(National Park Service / Flickr Creative Commons)

If you've been sleeping on the North American total solar eclipse of 2024, it's time to start paying attention. The big event — on April 8 — is fast approaching and folks who haven't prepared could find themselves left out in the dark.

A Geminid meteor streaks across the sky. (Stephen Rahn / Flickr Creative Commons)

Clear skies, a new moon and relatively warm temperatures will make for a great opportunity to catch the peak of the Geminid meteor shower Thursday — even in Chicago.

Astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara spent hours on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station, successfully replacing hardware on the station’s solar array. (Courtesy of NASA)

During their first-ever spacewalk, astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara spent hours outside the International Space Station, successfully replacing hardware on the station’s solar array. But a tool bag became untethered and is now orbiting Earth.

A file photo of previous annular eclipse. (Courtesy of NASA)

On Saturday, Oct. 14, Chicago astronomer Joe Guzman advises Chicagoans to turn their eyes to the skies — but only with proper protection — to witness a partial solar eclipse.

“Chicago Tonight” viewer J. Scott Sykora shared this photo of a harvest supermoon eclipse on Sept. 27, 2015.

The super blue moon also means unusually high tides, which could worsen the impact of Hurricane Idalia. 

This Webb image shows a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08, and at the right, an inset of the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years called the Sunrise Arc. (NASA / ESA / CSA)

Earendel is so distant that the starlight glimpsed by the Webb telescope was emitted within the first billion years of the universe. The universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old.

FILE - A commercial airliner flies Northwest across Lake Michigan in front of the "Full Buck" supermoon, the first of four supermoons in 2023, July 3, 2023, in Chicago. (Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Photo, File)

The cosmos is offering up a double feature in August: a pair of supermoons. Catch the first show Tuesday night, Aug. 2, as the full moon rises in the southeast.

Lake Michigan, at a high-water mark in 2019. (WTTW News)

Drew Gronewold, an expert in hydrological modeling at the University of Michigan, presented his annual update on Great Lakes’ water levels. Lake Michigan is holding steady, but for how long?

Millions of birds, including warblers, will be migrating through Chicago. (Howard Walsh / Pixabay)

Millions of birds will pass over the Chicago region this weekend as migration kicks into high gear. Want to be a good host? Turn off your lights.

(Patty Wetli / WTTW News)

Spring is always an iffy proposition in Chicago, but it officially begins Monday. 

Jupiter and Venus conjunction in 2015. (Stephen Rahn / Flickr Creative Commons)

In what’s being dubbed a celestial “kiss,” Jupiter and Venus will appear to nearly touch Wednesday.

(Dan Bartlett / NASA)

The Green Comet is making its closest pass to Earth Wednesday night and the skies are looking clear enough for Adler Planetarium to host a virtual viewing party.

(Dan Bartlett / NASA)

According to NASA, the comet would last have been seen in the night sky more than 10,000 years ago — millennia before the birth of human civilization — and it may never pass this way again.

A photo taken on Dec. 13, 2020, shows Jupiter (the bright "star" on the right) closing in on Saturn to the left. (Bill Ingalls / NASA)

Enjoy a cosmic Christmas, with all five naked-eye planets visible in the sky. The moon, Mercury and Venus will form a sparkling triangle on Christmas Eve. 

(Lim Yaw Keong / Pixabay)

Sky watchers will have their eyes peeled Wednesday night for a rare-ish celestial event: an “eclipse” of Mars.

A total lunar eclipse, seen from Joshua Tree National Park in 2015. (Brad Sutton / National Park Service)

Election Day 2022 will kick off with a pre-dawn total lunar eclipse. There won't be another like it until March 2025.