observing – Page 2 – Astronomy Now

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.

Line up Markarian’s Chain

8 April 2024 Mark Armstrong

Markarian’s Chain is a string of bright Virgo Cluster galaxies straddling the Virgo/Coma border.

Focus on Messier 106

25 March 2024 Steve Kelly

Spiral galaxy Messier 106 in Canes Venatici faces stiff competition there but remains one of the northern sky’s best .

Explore Puppis’ Messier cluster trio

26 February 2024 Mark Armstrong

Puppis is rich in open clusters, including the Messier trio of M46, M47 and M93.

Ignite Auriga’s Flaming Star Nebula

4 December 2023 Steve Kelly

IC 405, the colourful Flaming Star Nebula, is a prime target in the northern sky.

Go to the edge with NGC 891

26 November 2023 Mark Armstrong

NGC 891 in Andromeda is one of the finest edge-on spiral galaxies in the northern heavens.

Look out for the Leonids!

16 November 2023 Mark Armstrong

The annual Leonid meteor shower peaks on the morning of 18 November

Messier 74’s face-on beauty in Pisces

16 October 2023 Mark Armstrong

Messier 74 (NGC 628) is a spiral galaxy out of the top-drawer. This far-flung island universe yields awe-inspiring images, its sweeping spiral arms being presented in the ‘grand-design’ manner.

The mighty Andromeda Galaxy and its retinue

9 October 2023 Mark Armstrong

Messier 31, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, is the closest major galaxy to our Solar System and the dominant galaxy in the Local Group of galaxies, larger than our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Fomalhaut (alpha [α] PsA), the principal star of Piscis Austrinus, the ‘Southern Fish’, and the eighteenth-brightest star in the heavens, is the most southerly first-magnitude star visible right across the UK.