Big, fancy space telescopes are all well and good, but there’s something about being able to see things with your own eyes, either directly or through a type of telescope that doesn’t need to house an entire building. Luckily, 2024 was a great year for stargazers. The headline was a total solar eclipse, and supporting features included spectacular aurora borealis at the poles, a comet bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, a number of supermoons and other comets, and smaller stars. – Known solar eclipse!
solar eclipse
First and foremost, for those lucky enough to head toward a total star, the most memorable astronomical event of 2024 is undoubtedly the total sun visible from multiple U.S. states, northern Mexico, and far eastern Canada on April 8. It was food. I can’t overstate what an amazing and humbling experience it was to watch the birds suddenly go quiet, the shadows sharpen and then disappear completely, feel the temperature plummet, and be able to stare at the couple. It is not possible. Spend a few precious minutes gazing at the sun’s corona, shining in a silvery glow.
aurora
The sun’s corona was also responsible for another very different sight a month later, when a series of powerful flares blew some of the gas that makes up the corona away from the sun. This ejected material flowed out into the solar system and lit up the night sky when it encountered Earth’s magnetic field. The northern lights and aurora borealis could be seen farther south and north, respectively, than usual.
Another solar eclipse
Did you know that a total solar eclipse was not the only solar eclipse that occurred in 2024? There was also an annular solar eclipse in October. In both types of solar eclipses, the moon passes completely between the Earth and the sun, but unlike a total solar eclipse, in an annular solar eclipse the moon’s disk is not large enough to completely obscure the sun. The result is the so-called “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse. The path of the 2024 annular solar eclipse passed primarily over the Pacific Ocean, but it was also visible from southern Chile, Argentina, and Rapa Nui.
comet
2024 also saw the brightest comet since Comet Hale-Bopp passed in 1997. The comet in question is Comet A3, also known as Atlas Atlas, which appeared in our skies in October. The comet was bright enough to be seen with the naked eye and had an unusual feature: a tail pointing toward the Sun instead of away from it.
Annual Perseid meteor shower
Speaking of comets, the annual Perseid meteor shower is caused by Comet Swift-Tuttle, the remnant of another comet that last passed by Earth in 1992. The Perseid meteor shower is a staple of amateur astronomers’ calendars, lighting up our skies every August. This year is no exception, and the fact that the moon set around midnight during the peak of the showers makes 2024 an especially good year to see as many meteors as possible.
super moon
I can’t imagine if the moon seems so big these days. The second half of 2024 saw four consecutive supermoons. (Or, to give them their fancy exotic technical name, a series of “perigee binaries.”) They occur when a full moon coincides with the moon passing relatively close to Earth. , the moon will appear unusually large in the night sky. The full moon earlier this month was also unusual for another reason. northernmost point It will last until 2043.
space plane
And finally, there’s something completely different. In July this year, Austrian astronomy enthusiast Felix Schöfbenker used a telescope to capture several images of Shenlong, an elusive reusable spacecraft whose existence has never been confirmed by China. did. This unmanned aerial vehicle has been in development for decades, but the fact that the world knows so little about it is partially due to the efforts of amateurs like Schaefbenker.
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