Archive – Page 335 – Astronomy Now

See 2-day-old crescent Moon occult naked-eye star from western British Isles

22 January 2015 Ade Ashford

For those in the west of the British Isles, magnitude-4.2 star θ Aquarii slips behind the darkened limb of the 2-day-old Moon soon after 7:15 pm — an event visible in binoculars.

Milky Way wormholes could be a ‘galactic transport system’

21 January 2015 Astronomy Now

The sci-fi film “Interstellar” raised the idea of space-time tunnels between worlds to recent public consciousness, but a new study prompts scientists to consider Milky Way wormholes as science fact and re-think dark matter more accurately.

See a 1-day-old Moon challenge

21 January 2015 Ade Ashford

What’s the youngest Moon you’ve ever seen? While the best opportunities generally occur in Northern Hemisphere spring when the ecliptic’s high, 21st January offers UK observers a 28-hour-old lunar crescent.

25-million-year-old galactic dust provides insight into supernovae

21 January 2015 Astronomy Now

Australian researchers analysing galactic dust from the last 25 million years within Pacific Ocean floor sediments found far less plutonium-244 from supernovae than expected, findings that are at odds with current theories.

Dawn delivers new image of dwarf planet Ceres

19 January 2015 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is now less than two months away from capture into orbit around Ceres for a 16-month study of the dwarf planet — and its cameras are already revealing tantalising surface details.

Astronomers prepare to map the universe with largest radio telescope ever built

19 January 2015 Astronomy Now

An international team of astronomers prepare to put together the biggest map of the universe ever made using the largest radio telescope ever built — the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

Parkes Observatory detects first ‘live’ fast radio burst

19 January 2015 Astronomy Now

Having developed a technique to search for real-time ‘fast radio bursts,’ a team of astronomers in Australia has succeeded in observing the first ‘live’ burst with the Parkes telescope from a source up to 5.5 billion light-years from Earth.

Asteroid to fly close by Earth safely on 26th January

17 January 2015 Astronomy Now

On 26th January, asteroid 2004 BL86 will pass Earth just three lunar distances away. It will be the closest approach by any known space rock this large until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies past our planet in 2027.

See asteroid 2004 BL86 whizz by Earth

17 January 2015 Ade Ashford

Asteroid 2004 BL86 skims past Earth at a distance of just three times the Moon on the evening of 26th January. When best placed, it will become bright enough to see from the UK with small telescopes or large binoculars. Here’s our hour-by-hour observing guide.

Baader Nano Tracker

17 January 2015 Steve Ringwood

Would you like to photograph Comet Lovejoy but don’t have a driven telescope mount? Now you can capture long-exposure wide-angle scenes with a DSLR camera using Baader’s diminutive yet fully-featured Nano Tracker.