1. First, as always, what to see in the Night Sky This Month.

 

2. Summer arrives in the northern hemisphere and plenty of sunshine greets us after a long winter. But the Sun itself is about to get interesting as it embarks on another 11-year-long cycle that brings more sunspots, flares, and magnetic activity. This month's observing article: the Sun awakens.

 

3. The 'Everything Everywhere' podcast explains how a star is born.

 

4. Well at least something went well this month - initial tests of the James Webb Space Telescope show an astonishing degree of image resolution in the mid-infrared. The discoveries will soon start pouring out of this telescope like a fire hose.

 

5. The dean of astronomy writers, Timothy Ferris, has two new short 'Rocky Hill Lectures' this month, one about 'the multiverse' and another about the prospects for time travel.

 

6. A fascinating think piece, worth the time: How to improve the search for alien life in the galaxy.

 

And the astronomy quote of the month:

 

"Astronomy is useful because it raises us above ourselves; it is useful because it is grand… It shows us how small is man’s body, how great his mind, since his intelligence can embrace the whole of this dazzling immensity, where his body is only an obscure point, and enjoy its silent harmony.” - Henri Poincare

 

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Wishing you clear skies!

 

Brian Ventrudo

Publisher

CosmicPursuits.com