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58 Articles

There's much to look forward to in the arena of space exploration in 2025, and to kick off our first issue of the year, on page 28 Jamie Carter takes a look at the biggest missions that are set to launch in the next 12 months. These include the latest test launch of Starship, SpaceX's rapidly evolving spacecraft, atop its Super Heavy booster. Together they make the most massive and powerful rocket ever to fly – which makes the fact that both are designed to be reusable even more astounding. Among the other pivotal missions taking off is Artemis II, the first crewed mission to enter lunar orbit in more than five decades. That's a long time to wait, especially when you consider that NASA developed a roadmap back in…

Sky at Night – lots of ways to enjoy the night sky…

Television Find out what The Sky at Night team have been exploring in recent and past episodes on page 18 Online Visit our website for space news, astrophoto galleries, observing guides and more Social media Follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram for the latest astro news Podcasts Discover the best things to see in the night sky every week by listening to our Star Diary podcast Tablet/phone Get each month's issue on your Apple or Android device, now with bonus image galleries eNewsletter The best targets to observe each week, delivered to your inbox. Visit bit.ly/skynewsletter Find out more at: www.skyatnightmagazine.com…

Sky at Night – lots of ways to enjoy the night sky…

This month's contributors

Jamie Carter Astronomy journalist “It's going to be an exciting year, from Mars and Venus at their brightest to China's Tianwen-2 mission to a near-Earth asteroid and NASA's Artemis 2, the first crewed mission to the Moon for 53 years.” Read more on page 28 Charlotte Daniels Astrophotographer “Mastering planetary imaging doesn't mean missing out on deep-sky targets. There are plenty of ways to adapt our Solar System setups to capture those fainter objects!” Jump in the deep end on page 34 Ben Evans Spaceflight author “Back in the ‘60s, the Space Race put a man on the Moon within a decade. Half a century on, getting back there is taking a lot longer. But what will our next steps on the lunar surface actually look like?” Find out on…

This month's contributors

FREE BONUS CONTENT

Find it at www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonus-content JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS How space rocks brought life to Earth Rayssa Martins discusses her research on the meteorites that delivered the vital ingredients for life to flourish. Download a free 2025 Moon phases poster Whether you love a full Moon or bemoan its glare, our 2025 digital poster reveals the lunar phases for the year ahead. Best cosmic images from our readers Our extended gallery showcases some of the best astro photos captured by you over the past few months. The Virtual Planetarium…

FREE BONUS CONTENT

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE, 23 OCTOBER 2024 Brown dwarves are ‘failed’ stars – stars that never quite reached the mass required for the hydrogen in their cores to start fusing into helium. Their existence was confirmed in the 1960s, but now the first potential brown dwarves outside our own Galaxy have been spotted in NGC 602, the young star cluster shown here, which lies in the Small Magellanic Cloud, 200,000 lightyears from Earth. Conditions in this region are similar to those found in the early Universe, so it's hoped the new discoveries could help improve our understanding of how the earliest stars formed. FREE BONUS CONTENT Explore a gallery of these and more stunning space images www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonus-content Lone wolf VLT SURVEY TELESCOPE (VST), 31 OCTOBER 2024 Definitely a lesser-spotted cosmic…

Chance of finding intelligent aliens gets slimmer

For 60 years, astronomers have used the Drake equation to investigate the likelihood of intelligent life evolving elsewhere in the Universe. Now, researchers have devised a novel method to examine the question by looking at one of the fundamental properties of our Universe: the fraction of dark energy it contains. Created by Dr Frank Drake in the 1960s, the Drake equation attempts to calculate the number of intelligent, technologically advanced species in the observable Universe. It uses various factors to work out the number of habitable planets in the Universe and the likelihood of those planets creating advanced civilisations; but as many of these quantities are currently unmeasurable, it's more a discussion point than a workable scientific tool. The new study instead looked at how likely it was for stars…

Chance of finding intelligent aliens gets slimmer

The Moon's far side was volcanically active

BULLETIN The mysterious far side of the Moon has given up one of its biggest secrets, as the latest analysis of samples brought back by China's Chang'e 6 mission has confirmed that the region definitely had a volcanic past. The Chang'e 6 mission landed on the Moon's far side on 1 June 2024, swiftly collected 1.9kg (4.2lb) of lunar material and returned to Earth with it. Although planetary geologists have a wealth of moonrocks from the near side returned by the Apollo, Luna and previous Chang'e 5 mission, this was the first example from the far side. Researchers hope the sample will help solve the long-standing mystery of why the two sides of our Moon look so different. While the familiar near side is covered with large, dark lunar seas…

The Moon's far side was volcanically active

Miranda had a liquid water ocean

Miranda, one of 28 icy moons around Uranus, may have had a subsurface ocean, challenging our previous ideas. The find came just as NASA revealed that data from Voyager 2, our only close-up view of distant Uranus, may not have been interpreted correctly. Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, imaging several of its moons. Its photos of Miranda showed a patchwork of grooved terrain and craters. A new study examined what geological processes could produce this appearance. It found the most likely scenario is that 100–500 million years ago, Miranda had a 100kmdeep (62-mile) ocean beneath its ice shell. Miranda has a radius of just 235km (146 miles), meaning this ocean would take up most of the interior. Even now, the moon could still have the remnant of a…

Miranda had a liquid water ocean

Fast-feeding black hole breaks theory

The fastest-feeding black hole in the Universe is apparently gorging on matter 40 times faster than what was thought theoretically possible, according to a recent set of observations. The black hole, named LID-568, dates from when the Universe was just 1.5 billion years old and could potentially explain the mystery of why there appear to be so many black holes in the early Universe that were able to quickly grow to be behemoths. LID-568 is remarkably bright at X-ray wavelengths, but its infrared counterpart was so faint it could only be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). JWST's observations revealed that the black hole was surrounded by powerful outflows of material. Theory states that there is a limit to how fast a black hole can feast on matter,…

Fast-feeding black hole breaks theory

Source of Earth's carbon found

Carbon is one of the most important elements for the formation of life on Earth. Now a new study may have finally discovered how the element got to our planet, after finding a reservoir of carbon-containing molecules in an interstellar cloud similar to the one in which the Solar System was born. The cloud contains pyrene, a type of chemical known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) which contain rings of carbon atoms fused together. PAHs make up 10–25 per cent of all carbon that exists in space and have long been touted as the potential source of carbon on Earth. Pyrene has been found in many comets, asteroids and meteorites, most recently in 2023 in samples of asteroid Ryugu collected by the Hayabusa2 mission. As these space rocks are the…

Source of Earth's carbon found

Environmental concerns over Starlink

A group of 120 concerned researchers have written to the US federal government to raise concerns over plans by SpaceX to launch thousands more Starlink satellites. Since 2019, the spaceflight company has launched over 7,000 satellites to create a global communication network. Once their useful lifespan has run its course, these are due to be de-orbited into our atmosphere, where they will burn up. While this has been a standard way of disposing of space hardware for many years, there are currently twice as many Starlink satellites as all other satellites put together. The environmental concerns add to those raised by astronomers worried about how the bright satellites impact astronomical observations. SpaceX is currently licensed to launch 12,000 satellites, but has requested that the Federal Communications Commission allow them to…

Environmental concerns over Starlink

Dandelion supernova

In AD 1181, a bright new star burst into life in the constellation of Cassiopeia, burning brightly for six months. We now know it was a supernova, the remnant of which wasn't identified until 2013, when it was linked to nebula Pa 30. Astronomers a decade later discovered that the nebula contains filaments of gas and dust stretching outwards like the seeds of a dandelion. Using observations from the Keck telescope in Hawaii, scientists have now created a 3D map of the exploding supernova that tracks both the trajectory and the speed of the spikes. “We find the material in the filaments is expanding ballistically,” says co-lead author Tim Cunningham, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian. “This means that the material has not been…

Dandelion supernova

Steam world is under pressure

Our experts examine the hottest new research CUTTING EDGE The GJ 9827 system about 100 lightyears away in the constellation of Pisces contains three known super-Earth planets orbiting a nearby K dwarf star. With a mass almost twice that of Earth, GJ 9827 d is the largest of the triplets and also has the widest orbit. The innermost two companion worlds are very dense and so are thought to be predominantly rocky planets, but GJ 9827 d has a lower density, meaning it probably contains a significant amount of ‘volatiles’ like water, and possibly a thick atmosphere. GJ 9827 d orbits relatively closely to its sun and has a calculated temperature of some 350°C (662°F). This implies that its atmosphere – contrary to most similar-sized planets – can't be dominated…

Steam world is under pressure

How AI can aid astronomers

With massive new surveys like the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory, which is due to begin full science operations in August 2025, astronomers are worrying about how to cope with the upcoming deluge of data. Personally, I'm particularly excited about how, among the terabytes of images it will produce every night, we're going to find the really unusual and unexpected. A new research paper might provide the answer, describing a tool that makes creative use of modern artificial intelligence to guide astronomers to interesting objects. As a test of their method, Michelle Lochner and Lawrence Rudnick set out to explore data from the South African radio telescope MeerKAT, which spent 6–10 hours staring at each of more than 100 galaxy clusters, together containing more than 6,000 radio galaxies. How do we…

How AI can aid astronomers

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT

I'm currently thanking my lucky stars. At age 15, there was an apparent stark gulf between the arts and the sciences. Perhaps you can relate: are you team Bunsen burner or paint brush? Telescope or potter's wheel? Working recently with The Sky at Night TV show and the Royal Society, I've been able to have my cake and then eat yet more cake… with extra sprinkles. After many years in the arts – animating, directing, colouring in, playing with stop-motion puppets and telling stories with plasticine and crayons – I found myself consulting with world-leading scientists, cosmologists and most recently astroarchaeologists. The objects that created this wonderful alignment were the stars themselves. I was asked to make a short stand-alone animated film that would also be used in segments on…

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT

Looking back: The Sky at Night

A week before the 20 November 1980 episode of The Sky at Night, NASA's Voyager 1 flew past Saturn, inspiring Patrick Moore to look at what the spacecraft had learned. Voyager 1 left Earth in 1977, beginning its long flight into the outer Solar System. After a fly-by of Jupiter in 1979, it made its way to the ringed planet, beginning its observations on 22 August 1980, 109 million km (68 million miles) away. As it drew closer, it took detailed images of the rings, revealing their delicate structure in unprecedented detail, as well as three new Saturn moons (bringing the total at the time to 15; today, there are 146 known moons). Voyager 1's trajectory was chosen to give a closer look at the largest of Saturn's moons, Titan,…

Looking back: The Sky at Night

Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com Tweet M.Wilson_ Astrophotography @mwilsonastro • 28 October The aurora over Orion. #orion #orionconstellation #aurora #northernlights #milkyway #universe @skyatnightmag Capital idea While working on a light-hearted personal project, I found myself imagining what it might look like if the Milky Way were mapped along the River Thames. I wondered, too, which stars might align with the locations of various Tube stations. It's a whimsical idea, but it raises interesting possibilities for connecting astronomy with London's geography! I thought my fellow readers might enjoy seeing this. David Utting, via email Level up I am the proud owner of a Unistellar eVscope 2. There was an interesting update last month which enhanced the images taken. Here (above) is an image of the Dumbbell Nebula taken by me using the…

Out of the shadows

MESSAGE OF THE MONTH Thank you for suggesting that Moon viewers look for the Eyes of Clavius, and for giving the date and approximate time to look (Sky Guide, November issue). I didn't know about this lunar clair-obscur effect before, but thanks to you I decided to take a look late in the afternoon on 9 November 2024, and there it was. In my image (right), north is up, and I also caught the shadow of the Straight Wall (Rupes Recta) as a bonus. Thank you again for bringing knowledge and pleasure to those who look at the skies. Paul Lahti, Massachusetts, USA Delighted to hear you caught the Eyes of Clavius, Paul! Clair-obscur effects on the Moon don't hang around for long, as they depend on just the right…

Out of the shadows

Space: the final frontier for health

Before Yuri Gagarin and that first generation of astronauts breached Earth's atmosphere to start a new era in space, nobody really knew just how humans would fare, either mentally or physically, in low Earth orbit. In those early days, data was collected from probes and a selection of animals, but until that pioneering generation flew, no one could say how astronauts would react. The medical profession is still researching the effects of space on the body today, both when in space and the after-effects upon returning to Earth. Of all the medical challenges facing life in space, the most fundamental remains the effects of weightlessness. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth said that he “found weightlessness to be extremely unpleasant”. Ironically for Glenn, it wasn't until an…

Space: the final frontier for health

Asteroid sampling China's ambitious mission will visit both an asteroid and a comet, returning samples to Earth China's space agency, CNSA, will continue to progress in 2025 when it launches the follow-up to its debut Mars mission, Tianwen-1, which landed a rover on the Red Planet in 2021. Tianwen-2, scheduled to launch on a Long March 3B rocket in May, will be completely different, visiting a near-Earth asteroid and then a comet. Its first stop will be Kamo‘oalewa (‘oscillating celestial object’ in Hawaiian), a 40–100-metre (130–330ft) near-Earth asteroid that briefly went into orbit around Earth in 2024. It's the first mission to study a small asteroid, though scientists think Kamo‘oalewa may be a fragment of the Moon loosened by an asteroid striking its far side millions of years ago. The…

Jump into the DEEP end How to progress from planetary to deep-sky photography

Perhaps the most common question beginners ask when they're starting out in astrophotography is: “What telescope should I buy?”. The answer you'll almost always hear from astrophotographers is: “What sort of astrophotography would you like to do?”. That's because there isn't a perfect one-size-fits-all telescope that answers the first question. Some models are simply better suited to planetary imaging than deep-sky astrophotography, the two main forms of astronomy imaging. Planetary imaging – as the name suggests – involves photographing the Solar System's planets, but we also often include imaging our Moon in this bracket, as the equipment and capture requirements are very similar. Meanwhile, deep-sky photography encompasses objects such as star clusters, galaxies, nebulae and planetary nebulae. The decision you make on the second question will determine the equipment you…

Jump into the DEEP end How to progress from planetary to deep-sky photography

Try these for your first deep-sky image

The Orion Nebula Designation: M42 Magnitude: +4.0 Apparent diameter: 1° Best months to image: December to March The Andromeda Galaxy Designation: M31 Magnitude: +3.4 Apparent diameter: 5° Best months to image: September to November Bode's Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy Designation: M81, M82 Magnitude: +6.9 and +8.4 Apparent diameter: 21 and 11 arcminutes Best months to image: All year The Dumbbell Nebula Designation: M27 Magnitude: +7.5 Apparent diameter: 8 arcminutes Best months to image: July to November…

Try these for your first deep-sky image

Is there water on Mars?

You've probably seen the online meme showing a glass of water balanced on top of a Mars chocolate bar, with the caption: “Water discovered on Mars!”. It's very popular, but every time it's posted, amid all the laughter, someone usually responds cynically: “…again”. They do have a point. The ‘discovery’ of water on Mars has happened so many times you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Red Planet is wetter than a Bank Holiday weekend. So what do we actually know about the waters of Mars, and will they be of any use to us in the future? Long before the birth of the Space Age, there were a great many people who firmly believed that water flowed on the Red Planet. They knew Mars was probably a lot colder…

Is there water on Mars?

Where did the water go?

While images from spacecraft in orbit around Mars show us that Mars is dry today, they also prove that it was much wetter in the past. These pictures showed meandering dried-up channels where water once flowed across the landscape, and even the shoreline of an ancient ocean that once covered much of the Red Planet's low, northern hemisphere. So if you jumped in a time machine and fell several billion years backwards through time, you'd probably see a very different Mars to the one we see today – a beautiful blue world much like our own, with rivers and streams flowing into a great northern ocean, all beneath a pale blue sky painted with fluffy white clouds. So where did all this water go? Over time, much of it was…

Where did the water go?

LUNAR OCCULTATION OF SATURN 2025 gets off to a flying start with a rare lunar occultation of Saturn on 4 January MEASURE THE GREAT RED SPOT Take our challenge to size up Jupiter's giant storm DAZZLING DOG STARS Follow our tour of superb targets in Canis Major About the writers Astronomy expert Pete Lawrence is a skilled astro imager and a presenter on The Sky at Night monthly on BBC Four Steve Tonkin is a binocular observer. Find his tour of the best sights for both eyes on page 54 Also on view this month… ✦ Favourable Quadrantid meteor shower peak ✦ Mars at opposition ✦ Titan shadow transits ✦ Minor planet 14 Irene at opposition in Gemini Red light friendly To preserve your night vision, this Sky Guide can be…

JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday 2 At 21:45 UT, Ganymede is occulted by Jupiter. Io transits as the occultation concludes, followed 38 minutes later by its shadow. Ganymede reappears at 23:52 UT and is eclipsed soon after by Jupiter's shadow at 00:19–02:50 UT on 3 January. Friday 3 As evening twilight darkens, look for the beautiful sight of mag. –4.3 Venus just under 2° north-northwest of a 16%-lit waxing crescent Moon. Quadrantid meteor shower peaks, with no real Moon interference. Saturday 4 Although it may not feel like it, Earth is at perihelion today, the point in its orbit when it's closest to the Sun. Saturn is occulted by a 25%-lit waxing crescent Moon between 17:18 and 18:26 UT (see page 46). Monday 6 The Lunar X and Lunar V clair-obscur effects are both visible on tonight's Moon,…

JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS

Universal Time (UT) and British Summer Time (BST) Universal Time (UT) is the standard time used by astronomers around the world. British Summer Time (BST) is one hour ahead of UT RA (Right ascension) and dec. (declination) These coordinates are the night sky's equivalent of longitude and latitude, describing where an object is on the celestial ‘globe’ Family friendly Objects marked with this icon are perfect for showing to children Naked eye Allow 20 minutes for your eyes to become dark-adapted Photo opp Use a CCD, planetary camera or standard DSLR Binoculars 10x50 recommended Small/ medium scope Reflector/SCT under 6 inches, refractor under 4 inches Large scope Reflector/SCT over 6 inches, refractor over 4 inches GETTING STARTED IN ASTRONOMY If you're new to astronomy, you'll find two essential reads on…

Lunar occultation of Saturn

BEST TIME TO SEE: 4 January, 16:30–18:30 UT Lunar occultations of planets are fairly infrequent affairs. The last lunar occultation of Saturn occurred on 21 August 2024, although you'd need to go back to 2007 for one before that which was visible from the UK. While August's event involved a 97%-lit waning gibbous Moon moving in front of Saturn in the brightening dawn twilight, the transit on 4 January occurs in the early evening sky, the occulting Moon being a 25%-lit waxing crescent. Saturn's disappearance occurs under darkening skies after sunset. The Moon should be easy to spot around 16:30 UT, one-third of the way up the sky, just west of south. It'll also be 12.5° east-northeast of brilliant mag. –4.3 Venus at this time. Saturn will be a lot…

Lunar occultation of Saturn

Quadrantids 2025

The Quadrantid meteor shower is active from 28 December to 12 January, with low activity over most of this period. It swings into high activity over a period of just a few hours, this year centred on 16:00 UT on 3 January. It can produce a maximum zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) of around 120 meteors per hour. The shower radiant – that's the point in the sky from which the shower meteors appear to emanate – will be very low around 16:00 UT on 3 January, so a watch through the whole night is recommended for the best views, the radiant gaining altitude as you go towards dawn. The shower gets its name from the now-defunct constellation of Quadrans Muralis, the Mural Quadrant. The radiant position is located in northern…

Quadrantids 2025

Venus and Saturn

Venus and Saturn have a meet-up this month, an event that is conveniently timed for early evening viewing in the darkening sky after sunset. Venus is currently pretty bright at mag. –4.3; located above the southwest horizon early evening, it's difficult to miss. Saturn is dimmer at mag. +0.8, located 16° to the east-northeast of Venus on 1 January. Venus is joined by a 16%-lit waxing crescent Moon on the evening of 3 January, the planet located just under 2° north-northwest of the Moon on this date. On the following evening, now at 25%illumination, the Moon will occult Saturn (see page 46). On 10 January, Venus appears 47.2° from the Sun, having reached a position known as greatest eastern elongation. Basically, the angle between the lines formed by joining Earth…

Venus and Saturn

PICK OF THE MONTH

Mars Best time to see: 12 January, 00:48 UT Altitude: 62° Location: Gemini Direction: South Features: Polar caps, surface markings, weather Recommended equipment: 75mm scope or larger Mars reaches opposition on 16 January 2025, the moment when the planet sits on the opposite side of the sky to the Sun – technically, separated from the Sun by 180° of ecliptic longitude. At opposition, the distance between a superior planet (those with larger orbits than Earth's) and planet Earth is minimised for the current period of observation. This leads to the opposition planet appearing at its largest and brightest for that period. There are a couple of caveats with this year's Mars opposition. Firstly, the distance between Earth and Mars is actually at its minimal value on 12 January, four days…

PICK OF THE MONTH

THE NIGHT SKY – JANUARY

KEY TO STAR CHARTS When to use this chart 1 January at 00:00 UT 15 January at 23:00 UT 31 January at 22:00 UT On other dates, stars will be in slightly different positions because of Earth's orbital motion. Stars that cross the sky will set in the west four minutes earlier each night. How to use this chart 1. Hold the chart so the direction you're facing is at the bottom. 2. The lower half of the chart shows the sky ahead of you. 3. The centre of the chart is the point directly over your head. Sunrise/sunset in January* Moonrise in January* *Times correct for the centre of the UK Lunar phases in January FREE BONUS CONTENT Paul and Pete's night-sky highlights Southern Hemisphere guide www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonus-content…

THE NIGHT SKY – JANUARY

Goclenius Type: Crater Size: 55km Longitude/latitude: 45° E, 10.1° S Age: Around 3.9 billion years Best time to see: Four days after new Moon (3 January and 1 February) or three days after full Moon (17–18 January) Minimum equipment: 50mm telescope Goclenius is a 55km crater located within the 600 x 500km Sea of Fertility, Mare Fecunditatis. The irregularly shaped mare resembles the shape of a diamond, with the distinctive form of 133km Langrenus on the southeast straight edge and Goclenius in a similar position on the southwest straight. Goclenius is an ancient crater, the floor of which has been flooded by lava. It sits within a region of similar company: 75km Gutenberg to the northwest, 41km Magelhaens to the southwest and 76km Colombo to the south. All of them…

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS

Minor planet 14 Irene reaches opposition on 2 January when it can be found shining against the stars of Gemini at magnitude +9.5. By the end of the month, it fades slightly to mag. +10.1, making it an ideal target to track down if you have a small or larger telescope. Irene starts January a little to the east of the mid-point between the two stars that form the ‘body’ of the stick figure of the twin Castor: mag. +4.4 Tau (τ) Geminorum and +3.1 Mebsuta (Epsilon (ε) Geminorum). Thereafter, it tracks in a linear fashion west-northwest to end the month within the southeast boundary of Auriga. In total, the full track length is a little over 7°, making Irene fairly easy to keep track of once you've located it.…

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS

STAR OF THE MONTH

Mebsuta (Epsilon (ε) Geminorum) is a mag. +3.0 star in Gemini, part of the northern twin Castor. You'd be forgiven for assuming its name translates to something to do with the twins, but it actually means ‘outstretched paw’. Equally as curious, 6.5° southeast of Mebsuta lies Mekbuda (Zeta (ζ) Geminorum), the name of which means ‘the lion's folded paw’. As you might now guess, the names relate to a lion, this being a pattern recognised in ancient Arabic stories. Mebsuta has a spectral classification of G8 Ib, which means it's a yellow supergiant and its spectrum is used as a reference against which other stars are compared. With a mass 5.3 times that of the Sun, Mebsuta's radius has been measured directly by the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer at the…

STAR OF THE MONTH

1. The Queen's Aeroplane Locate golden-yellow mag. +5.0 4 Cassiopeiae, which marks the starboard wingtip of this little aeroplane-shaped asterism (pattern of stars). The other wingtip, a degree to the west, is the mag. +6.6 blue-white V649 Cassiopeiae. The curved ‘fuselage’ of stars that shine at mag. +8.0 or brighter extends a degree northwards to a mag. +6.7 orange-red star. There's a lovely variety of star colours here, which a dark transparent sky will help you to appreciate. □ SEEN IT 2. Caroline's Rose, NGC 7789 Caroline Herschel discovered our next target in 1783. You'll find it between mag. +4.5 Rho (ρ) and mag. +5.1 Sigma (σ) Cassiopeiae. You won't be able to resolve any stars, even using averted vision, but you should see a soft glow about half the…

THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE

A great deal of emphasis is put on astronomical imaging these days, and the science of astronomy sometimes gets left behind as a result. However, one important area of observation, measurement and recording concerns changes in our Solar System neighbours, the planets. This month, our challenge is to measure the most famous storm of all, the Great Red Spot (GRS) on Jupiter. Here, visual observation and imaging both work to great effect. The technique you need to master for this challenge is how to make a good estimate of central meridian timings. For this, you'll need a telescope and an accurate timepiece. The telescope needs to be over 150mm aperture to be able to see the Great Red Spot clearly and, as ever, the larger you go the easier this…

THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE

1 IC 2165 Located in the northwest corner of Canis Major, 5° due north of mag. +2.0 Mirzam (Beta (β) Canis Majoris), is the planetary nebula IC 2165. Shining at a respectable mag. +10.6, it's easy to overlook due to its small size of 9 x 7 arcseconds. It appears just like a star at magnifications below 150x, only really starting to appear like a true planetary nebula at powers of 250x or above. IC 2165 reacts to an OIII filter really well; one way to confirm you've got it is to move such a filter in and out of your view, the planetary staying put as the stars around it fade. At 400x magnification, it appears roughly 6 arcseconds across. □ SEEN IT 2 NGC 2204 You'd think our…

Is there life beyond Earth? No one knows, but most scientists think it's almost inevitable. Our Universe is incredibly extended, both in space and in time, so anything that can happen – in this case, the emergence of life – is almost bound to happen more than once. Moreover, the Universe teems with planets, and the organic building blocks of life appear to be found wherever we look. Even though we don't know precisely how the first living cells were formed, it's extremely unlikely that the process occurred just once. Still, as yet there's no convincing evidence of life beyond Earth. But that may change in the next two decades or so with the launch of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a powerful future space telescope that's currently on the…

From Big Bang to biomarkers

The primary goal of the Habitable Worlds Observatory is to look for biomarkers in the atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets that would indicate the presence of life. But the future space telescope will do much more. Scientists have formulated four major themes for the observatory: drivers of galaxy growth; the evolution of elements over cosmic time; the Solar System in its galactic context; and living worlds. As astrophysicist Kevin France says: “HWO does a little bit of everything.” With its unprecedented sensitivity, the huge observatory will resolve stellar populations of many galaxies beyond our Milky Way, obtain ultraviolet spectra of millions of individual sources and image cosmological deep fields four times faster than JWST does. Detailed observations of supernovae and star-forming regions will shed more light on the so-called baryon cycle:…

From Big Bang to biomarkers

Future proofing

The Hubble Space Telescope, launched into low Earth orbit back in 1990, has been in operation for decades thanks to five servicing missions, the last one of which took place in 2009. Space Shuttle astronauts have replaced malfunctioning gyroscopes and computers and outfitted Hubble with new solar panels, cameras and spectrographs. In contrast, the James Webb Space Telescope, which doesn't orbit Earth, cannot be serviced. Once an important component breaks down, the mission will be over. Like JWST, the Habitable Worlds Observatory will operate from L2, a region in space almost four times more distant than the Moon. Nevertheless, engineers plan to design it in such a way that it can be serviced – not by astronauts, but by robots. An uncrewed mission would fly to L2, rendezvous with HWO…

Future proofing

When will we get BACK TO THE MOON?

In November 2022, a slumbering Florida shook under the guttural growl of the world's mightiest rocket – NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). Generating 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, it turned night into day, eclipsing the Saturn V as the biggest, beefiest and baddest machine ever built. Its uncrewed Artemis I flight test boosted an Orion capsule on a 25-day, 2 million km (1.3 million mile) trek around the Moon – the first time in five decades that we'd seen a deep-space mission made by a ship built for astronauts. Artemis I afforded a much-needed stimulus for NASA's plan to return humans to our nearest celestial neighbour by 2024. Sadly, as 2025 begins, that vaunted deadline has come and gone. Artemis's slow progress, decade-long development and eye-watering $93 billion…

When will we get BACK TO THE MOON?

Starship's vital role: taxi to the Moon

With Starship's Human Landing System (HLS) set to land people at the Moon's south pole during Artemis III, the development of SpaceX's colossal spacecraft has attracted intense scrutiny. Not only must Starship fly to and from the lunar surface, it requires multiple spacecraft to do so, meaning a high flight cadence is needed to assure the viability of the programme. Doubts about its feasibility came to a head last summer, when Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa cancelled dearMoon, a tourist mission to circumnavigate the Moon. Maezawa said Starship's lack of “clear schedule certainty” precipitated his decision. SpaceX is bringing Starship and its Super Heavy booster online by continual success-and-failure testing. The 121-metre (398ft) stack is the tallest rocket ever flown and at liftoff generates 16.7 million pounds of thrust – the…

Starship's vital role: taxi to the Moon

The golf-cart-sized Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) was to fly on Astrobotic's Griffin 1 lander to the Moon's south pole in September 2025 – until the mission was cancelled last summer. Equipped with a drill, three spectrometers and its own lighting source, the four-wheeled VIPER was targeted to land at the western edge of Nobile crater. During a planned 100 days on the Moon, the rover would prospect for water-ice and other volatiles, mapping their distribution, depth and purity. But after mission costs swelled past $450 million and launch slipped from 2024 to 2025, NASA decided to end the mission. Cancelling VIPER reportedly saved $84 million, but the rover was fully built, with its instruments completely integrated and fully tested for launch. NASA expects VIPER's objectives to be met…

All stars die. How they die depends in part on their mass, but their deaths can result in titanic and spectacular explosions in space – supernovae – when they briefly outshine their host galaxies and radiate more energy than our Sun will deliver in its lifetime. The term ‘supernova’ was first coined in 1934 by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, when they witnessed an explosive event in the Andromeda Galaxy. But supernovae were being observed long before the invention of the telescope, the oldest being RCW 86 spotted by Chinese astronomers in AD 185 as a ‘guest star’ visible in the sky for eight months. Perhaps the most famous supernova is the Crab Nebula, captured in AD 1054 by Native Americans in the…

Zombie stars, beauty queens and black holes

NEUTRON STARS When a Type II supernova of a star with 8–20 times the mass of the Sun occurs, the remnant is a super-hot, ultra-dense collapsed core, a neutron star, where gravity has even squeezed the space from between particles in atoms. It is city-sized but with more mass than our Sun and a magnetic field billions of times stronger. Neutron stars can spin rapidly, hundreds of times per second, emitting regular pulses of radio waves detectable by telescopes – pulsars. SUPERNOVA REMNANTS These are the ethereal-looking structures left over from supernovae, which you'll have seen in beautiful astrophotos. They consist of hot gas, plasma and interstellar material swept up by the shockwave of the initial detonation. The shockwave heats and ionises the gas surrounding it to extremely high temperatures,…

Zombie stars, beauty queens and black holes

Set the right back focus for your scope

Back focus often causes astronomers confusion. In general photography terms, it's the distance from the last glass surface in the optical train to the focal plane of the camera – typically 55mm in DSLRs, for example. For telescopes, back focus is the distance from the outer end of the focuser draw tube (when fully wound in) to the focal plane of the telescope, or – for catadioptric scopes – to the focal plane when the scope is at its designed focal ratio. Essentially, for telescopes, back focus indicates the space within which you can fit other optical components. It's important to remember that these other optical components, such as filters, Barlow lens and focal reducers, will alter this value slightly. Most telescope designs produce curved focal planes. Take a Newtonian…

Set the right back focus for your scope

Step 1 Check the documentation for your flattener or reducer-flattener for the required back-focus distance. You'll also need to know the position of your camera model's sensor relative to the camera body, which you'll find in the camera's manual or online. Step 2 Required back focus is usually measured from the flange edge of the flattener/reducer facing the camera, minus the male threads (which disappear into the next component). Confusingly, a few manufactures do measure from these threads, so double-check. Step 3 The physical thickness of other optical components – such as filters, a filter wheel (C), or adaptors (B and D) – between the flattener (A) and the camera need to be considered and added to the required backfocus distance. For filters, add a third of the filter's thickness.…

Preserving the Orion Nebula's core

Along with the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula (M42) is probably the most photographed deep-sky object. And for good reason – it's large, bright, highly detailed and very colourful. But its brilliance can work against you, as many smart scope owners have discovered. It's all too easy to burn out the core, leading to a nebula that looks beautiful around the outside but a pure-white mess in the middle. This month, we're looking at a simple method for restoring the core to produce a high-dynamicrange (HDR) image of the nebula similar (albeit more colourful) to what you'd see through the eyepiece. Let's first discuss why the core burns out. Take a photograph of the nebula exposed for the core and it'll look wonderfully detailed. However, much of the intricacy and…

Preserving the Orion Nebula's core

STEP 1 Choose a setup that captures a decent amount of M42 and objects adjacent to it (the Running Man Nebula makes a great addition). Framing and orientation are a personal choice, but a shot with space to allow the nebula to breathe creates a better result. For smart scopes that don't do mosaics, the framing and orientation are dictated by the scope's design and time of night you're doing the imaging. STEP 2 Set the exposure time to avoid burning out the core. It can appear bright, but you don't want areas of pure white. Completely disregard the outer regions of the nebula at this step; they really aren't important. If using a smart scope and intending to use the internally generated image, stop the capture when the core…

How to reduce image noise using Affinity Photo

There are many obstacles to overcome when we process deep-sky images. One key challenge is the noise that creeps in when we stretch the data from these faint objects and prevents us from unveiling delicate details. Even everyday images taken using a smartphone or DSLR have noise. The big difference is that during the daytime there is a lot of light available; with astrophotography, there's usually very little light, meaning most of the data in our images is down towards the ‘black end’ of the histogram, where it's nestled within most of the noise. As the image is stretched, so is the noise, which becomes more visible. While this can be reduced by collecting more data – generally, the more images that are stacked together, the less visible the noise…

How to reduce image noise using Affinity Photo

FREE BONUS CONTENT Find our extended Gallery at www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonus-content The Moon, comet C/2023 A3 and Mount Teide PHOTO OF THE MONTH Gergely Tóth, Caldera de Taburiente, Canary Islands, Spain, 1 October 2024 Gergely says: “Comet C/2023 A3 is framed here by the Moon and the Mount Teide volcano, creating a unique natural alliance in the sky.” Equipment: Sony a7 IIIa camera, Samyang 135mm lens, Benro Polaris tripod Exposure: Sky ISO 640 f/1.8, 8x 8”; foreground ISO 640 f/1.8, 8x 4” Software: Lightroom, PTGui, Photoshop Gergely's top tips: “When photographing comets, be ready to change your exposure settings to deal with rapidly changing light conditions or you might burn out the highlights or end up with an underexposed image. I suggest using planetarium apps like Sky Guide – that's how I…

QSI 760 full-format mono CMOS imaging camera

VITAL STATS • Price £5,873 with five-position filter wheel; £6,058 with seven-position • Sensor Sony IMX455 full-frame mono • Resolution 9,576 x 6,380 • Exposure range 1ms-24 hours • Connectivity USB 3.0 • Size 190 x 200 x 140mm with integrated filter wheel • Weight 1.9kg • Supplier First Light Optics • Email questions@firstlightoptics.com • www.firstlightoptics.com A full-frame astronomy camera is often at the top of many astrophotographers’ wish lists, so when QSI released the QSI 760 – a full-frame mono camera featuring the latest CMOS sensor – we were keen to check it out. Arriving in a large sturdy box, the first thing that struck us was the very impressive case the camera is housed in. Opening this, we found the sizeable camera, with filter wheel already attached, nestled…

QSI 760 full-format mono CMOS imaging camera

William Optics Pleiades 68 astrograph

VITAL STATS • Price £2,098; £2,197 with guidescope • Optics FPL53 apochromatic septuplet • Aperture 68mm • Focal length 258mm, f/3.8 • Focuser Internal rack and pinion • Extras Dovetail bar, tube rings, carry handle, padded case • Weight 3.83kg • Supplier The Widescreen Centre • Tel 01353 776199 • www.widescreen-centre.co.uk William Optics has been a key producer of good-value small refractors in recent times. This latest offering, the Pleiades 68, presents a highly desirable astrograph that ticks so many boxes that, after reviewing it, we were reluctant to send it back! Everything about this little refractor just exudes attention to detail, from the matching logos on the carry case and telescope, to the quality of the machining. But these aren't as important as its performance, so we were anxious…

William Optics Pleiades 68 astrograph

1 Astro Essentials right-angled camera viewfinder Price £45 • Supplier First Light Optics www.firstlightoptics.com DSLRs without an articulated LED screen can force you to contort to the angle of the viewfinder. This right-angled device attaches to the viewfinder for a more comfortable experience. It also has an adjustable magnification range of 1x to 2x. 2 Celestial Sun pendant necklace Price £90 • Supplier Olivia Burton www.oliviaburton.com This delicate gold-plated necklace features a crescent Moon, striking sunbeams and crystal stars, finished with a 406mm chain. Boasting 22 gemstones, it could make a lovely gift for the astronomer in your life. 3 AstroReality AR lunar model Price £75 • Supplier Rother Valley Optics www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk Not only is this Moon model an eye-catching addition to any desk, it also arrives with an augmented…

110 Things to See With a Telescope John A Read with Chris Vaughan Sourcebooks £14.99 • HB It might feel daunting when you get your first telescope and wonder which of all the thousands of possible objects in the night sky you should attempt to observe. This is where Messier's Catalogue, a list of 110 astronomical objects compiled by the 18th-century French astronomer Charles Messier, can come in handy. Curiously, this famous list was originally compiled to rule out certain astronomical objects – they were targets that Messier originally classified as ‘not comets’, because the astronomer simply wanted to record the fuzzy objects that got in the way of his search for comets. These ‘not comets’ are in fact a mixture of fascinating nearby objects in our own Milky Way,…

Q & A WITH A HABITABILITY EXPERT

What do we currently understand about life on worlds beyond Earth? We only have one example of an inhabited planet in the Universe right now – Earth – so all we know about life elsewhere is an extrapolation. One school of thought says we should focus on Earth-like planets which can support liquid water and have plate tectonics that allow volatile compounds to cycle between the interior and atmosphere. We took another approach, exploring whether biology has the capability to generate conditions for its own habitability, on planets or elsewhere. How can life generate conditions for its own habitability? On Earth, life and the planet have been constantly interacting. This happened when oxygen first emerged and changed the composition of the atmosphere, or land plants appeared on Earth's surface and…

Q & A WITH A HABITABILITY EXPERT

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

When to use this chart 1 Jan 00:00 AEDT (31 Dec, 13:00 UT) 15 Jan 23:00 AEDT (12:00 UT) 31 Jan 22:00 AEDT (11:00 UT) The chart accurately matches the sky on the dates and times shown for Sydney, Australia. The sky is different at other times as the stars crossing it set four minutes earlier each night. JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS Mars is at opposition on 16 January. While not as close to Earth as some oppositions, it still appears around double (14 arcseconds) its typical size. Even small scopes under high power and good seeing will show some shadowy features, the locations of plains, valleys, mountains and a polar cap. To the unaided eye, it's redder and brighter than normal, rivalling the brightest star, Sirius. Watch Mars approach then pass stars Castor…

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

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