Astronomy – Page 9 – Astronomy Now

Mountaintop majesty

27 May 2022 Keith Cooper

The sweeping river of stars that is the Milky Way ribbons over Cerro Paranal in Chile, home to the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (on the peak to the left) and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, VISTA (on the peak to the far right).

A pimple on Jupiter

26 May 2022 Keith Cooper

During the thirty-sixth close approach of the gas giant planet Jupiter by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, it snapped a raw image of tumultuous clouds in the South Temperate Belt.

A rung on the cosmic measuring ladder

25 May 2022 Keith Cooper

When measuring the Hubble constant by mapping the properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation to the standard model of cosmology, astronomers get a value of about 69 kilometres per second per megaparsec.

The Sky Imaging Edition: Part 2

23 May 2022 Astronomy Now

comNik Szymanek recently spent three consecutive nights testing the capabilities of Software Bisque’s new edition of The Sky, namely The Sky Imaging Edition. On night two, he finds out how well it autofocuses and autoguides his telescope.

Messier 3: observe a great globular

23 May 2022 Mark Armstrong

There are very few deep-sky sights that can equal, let alone surpass, the magnificence of a great globular cluster filling the field of view of a high-power eyepiece, with myriad sparking suns crammed together and all vying for attention.

The monster stars in the monster’s hand

20 May 2022 Keith Cooper

In 2014, a quite remarkable collage was released by scientists who used NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to image the entirety of the Milky Way in infrared light.

Get ready for Jupiter and Mars’ close confrontation

19 May 2022 Mark Armstrong

Keep the diary free towards the end of May to witness another very close conjunction between two of the major planets in the Solar System.

A hidden giant

18 May 2022 Keith Cooper

The star hidden inside this spectacular dusty cocoon is not only a red giant, but also a rare stellar breed known as a carbon star.

StellaLyra 250mm, f/5 Dobsonian: The light-bucket with a touch of class

16 May 2022 Ade Ashford

First Light Optics’ StellaLyra-branded fleet of Dobsonian telescopes combine high-performance with some excellent accessories, writes Ade Ashford.

Don’t miss out on Messier 51, the wonderful Whirlpool Galaxy

16 May 2022 Mark Armstrong

Magnificent Messier 51 (NGC 5194), the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici, is without doubt the best and most famous example of a spiral galaxy that is presented face-on to our perspective.