Archive – Page 5 – Astronomy Now

The Perseids: the return of summer’s shooting star spectacular!

7 August 2024 Mark Armstrong

The annual Perseid meteor shower has been underway since last month and it predicted to reach its usual eagerly-anticipated maximum early next week, on 12 August between 13h and 16h UT.

Giant moon Titan occulted by Saturn

6 August 2024 Mark Armstrong

Presently, there are a number of events taking place involving Saturn’s moons. Saturn’s moons revolve in the plane of Saturn’s equator, so the outline of their orbits matches that of the ring system. This means when the rings are closed up sufficiently we can see Saturn’s moons undergoing ‘Galilean-type’ phenomena.

Gear up for Mars and Jupiter’s great coming-together

5 August 2024 Mark Armstrong

Mars and Jupiter lie less than a degree apart on the mornings of 14th and 15th August, providing a great spectacle for both visual observers and imagers.

Cosmic sky of red and blue

20 July 2024 Astronomy Now

Splashes of colour illustrate the clear difference between the two most populous type of bright nebulae in our Milky Way Galaxy, emission and reflection nebulae.

Triple T-Tauri

13 July 2024 Astronomy Now

This cavernous nebula is home to a bundle of young stars, specifically a triple system of T-Tauri stars.

Forming stars like the old days

5 July 2024 Astronomy Now

In this image, JWST strips away the gas that is transparent at infrared wavelengths, and reveals a skeleton of dusty ribbons that are part of the material that is flowing onto the young stars as they grow.

A matter of perspective

3 July 2024 Astronomy Now

There’s an almost 3D quality to this image of a portion of the Milky Way, with the illusion that the nebulae are far more distant when in fact they are much closer than the dark dust lanes that meander through the Milky Way.

Head south for a Messier globular duo

30 June 2024 Mark Armstrong

The southern constellation of Scorpius hosts two splendid globular clusters, M4 and M80, both of which provide good viewing despite their lowly presentation at mid-northern latitudes.

Set your filtered sights on the Sun

25 June 2024 Mark Armstrong

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 more youthful globular cluster

24 June 2024 Astronomy Now

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is the nearest galaxy to our Milky Way at about 159,000 light years, is home to about 60 globular clusters. Pictured here is one of these great balls of stars, namely NGC 2210, which shines in the night sky at magnitude +11.