Stars and Galaxies

4. The moment when a celestial object crosses the meridian and is thus at its highest above the horizon.
6. Latin for “cloud.”
8. The path among the stars traced by the Sun throughout the year.
10. A glow in the night sky or around your observing site caused by artificial light. It greatly reduces how many stars you can see.
11. A concentration of mass so dense that nothing — not even light — can escape its gravitational pull once swallowed up.

1. Any prominent star pattern that isn’t a whole constellation such as the Northern Cross or the Big Dipper.
2. A supermassive black hole gorging on gas at the center of a distant galaxy.
3. Two stars that lie very close to, and are often orbiting, each other.
4. Coordinates A grid system for locating things in the sky.
5. When the Moon or a planet appears especially close either to another planet or to a bright star.
7. A vast collection of stars, gas, and dust
9. A broad, faintly glowing band stretching across the night sky, composed of billions of stars in our galaxy too faint to be seen individually.