David Dickinson

Fed up with all of the fake “Amazing views of last week’s solar eclipse over Antarctica!!!” circulating ‘round ye ole web? Here’s the real deal, courtesy of the team at ESA’s Concordia Station: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2026/02/Annular_solar_eclipse_over_Antarctica

Concordia was one of the very few sites where humans had a shot at seeing an annular eclipse. Even then, they braved temps reaching a comparatively mild (!) -29ºC. “Despite the challenges, Concordia often rewards its crew with views found nowhere else on Earth.”

Be sure to share this unique, real view.

Happy ‘mirror day’ today (and tomorrow)… the Sun traces the same declination path (+14º 30’-45’) as this year’s August 12th, 2026 total solar eclipse, offering viewers a good test run to scout out potential observing sites. Basically, if you can see the Sun from your site at the same time of day as totality on eclipse day (minus ~8 minutes, for the difference in the Equation of Time), you’ll have an obstruction-free view of the eclipse. This is especially crucial for regions where the eclipse is low to the horizon such as central Spain.

https://barcelonasecreta.com/en/dress-rehearsal-for-the-solar-eclipse-on-april-29/

Finally, the New Moon actually photo-bombed NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory’s view of the Sun recently, producing a fleeting partial solar eclipse:

Here's another great capture of Comet C/2025 R3 Pan-STARRS from earlier this month, courtesy of Dan Bartlett:
https://www.astrobin.com/7eucvg/D/

Massive sunspot chain AR 4366 is one for the record books. In just the span of a few days, the group has grown from near obscurity to a monster, more than 200,000 miles in length. For context, the chain would nearly stretch from the Earth to the Moon...though placing it there would fry us all in the process.

You can currently safely see the sunspot group with eclipse glasses… no magnification needed. It’s also crackling with potential energy in a ‘beta-gamma-delta’ configuration aimed Earthward today, and sent off yet another X-class flare earlier this morning. We may see a glancing blow from Sunday night’s X-8 flare over the next 24 hours. Some interesting spaceweather times ahead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1tRsmho_TY

One of NASA’s continuously longest running interplanetary missions had one more instrument turned off last month, in an effort to keep the Voyager 1 mission operational.

The switch off occurred on April 17th, When controllers opted to turn off the Low-Energy Charged Particle Experiment (LECP) instrument which had been operating near continuously for 49 years.
The LECP records low-energy charged particles in the interstellar medium, and is vital to measuring particle density in the region beyond our heliosphere.

Here’s our latest post on the mission for Sky & Telescope magazine: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/voyager-1-shuts-down-another-instrument/

The Moon reached New Phase today at 11:53 UT/7:53 AM EDT, marking the start of Brown Lunation Number 1278.

U.S. East Coast observers have a shot at spotting an ultra-thin waxing crescent Moon, at just 12 hours past New. This is a tough catch, as the record stands at 11 hours and 40 minutes past New: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/ultra-thin-young-crescent-moon-sighted-from-u-s-southwest

This also means this coming weekend is an ideal time for northern hemisphere observers to complete a Messier Marathon, and image/observe all of the 110 objects in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier’s deep-sky catalog in one night.

This works because the Sun’s position along the ecliptic in March/April sits in Pisces, while a majority of the objects in the catalog lie along the summer galactic plane. Good luck!

Certainly, grabbing the twin M74/M77 objects at dusk in mid-April will be tough, as we’re at the very edge of the Messier Marathon window in mid-April.

Battle of the space stations… the two human-crewed outposts in low Earth orbit sync up over the next few days, as China’s Tiangong Space Station laps the International Space Station. Both are in ~92 minute orbits, and Tiangong is slightly lower and ~50 seconds faster.

This all means that about once every two weeks, the two human outposts meet up, and it’s possible to see all 10 of the humans in space, at once. If you have a pass of either, check ‘em out… the U.S. eastern seaboard has a good pass of the pair coming right up early tomorrow morning at ~5:58 AM EDT:

Comet C/2025 R3 Pan-STARRS is developing nicely as it crosses the field of view of SOHO’s LASCO C3 imager this weekend; currently approaching 0 magnitude, the comet is now a week past perihelion, and passes 4 degrees from the Sun as seen from Earth today, and makes its closest pass 0.523 AU from the Earth tomorrow.

The Compact Coronagraph (CCOR-1) aboard NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite in GEO is also providing some amazing images of Comet R3 Pan-STARRS and the recent CME as well. The periodic blackout/flash is the Earth sliding through the view:

What will Comet R3 Pan-STARRS do next: Prospects for the upcoming dusk apparition are tougher, as the outbound comet slides southward. Hopefully, it stays bright. Here’s our look at what to expect for Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/comet-r3-panstarrs-at-perihelion

The comet of the hour, C/2025 R Pan-STARRS reached perihelion today at ~7:00 UT/3:00AM EDT, 0.499 AU(46.4 million miles) from the Sun , just exterior to the orbit of Mercury. Currently shining at magnitude +4, dedicated astros are still managing to nab the comet before it’s engulfed in the Sun’s glare.

Comet R3 Pan-STARRS enters SOHO’s field of view later this week on Thursday, April 23rd. The comet will get ejected from the solar system on its outbound leg, destined to become someone else’s ‘interstellar comet.’

Here’s our latest post on the comet at perihelion and what to expect for Universe Today: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/comet-r3-panstarrs-at-perihelion