 4,000 years, the comet’s orbit changes in shape and tilt, so that it leaves particles throughout the inner solar system. It gets around!

A recent study suggests that the material causing the Delta Aquariid meteor shower left the comet’s nucleus about 20,000 years ago. So, basically, it’s old dust streaking across our skies.

The late, great Don Machholz discovered comet 96P Machholz, the parent of the Delta Aquariid meteor shower, on May 12, 1986. This 2007 image is from the HI-2 camera of the STEREO-A spacecraft. Image via NASA/ Wikimedia Commons.

Perseid? Or Delta Aquariid?

Perseid and Delta Aquariid meteors fly in our skies at the same time of year. How can you tell them apart? This is where the concept of a radiant point comes in handy. If you trace all the Delta Aquariid meteors backward, they appear to radiate from a certain point in front of the constellation Aquarius, which, as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, arcs across the southern sky.

Meanwhile, the Perseids radiate from the constellation Perseus, in the northeast to high in the north between midnight and dawn as seen in Northern Hemisphere skies.

So if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere and watching around midnight or after, meteors coming from the northeast or north will be Perseids. If you see them coming from the south … they are Delta Aquariids. In a particularly rich year for meteors – and if you have a dark sky – you might even see them cross paths!

Delta Aquariid meteor shower photos from the EarthSky community

Submit your photos to EarthSky here

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Bass Seckin in Bursa, Turkey, captured these meteors on July 29, 2020, and wrote: “Bursa is a 3 million populated city located in northwestern Turkey. It’s almost impossible to see meteors there … I went 100 kilometers (60 miles) out eastward for excluding light pollution. Interestingly I had seen only 1 or 2 meteors with unaided eye, but when I checked the frames I saw there were 4 to 6 meteors on a single frame. The reddish spot at the center of the image is Mars, and Delta Aquariids meteors’ traces are from upper right corner toward bottom.” Thank you, Bass!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | James Reynolds in Asheville, North Carolina, captured this image of a meteor on August 11, 2021. He wrote: “I am unsure whether this is a Perseid or a Delta Aquariid, but it is the 2nd largest meteor I’ve captured an image of (1st being what became an EarthSky photo of the day from last year’s Leonid meteor shower). You can see some clouds in this image, and they are going to get thicker where I am over the next few days, so I am glad I spent an hour outside early this morning to observe and photograph the meteor shower, and particularly grateful for this little gift from the universe.” Thank you, James!

Bottom line: The peak of the Delta Aquariid meteor shower is late July. But the shower rambles along steadily in late July and August, intermingling with the Perseids. In 2026, watch in the moon-free mornings – after midnight – the week before the peak to avoid moonlight.

**Predicted peak times and dates for meteor showers are from the American Meteor Society. Note that meteor shower peak times can vary.

Everything you need to know: Perseid meteor shower

Meteor showers: Tips for watching the show

EarthSky’s meteor shower guide

Learn how to shoot photos of meteors

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The radiant point for the Delta Aquariid meteor shower – the point in the sky that these meteors seem to fly from – is near the faint star Skat, or Delta Aquarii. It rises in mid-evening, is highest around 2 a.m. and low in the sky by dawn. Use the bright, nearby star Fomalhaut to guide you to the Delta Aquariid radiant point. Find Fomalhaut by drawing a line southward through the stars on the west side of the Great Square of Pegasus. This chart shows a wide area, from overhead to southward, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. From the Southern Hemisphere, the radiant is closer to overhead.

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Delta Aquariid meteor shower

Predicted peak: The peak is predicted** for 10 UTC on July 30, 2026. But this shower doesn’t have a noticeable peak. It rambles along steadily from late July through early August, joining forces with the August Perseids.
When to watch: Watch late July through early August, mid-evening to dawn.
Duration of shower: July 18 to August 21.
Radiant: Rises in mid-evening, highest around 2 a.m. and low in the sky by dawn. See chart below.
Nearest moon phase: In 2026, the full moon falls at 14:36 UTC on July 29. Take advantage of the moon-free mornings – after midnight – the week before this date to see the most Delta Aquariids (and early Perseids).
Expected meteors at peak, under ideal conditions: The Delta Aquariids’ maximum hourly rate can reach 15 to 20 meteors in a dark sky with no moon. You’ll typically see plenty of Delta Aquariids mixed in with the Perseids if you’re watching in early August.
Note: Like May’s Eta Aquariids, July’s Delta Aquariids favors the Southern Hemisphere. Skywatchers at high northern latitudes tend to discount it. But the shower can be excellent from latitudes like those in the southern U.S. Delta Aquariid meteors tend to be fainter than Perseid meteors. So a moon-free dark sky is essential. About 5% to 10% of the Delta Aquariid meteors leave persistent trains, or glowing gas trails that last a second or two after the meteor has passed.

Read more: Meteors in moonlight: 6 tips for watching

Report a fireball (very bright meteor) to the American Meteor Society: it’s fun and easy!

The Delta Aquariid’s parent comet

From the late, great Don Machholz (1952-2022), who discovered 12 comets …

The Delta Aquariid meteor shower’s parent comet comes from the 96P/Machholz Complex.

The 96P/Machholz Complex is a collection of eight meteor showers, including the Delta Aquariids, plus two comet groups (Marsden and Kracht), and at least one asteroid (2003 EH1). These meteor showers, and these comets, appear to share a common origin (although they’ve now diverged slightly in their orbits around the sun).

They are all related to the comet known as 96P/Machholz, which I discovered on May 12, 1986, from Loma Prieta Mountain in California.

At discovery, the comet was magnitude 10 and 2 degrees south of the Andromeda galaxy. I was using my 6-inch homemade binoculars for this find. Read the story of the discovery.

As a matter of fact, scientists had suspected the existence of the 96P/Machholz Complex in 2003. Finally, they fully described it in 2005, after conducting more studies.

A changing orbit

Comet 96P/Machholz orbits the sun every 5.3 years and gets eight times closer to the sun than we are. That is, its perihelion distance is 0.12 astronomical units (AU). One AU is the distance between the Earth and the sun. So, this comet comes well inside the orbit of Mercury. Over the course of 4,000 years, the comet’s orbit changes in shape and tilt, so that it leaves particles throughout the inner solar system. It gets around!

A recent study suggests that the material causing the Delta Aquariid meteor shower left the comet’s nucleus about 20,000 years ago. So, basically, it’s old dust streaking across our skies.

The late, great Don Machholz discovered comet 96P Machholz, the parent of the Delta Aquariid meteor shower, on May 12, 1986. This 2007 image is from the HI-2 camera of the STEREO-A spacecraft. Image via NASA/ Wikimedia Commons.

Perseid? Or Delta Aquariid?

Perseid and Delta Aquariid meteors fly in our skies at the same time of year. How can you tell them apart? This is where the concept of a radiant point comes in handy. If you trace all the Delta Aquariid meteors backward, they appear to radiate from a certain point in front of the constellation Aquarius, which, as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, arcs across the southern sky.

Meanwhile, the Perseids radiate from the constellation Perseus, in the northeast to high in the north between midnight and dawn as seen in Northern Hemisphere skies.

So if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere and watching around midnight or after, meteors coming from the northeast or north will be Perseids. If you see them coming from the south … they are Delta Aquariids. In a particularly rich year for meteors – and if you have a dark sky – you might even see them cross paths!

Delta Aquariid meteor shower photos from the EarthSky community

Submit your photos to EarthSky here

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Bass Seckin in Bursa, Turkey, captured these meteors on July 29, 2020, and wrote: “Bursa is a 3 million populated city located in northwestern Turkey. It’s almost impossible to see meteors there … I went 100 kilometers (60 miles) out eastward for excluding light pollution. Interestingly I had seen only 1 or 2 meteors with unaided eye, but when I checked the frames I saw there were 4 to 6 meteors on a single frame. The reddish spot at the center of the image is Mars, and Delta Aquariids meteors’ traces are from upper right corner toward bottom.” Thank you, Bass!

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | James Reynolds in Asheville, North Carolina, captured this image of a meteor on August 11, 2021. He wrote: “I am unsure whether this is a Perseid or a Delta Aquariid, but it is the 2nd largest meteor I’ve captured an image of (1st being what became an EarthSky photo of the day from last year’s Leonid meteor shower). You can see some clouds in this image, and they are going to get thicker where I am over the next few days, so I am glad I spent an hour outside early this morning to observe and photograph the meteor shower, and particularly grateful for this little gift from the universe.” Thank you, James!

Bottom line: The peak of the Delta Aquariid meteor shower is late July. But the shower rambles along steadily in late July and August, intermingling with the Perseids. In 2026, watch in the moon-free mornings – after midnight – the week before the peak to avoid moonlight.

**Predicted peak times and dates for meteor showers are from the American Meteor Society. Note that meteor shower peak times can vary.

Everything you need to know: Perseid meteor shower

Meteor showers: Tips for watching the show

EarthSky’s meteor shower guide

Learn how to shoot photos of meteors

The post Delta Aquariid meteor shower: All you need to know in 2026 first appeared on EarthSky.

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