Live coverage of the partial solar eclipse

Summer is the season for a spot of solar observing and sunspots, probably the Sun’s most fascinating phenomena, are easier to see than you might think.

A new atlas showing permanently shadowed areas near the Moon’s south pole shows possible targets of opportunity for ice-seeking astronauts.

Observers in the UK with clear skies on the night of 30—31 December 2017 can see the 12-day-old waxing gibbous Moon glide through the Hyades cluster in Taurus, occulting a number of naked-eye stars along the way, culminating in the disappearance and reappearance of first-magnitude star Aldebaran in the small hours of New Year’s Eve.