Bakersfield Night Sky 2026

Whew! I finally finished the updates to my Astronomy Notes textbook. It’s been a six-month project. With its completion, I can now enjoy my summer break! Please take a look at astronomynotes.com . The structure has been stable for the past 25+...

Happy 250th Birthday, United States of America! Two days from now, on July 6, Earth will be at its farthest distance from the sun, the aphelion point of its elliptical orbit around the sun. We will be 94,503,000 miles from the sun at 10:30 a.m....

The official start of the season of summer is tomorrow with the June solstice. At the June solstice, the sun reaches its northernmost position with respect to the stars and begins a three-month drift back southward to the celestial equator position...

Over the past couple of months we’ve seen the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, draw closer and closer together in the western sky in the evening after sunset. On June 9, they will be right next to each other. They’ll be slightly more than a...

Bakersfield College had another record-breaking graduation yesterday. The William M Thomas Planetarium is closed for the summer. Shows will resume in September. Today the moon is at new moon phase, so start looking for a thin sliver of a waxing...

We’re now heading into the last regular week of the spring semester at Bakersfield College before Finals week. After Finals week, the William M Thomas Planetarium is closed for the summer. Yesterday, May 1, the moon was at full moon phase. Since the...

Tickets for the last show of the spring season at the William M Thomas Planetarium, “Supervolcanoes” this Thursday, April 23 are still available through the Vallitix site. The crew of the Artemis II mission to the moon made it back to Earth safely...

Tickets for the April 9 showing of “Incoming!” and the April 23 showing of “Supervolcanoes” (the last show of the spring season of shows) at the William M Thomas Planetarium are still available through the Vallitix site. Last Wednesday, April 1 was...

Tickets for the April 9 showing of “Incoming!” and the April 23 showing of “Supervolcanoes” at the William M Thomas Planetarium are now available through the Vallitix site. We are now officially in the season of spring with the start at the March...