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THE CONSTELLATION SCULPTOR is not an easy star pattern to find, but it's worth the effort because it contains some gorgeous deep-sky objects. Its name comes from French astronomer Nicolas [...]

The constellation Taurus the Bull is an easy one to find in the Northern Hemisphere's fall and winter skies. It stands opposite the Sun at the beginning of December. The […]

When amateur astronomers participate in star parties for the general public, the subject of distances in space always comes up. The immensity of our universe never fails to fascinate curious [...]

Taking good eclipse photos is harder than it looks. The last Great American Eclipse, on Aug. 21, 2017, was photographed by hundreds of thousands of people--and many of them were [...]

IT'S APRIL 9, 2024 --the day after the Great North American Eclipse. If you missed it because of clouds, personal commitments, or travel problems, you may be wondering when your [...]

IN THE PREMIER ISSUE of Astronomy, dated August 1973, a page labeled 'Wanted: Contributors to Astronomy' put this call out to imagers: 'Photographs, preferably in color whenever possible, but black [...]

With this issue, Astronomy celebrates its 50th anniversary. I bought the first issue of the magazine from a newsstand in Columbus, Ohio. While the stories eventually drew my interest, I [...]

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! On Oct. 14, an annular eclipse will cross the western U.S. from Oregon to Texas. Afterward, it will touch nine additional countries: Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, [...]

IF SOMEONE ASKS YOU, 'How bright is that star?' and your answer is 'Pretty bright,' that isn't very useful. And, of course, it's worthless for any type of comparative research. [...]

Astronomy Contributing Editor Phil Harrington loves binoculars. Indeed, his catch-phrase is, 'Two eyes are better than one.' He's not wrong. Observing is naturally more relaxed when you can keep both [...]

MANY AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS start observing with the Messier catalog, a list of 'fuzzy' deep-sky targets that present wonderful sights through a telescope. Although Messier objects may be bright and well [...]

NASA'S PERSEVERANCE ROVER, which has operated on Mars since February 2021, has found a large rock containing organic compounds that may have been formed by microscopic life in the distant [...]

This article provides a historical overview of solar eclipses throughout human history. It highlights several notable eclipses, including the earliest recorded eclipse in ancient China, a solar eclipse that potentially ended a war between the Lydians and the Medes, and an eclipse that affected the outcome of a conflict between the Spartans and the Persians. The article also mentions a solar eclipse that may have been associated with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, although this theory is disputed. Additionally, it discusses the first descriptions of solar features, such as the corona and prominences, during eclipses. The article concludes by mentioning several memorable eclipses in Scotland and a brief hybrid solar eclipse. [Extracted from the article]

As backyard observers may know, some modest telescopes lack the optics or aperture to cleanly resolve deep-sky objects like nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies. This leads to fuzzy images, often [...]

GREAT COMETS ARE FIXTURES throughout astronomical history. They pop up unexpectedly and can change the way people see the skies, creating unforgettable experiences that can inspire and live on in [...]

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scouring clouds of dust and gas for rogue worlds--objects that have masses similar to planets but do not orbit parent stars. One of [...]

THE PRACTICE OF using a device to project an image of the Sun is thousands of years old. But if using a pinhole doesn't give the image quality you want, [...]

PROFESSIONAL AND AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS alike love to share facts about our amazing universe: 'The brightest star is...,' 'A black hole is...,' and lots more. These facts are so incredible that [...]

It's been six months since astronomy clubs around the globe hosted events for the Messier marathon. The goal of this single-night observing challenge is to catch all 109 deep-sky objects [...]

This month is a great opportunity to see Jupiter at its best. Jupiter (at top) is flanked by three of its moons as it rises over Earth's Moon in this [...]

I compiled my first version of this list in 2004 as a list of tips to help you get the most out of your time at the eyepiece. Well, it's [...]

MANY READERS OF Astronomy can point back to televised science fiction as their first introduction to the universe. For some--like me--it was The Outer Limits, which had a brief run [...]

THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD (LMC) is the southern sky's greatest celestial wonder. It is the Milky Way's biggest satellite galaxy, just 160,000 light-years distant, and the fourth-largest member of the [...]

THIS YEAR, there are two windows to run a Messier marathon: a few days around New Moon (March 2), and from sunset until the Moon rises around Last Quarter (March [...]

I've heard it said that it takes a special kind of amateur astronomer to observe in winter. I only partly agree. Yes, cold weather is hard on equipment and observers [...]

I LOVE LISTS. I've created them for the 25 greatest astrophotos, 25 essential telescope accessories, 12 great lunar targets, 10 things to do on a cloudy night, and lots more. [...]

ON DEC. 4, a three-way celestial tango will once again occur as the Sun and the Moon line up with Earth to produce the greatest of nature's spectacles: a total [...]

AS BRILLIANT AND SPLENDID AS VENUS IS to the naked eye, the world often ranks as one of astronomy's great telescopic disappointments. Apart from its evolving phase and its dazzling, [...]

WE CAN PROBABLY CLASSIFY an eclipse of the Moon as the least stressful of astronomical events: Total lunar eclipses are both easy and fun to watch. And one arrives for [...]

On Friday, Nov. 19, the Sun, Earth, and the Moon (in that order) will line up and most of Moon will trek through Earth's umbra, the darkest part of its [...]

WITHOUT QUESTION, Earth's most spectacular naturally occurring event is a total solar eclipse. This is only possible because the Sun and Moon take up the same amount of space in our sky allowing the Moon to perfectly block out the Sun. Experience such a breathtaking moment even once and you'll never forget it. Astronomers have calculated when eclipses will occur for the next millen nium and beyond. So, we know that the next 20 years contain 15 total solar eclipses. Two offer totality in excess of five minutes. Two others have totalities lasting more than four minutes. And two are hybrid eclipses, which exhibit both annular and total phases. But all are worth seeing. I've listed the eclipses chronologically. Pick those that interest you and start making plans. For detailed information, visit NASA's eclipse website at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html. For the best maps of upcoming eclipses, head to www.GreatAmericanEclipse.com. No matter how much this article and all your planning build up your expectations, a total eclipse will never disappoint., * Dec. 4, 2021 This eclipse is total only in Chile and Argentina; the maximum duration of totality is 2 minutes 10 seconds. The Moon's umbra first touches Chile at [...]

BESIDES EARTH, probably the most important planet in Star Trek is Vulcan, homeworld of Mr. Spock. In Star Trek, the name Deneb is used to refer to the "true" Deneb (Alpha Cygni) and also as shorthand for Deneb Kaitos, which is another name for the star Diphda in the constellation Cetus the Whale. [Extracted from the article]

Pointing your telescope at the Sun should be easy, right? It's the brightest object in the sky (by a long shot), and it's huge. The problem is that unless you've [...]

IN 1929, Clyde William Tombaugh, a farm boy who grew up in Illinois and Kansas, began working at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. The director of the facility, renowned astronomer [...]

BY MICHAEL E. BAKICH The Messier marathon is an activity that's been popular with astronomy clubs since the 1980s. It's a test of endurance and skill to view each of [...]

BY MICHAEL E. BAKICH SUMMER IS A WONDERFUL season. It's warm, people travel more, and, in 2021, the Perseid meteor shower will put on a great display. We encourage you [...]

ON JULY 14, 2015, the New Horizons probe swept within 7,700 miles (12,400 kilometers) of Pluto's surface. With the flyby, features that the Hubble Space Telescope previously saw as fuzzy [...]

A STAR LIKE THE SUN SPENDS roughly 10 billion years fusing the hydrogen in its core into helium, releasing energy in the process. But eventually it exhausts its fuel supply. [...]

Drama, in the form of sublime celestial geometry, is once again coming to our planet. On June 10, 2021, the Sun, the Moon, and Earth will form a straight line [...]

A POPULAR OLD SAYING CLAIMS, 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder.' For me, this describes my love of the southern sky. I've spent maybe 50 nights total under it, but [...]

MY INTEREST IN ASTRONOMY began in third grade, when my parents bought me a set of constellation flash cards. We couldn't afford a telescope, but I was able to borrow [...]

Astronomers have discovered the oldest and most distant black hole yet detected. The black hole was found in a galaxy called UHZ1, whose light has taken 13.2 billion light-years to reach us. This means that astronomers are observing the black hole as it was 13.2 billion years ago, when the universe was only 3 percent of its current age. The discovery was made using the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which detected X-rays emitted by the black hole. The black hole's distance was determined using redshift, a measure of the elongation of light waves caused by the galaxy's movement away from us. The discovery was made possible by the gravitational lensing effect of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, which magnified the light from the black hole. [Extracted from the article]

This article from Astronomy features experts answering questions about various cosmic topics. The first question addresses the size of a black hole after two black holes merge, explaining that the resulting black hole has both more mass and a larger diameter. The second question discusses how the diameter of a telescope affects the size of observed objects, stating that a larger diameter does not necessarily make objects look larger, but it does make them brighter and more detailed. The third question explores the concept of the visible universe being larger than its age, explaining that the expansion of the universe allows for this phenomenon. The final question examines whether the asteroid Psyche could be the core of the object that formed the Moon, concluding that it is unlikely due to its orbit in the asteroid belt. [Extracted from the article]

From a dark site on a clear winter night, the sky in the Northern Hemisphere is dominated by a fuzzy band of light that's been called the Milky Way for [...]

For 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the cosmos was a hot, dense mixture of protons, electrons, other elementary particles, and light elements. But the expanding universe was cooling fast. [...]

THE SIXTH INCARNATION of the Starmus Festival, an event that has become one of the world's most renowned science and art festivals, will take place September 6-11, 2021, in Yerevan, [...]

IN THE AUTUMN OF 2002, I had a not-so-typical observing experience. My wife and I lived in El Paso, Texas, and we had a small observatory just a stone's throw [...]

THE CONSTELLATION ARA (pronounced AIR-uh) the Altar was one of the 'original' constellations of the Greeks. It appeared in Phaenomena, a 3rd-century-B.C. work by the Greek poet Aratus. He based [...]