- NASA’s Voyager 1 probe calls home after five monthsby Astronomy Now on April 25, 2024 at 12:23 pm
For the first time in five months, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to depart the Solar System and fly in interstellar space.
- NGC 4361: A planetary nebula to crow aboutby Mark Armstrong on April 22, 2024 at 1:59 pm
NGC 4361 in Corvus is a bit of an horizon-hugger at mid-northern latitudes, but it’ll reward determined observers.
- Line up Markarian’s Chainby Mark Armstrong on April 8, 2024 at 9:01 am
Markarian’s Chain is a string of bright Virgo Cluster galaxies straddling the Virgo/Coma border.
- Chasing lunar shadowsby Mark Armstrong on April 2, 2024 at 11:45 am
There’s so much that the Moon offers to an observer armed with just modest instrumentation and the unaided eye. Here’s some of the Moon’s best sights on an exciting observing journey as the Moon waxes from new to full phase.
- Focus on Messier 106 by Steve Kelly on March 25, 2024 at 3:04 pm
Spiral galaxy Messier 106 in Canes Venatici faces stiff competition there but remains one of the northern sky’s best .
- Inspect impressive Mare Imbrium by Steve Kelly on March 15, 2024 at 2:02 pm
In and around the vast Imbrium Basin is a very fertile area for lunar observers. For our Imbrium expedition let’s zero in on its magnificent mountain ranges and great selection of impact craters.
- M95 & M96: A close galaxy pairing in Leo by Mark Armstrong on March 13, 2024 at 4:15 pm
Spiral galaxies Messier 95 and 96 are Leo’s second great Messier duo, after Messier 65 and 66.
- Explore Puppis’ Messier cluster trio by Mark Armstrong on February 26, 2024 at 5:28 pm
Puppis is rich in open clusters, including the Messier trio of M46, M47 and M93.
- Commercial lunar lander returns America to the Moonby Astronomy Now on February 22, 2024 at 5:25 pm
A lander built by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines touched down near the Moon's South Pole on Thursday. It was the first lunar landing by a US spacecraft in more than 50 years and the first commercially-operated vehicle to successfully reach the surface.
- Celestron RASA 8 astrograph: fast imaging with the RASA 8by Astronomy Now on February 22, 2024 at 12:42 pm
Olly Penrice has spent over a year imaging with a Celestron Rowe–Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph (RASA) and finds that, with some fiddling required, it excels at capturing high-quality data of deep-sky objects.