Archive – Page 10 – Astronomy Now

NGC 4361: A planetary nebula to crow about

22 April 2024 Mark Armstrong

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 Chain

8 April 2024 Mark Armstrong

Markarian’s Chain is a string of bright Virgo Cluster galaxies straddling the Virgo/Coma border.

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

25 March 2024 Steve Kelly

Spiral galaxy Messier 106 in Canes Venatici faces stiff competition there but remains one of the northern sky’s best .

Inspect impressive Mare Imbrium

15 March 2024 Steve Kelly

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

13 March 2024 Mark Armstrong

Spiral galaxies Messier 95 and 96 are Leo’s second great Messier duo, after Messier 65 and 66.

Explore Puppis’ Messier cluster trio

26 February 2024 Mark Armstrong

Puppis is rich in open clusters, including the Messier trio of M46, M47 and M93.

Commercial lunar lander returns America to the Moon

22 February 2024 Astronomy Now

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 8

22 February 2024 Astronomy Now

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.

Moon close to the Pleiades

14 February 2024 Mark Armstrong

It’s always a prime observing event when the Moon pays a visit to the magnificent Pleiades open cluster (M45).