Mark Armstrong – Page 8

Venus and Jupiter’s spectacular early-evening coming-together

27 February 2023 Mark Armstrong

Venus and Jupiter are a marvellous sight soon after sunset on 1 March, when they lie just over a full Moon’s diameter apart. .

Observe Gemini’s outstanding Messier 35

14 February 2023 Mark Armstrong

Messier 35 in Gemini is a big and bright open cluster that’s one of the GoTo deep-sky objects at this time of year.

Spectacular Venus’ early-evening show

9 February 2023 Mark Armstrong

Venus is a dazzling ‘evening star’ now visible soon after sunset. Yet it’s just at the beginning of a marvellous apparition lasting through to summer.

The showpiece Rosette Nebula in Monoceros

8 February 2023 Mark Armstrong

The wonderful Rosette Nebula is a Goto deep-sky object that would grace any sky at any season.

The magnificent Orion Nebula

6 February 2023 Mark Armstrong

Start the year off in great style by catching up with Messier 42, the spectacular Orion Nebula which is arguably the best and most sought out deep-sky object of all.

Catch Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) this month

20 January 2023 Mark Armstrong

Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) is of special interest this January as at the time of writing (mid-November) it appears well on-course to be an easy binocular object and perhaps a marginal naked-eye comet.

The red planet’s very well placed

18 January 2023 Mark Armstrong

Mars, still relatively fresh from last month’s brilliant opposition, remains the main planetary interest.

See all the planets in January

16 January 2023 Mark Armstrong

The new year gets off to a great start with all the planets visible in the night sky at some point during January.

Rein in the iconic Horsehead Nebula

28 December 2022 Mark Armstrong

The Horsehead Nebula is one of a handful of select deep-sky objects that down the decades have acquired legendary, almost mystic status within the deep-sky community.

Observe NGC 2403; an M33 lookalike

21 December 2022 Mark Armstrong

NGC 2403 (Caldwell 7) is a large, bright galaxy that serves up good views for small telescopes but it’s position in the rather obscure northern constellation of Camelopardalis has stunted its popularity.