Australian Sky & Telescope

AS IT WRITE THIS, all is on track for a December 18 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, named after an early head of NASA), the space observatory that will enable us to look back in time through the cosmos to earliest eras following the B

EDITOR Jonathan Nally ART DIRECTOR Lee McLachlan CONTRIBUTING EDITORS John Drummond, David Ellyard, Alan Plummer, David Seargent, EMAIL info@skyandtelescope.com.au ADVERTISING MANAGER Jonathan Nally EMAIL jonathan@skyandtelescope.com.au PUBLISHER Ia

New measurements from NASA’s Curiosity rover show that methane concentrations near the Martian surface vary on a daily cycle, a finding that could help reconcile conflicting data. Curiosity first sniffed the gas on June 15, 2013, and has since found

Astronomers have reported a gravitationally unstable disk circling the young star Elias 2-27. Gravitational instability is one path to planet formation: When disks become massive enough, they may collapse directly into planets or form spiral arms tha

An amateur astronomer has pinpointed a new moon of Jupiter, first spotted in 2003 but whose orbit was never determined. If approved by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, the find would bring the tally of known Jovian satellit

TEN BILLION SUNS’ WORTH of hot gas are hanging in space in a fog almost 6 million light-years across. Bigger than the Milky Way, this “orphan cloud” was probably torn long ago from the galaxy it once called home. Astronomers found the cloud by its hy

ASTEROID 16 PSYCHE is the largest metallic object in the main belt and the destination of NASA’s eponymous mission, set to launch in 2022. But what the spacecraft will see when it arrives remains an open question. Evidence is mounting that it will di

FILAMENTS OF THE COSMIC WEB contain galaxies, gas and dark matter, and measure up to hundreds of millions of light-years long. And they are now the largest structures in the universe observed to rotate, according to a team led by Peng Wang (Leibniz I

MOST WHITE DWARFS are collapsed stellar cores. But in the July 1st Nature, Ilaria Caiazzo, Kevin Burdge (both at Caltech), and colleagues report evidence of a white dwarf born from the union of two smaller versions — and this one might be about to co

A red giant star nearly disappeared from the sky for about 200 days in 2012. In April that year, only 3% of its light was arriving at Earth, but by July its brightness was back to normal. The huge dip, cataloged as VVV-WIT-08, only happened once over

Astronomers with the Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) group have created the first high-resolution maps of the big, dense gas clouds that form stars inside galaxies. The collaboration used the Atacama Large Millimeter/su

IN THE LAST DECADE, the notion of interstellar travel went from fiction to reality. In 2012, after 35 years of interplanetary travel across 122 astronomical units, Voyager 1 left the Ssolar System and crossed into interstellar space. In 2018, Voyager

Both Uranus and Ceres reach opposition in November. Uranus does so on the 5th (0h UT), and Ceres on the 27th (4h UT). On opposition night, Uranus shines at magnitude 5.7 in southern Aries, 5.1° north-northwest of 4.3-magnitude Mu (µ) Ceti. Typical of

As we move from spring into summer, the warmer weather will make for far more comfortable stargazing. So there’s really no excuse for not getting out and looking up, whether that’s with a telescope, binoculars or just the unaided eye. There’s plenty

Meteor watchers are spoiled in November and December, with six showers to choose from. Let’s start with the Northern Taurids, which is the companion half of the Southern Taurids seen in October. The northern part of the duo is active from October 20

“Every galaxy is peculiar.” So wrote Halton Arp in the introduction to his pioneering work, Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (1966), specifying, “when looked at closely enough.” At the time, Arp was working at the largest telescope in the world — the 200-i

The Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy — often abbreviated SagDEG or Sgr dSph — is not to be confused with the Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy — abbreviated SagDIG. The latter is a satellite of the Milky Way that lies some 3.4 million light-years

US price: from $120 Meade.com Excellent optical and mechanical construction Nice star images across the entire field of view Extremely low distortion Bottom of 24-mm eyepiece can interfere with thumbscrew lock on some 1¼-inch focusers and star diagon