X-Highlight – Astronomy Now

15 May 2021

Rare luminous blue variable provides stellar spectacle for Hubble anniversary

27 April 2021 Astronomy Now

To mark the Hubble Space Telescope’s 31st anniversary in space, astronomers captured a dramatic image of a rare luminous blue variable, one of the most massive and brightest stars in the Milky Way.

A stunning intermediate spiral, a brilliant Seyfert galaxy, shows off a compact core

7 January 2021 Astronomy Now

The Hubble Space Telescope captures a bird’s eye view of an energetic Seyfert galaxy, showing a compact, brilliant core that likely harbours a supermassive black hole.

A new angle on the Andromeda galaxy wins astrophotography prize

14 September 2020 Astronomy Now

French photographer Nicolas Lefaudeux has beaten thousands of amateur and professional photographers from around the globe to win the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s title of Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2020.

Spitzer spies a hot spot of star formation

30 August 2020 Astronomy Now

The star-forming nebula W51 is one of the largest “star factories” in the Milky Way galaxy. Interstellar dust blocks the visible light emitted by the region, but it is revealed by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, which captures infrared light that can penetrate dust clouds.

“Space Butterfly” in Vela offers remarkable view of twin-lobed planetary nebula

7 August 2020 Astronomy Now

ESO’s Very Large Telescope captures a colourful view of an unusual bipolar planetary nebula resembling a vast butterfly stretching up to four light years across in the southern constellation Vela.

Set your sights on Saturn

20 July 2020 Mark Armstrong

The magnificent ringed planet Saturn, the jewel in the Solar System’s crown, comes to opposition on the night of 20/21 July. At around this time, the ringed wonder offers its best observing circumstances for 2020.

Your best chance to see Jupiter this year

13 July 2020 Mark Armstrong

Mighty Jupiter, the king of the planets, comes to opposition at 08:00 UT on 14 July, the moment when it lies opposite the Sun in sky at a distance of 619.4 million kilometres (384 million miles), or 4.139 astronomical units.

Dramatic view of Venus about to be swallowed up by the Moon

19 June 2020 Mark Armstrong

This fantastic shot of Venus about to be occulted by the Moon was captured by Peter Goodhew using a remote telescope located in Spain.

SharpStar D 150mm f/2.8 HNT: An imaging telescope with sharp vision

27 May 2020 Ade Ashford

Until comparatively recently, your best tool for capturing wide-angle vistas of extended deep-sky objects with a full-frame DSLR or CCD/CMOS camera was a fast prime lens from one of the big-name players in photography. Now you can attain these swift imaging speeds with hyperbolic Newtonians, such as the SharpStar 15028HNT.

Gemini North captures ‘lucky’ shot of Jupiter in all its infrared glory

11 May 2020 Astronomy Now

The Gemini North telescope has captured one of the sharpest views of Jupiter ever taken from the ground, an infrared mosaic revealing new insights into the giant planet’s turbulent atmosphere.