Archive – Page 2 – Astronomy Now

Antlia ALP-T 5nm dual-band filter

27 October 2023 Astronomy Now

Nik Szymanek tests a new dual-passband filter from Antlia that allows imagers to simultaneously capture narrowband data in hydrogen-alpha and oxygen-III light.

Messier 74’s face-on beauty in Pisces

16 October 2023 Mark Armstrong

Messier 74 (NGC 628) is a spiral galaxy out of the top-drawer. This far-flung island universe yields awe-inspiring images, its sweeping spiral arms being presented in the ‘grand-design’ manner.

The mighty Andromeda Galaxy and its retinue

9 October 2023 Mark Armstrong

Messier 31, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, is the closest major galaxy to our Solar System and the dominant galaxy in the Local Group of galaxies, larger than our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Finding Fomalhaut

4 October 2023 Mark Armstrong

Fomalhaut (alpha [α] PsA), the principal star of Piscis Austrinus, the ‘Southern Fish’, and the eighteenth-brightest star in the heavens, is the most southerly first-magnitude star visible right across the UK.

Messier 2: a fine globular cluster in Aquarius

25 September 2023 Mark Armstrong

Messier 2 is probably the best globular cluster of the late-summer/early autumn sky, being a big and bright telescopic target that can also be swept up through 10 x 50 binoculars.

NGC 488: Pisces’ hidden galaxy that’s a work of art

18 September 2023 Mark Armstrong

NGC 488 in Pisces is an oval-shaped face-on spiral galaxy that’s a bit of a hidden gem.

The Great Square of Pegasus: heralding autumn

11 September 2023 Mark Armstrong

Longer autumnal nights are taking over from more balmy late-summer evening. Behold the grand appearance in September’s late-evening southern sky of the Great Square of Pegasus

Comet 2P/Encke on close approach to Earth

11 September 2023 Mark Armstrong

For the next month or so you can see the return of periodic comet 2P/Encke (Encke’s Comet).

Venus’ brilliant evening showing for the rest of the year

6 September 2023 Mark Armstrong

Venus is now a brilliant ‘morning star’ seen for a short time in the pre-dawn eastern sky.

Observe a fine trio of planetary nebulae in Cygnus

4 September 2023 Mark Armstrong

Planetary nebulae are arguably the most popular of all deep-sky objects.