Archive – Page 24 – Astronomy Now

Spiral galaxy NGC 7331: Deserving of Messier status

5 October 2022 Mark Armstrong

NGC 7331 is a superb spiral galaxy lying in northern Pegasus, one of the brightest visible in the autumn sky.

The Helix Nebula: a big and good-looking planetary!

3 October 2022 Mark Armstrong

The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293 and Caldwell 63) is arguably Aquarius’ showpiece deep-sky destination.

Messier 15: Pegasus’ vast stellar metropolis

19 September 2022 Mark Armstrong

Messier 15 (NGC 7078) in Pegasus is a showpiece object of the early autumn sky and one of the finest globular clusters to grace the northern sky.

Observe far-off Neptune at its best for the year

14 September 2022 Mark Armstrong

Neptune comes to opposition at late-evening on Friday, 16 September, when it’s located among the stars of northern Aquarius.

Watch the Moon hide Uranus

12 September 2022 Mark Armstrong

On the night of Wednesday, 14 September there’s a pretty rare circumstance to observe as the planet Uranus is occulted by the Moon.

Home in on NGC 457, Cassiopeia’s superb ET Cluster

12 September 2022 Mark Armstrong

Shining brightly at magnitude +6.4, brighter than either of the Messier clusters, NGC 457 can be seen by eagle-eyed (or should I say owl-eyed?!) individuals at pristine observing locations.

NGC 6905: a planetary nebula that’s no ‘flash in the pan’

5 September 2022 Mark Armstrong

NGC 6905 is a fine planetary nebula with the colourful moniker ‘the Blue Flash Nebula’.

Frank Drake, SETI pioneer, 1930–2022

3 September 2022 Keith Cooper

Frank Drake, the radio astronomer who pioneered the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), died yesterday (2 September) at the age of 92.

Capture Kemble’s Cascade and Kemble 2

30 August 2022 Mark Armstrong

One of the best for binocular observers is Kemble’s Cascade, in the ‘void’ of Camelopardalis.

Webb images of Jupiter show auroras, rings, moons

24 August 2022 Stephen Clark

A few weeks after officially starting science operations, the James Webb Space Telescope turned its mirrors toward Jupiter and captured stunning new infrared views of the gas giant planet, its auroras, moons, and faint rings.