Shallow sky is a term sometimes used by amateur astronomers, as the opposite to
deep sky
A deep-sky object (DSO) is any astronomical object that is not an individual star or Solar System object (such as Sun, Moon, planet, comet, etc.). The classification is used for the most part by amateur astronomers to denote visually observed f ...
. The shallow sky is space within the
Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
, plus the
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...
's
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. ...
. Sky phenomena such as
planetary conjunctions,
solar eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six mo ...
s,
lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Eart ...
s, as well as atmospheric phenomena like
haloes,
rainbow
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows ...
s, and
noctilucent clouds
Noctilucent clouds, or night shining clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere of Earth. When viewed from space, they are called polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs), detectable as a diffuse scattering layer of water ice crysta ...
, are all occurring in the shallow sky.
''The Shallow Sky Bulletin'' (ISSN 0897-2532) was published by Stephen M. Smith from 1986 through 2000. Mr. Smith operated The Comet Rapid Announcement Service (CRAS) to disseminate notices about newly discovered bright comets, news about comets and daily positions (ephemerides) for observable comets. The common practice for publishing comet tables was to display positions at 10-day intervals. All of the comet position tables published in ''SSB'' were at 1-day intervals. During the 14-year run of ''SSB'', CRAS subscribers were informed about all observable comets.
In the 2006 April 13 issue of ''The Minor Planet Circulars/Minor Planets and Comets'', published b
The Minor Planet Centerof the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Mr. Smith's work was honored by the naming of minor planet
9891 Stephensmith.
Observational astronomy