Australian Sky & Telescope

IN A COUNTRY SUCH AS AUSTRALIA that spans so far from north to south, it’s sometimes easy to forget that astronomical objects that can be seen at one latitude cannot be seen at others. I was reminded of this recently when I was reminiscing about livi

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

The Moon has orbited Earth for billions of years, but quasi-satellites travel in phase with our planet around the Sun for only a few hundred years. Now the first detailed observations of the quasi-satellite 469219 Kamo‘oalewa suggest that it (and per

PLANETS ABOUND in the Milky Way. They probably do in other galaxies, too, but the usual techniques can’t reach far enough to tell. Using an innovative method, Rosanne Di Stefano (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian) and colleagues announce

The Tamworth Regional Astronomy Club Inc. offers you are a rare opportunity for an astronomy experience like no other. Visit observatories and be guided by experts as you link into the amazing world of citizen science in astronomy — comets, variable

When interstellar object 1I/‘Oumuamua was first spotted tumbling through the Solar System, we’d never seen anything like it. Among many unexplained oddities was its shape: With an aspect ratio of 6:6:1, it was basically an otherworldly pancake. But a

NASA’s Juno mission has obtained measurements that finally say just how far down the Great Red Spot goes. The deep roots of the centuries-long storm could be a clue to its longevity. Previous work using the microwave radiometer aboard NASA’s Juno spa

We thought we knew how giant planets were made. Once a massive-enough core has come together, it has sufficient gravity to begin gathering up gas from the disk in which it was born. The rate of this accretion increases exponentially once the mass of

Astronomer Jill Tarter coined the term brown dwarf in her 1975 PhD thesis, without the intention of implying an actual colour: At the time, it was impossible to determine what the then-theoretical objects’ colour temperature would be, so she chose br

The third- and fourth-closest ‘star’ systems to the Sun solely contain brown dwarfs: the binary WISE J1049-5319 (a.k.a. Luhman 16 AB) at 6.5 light-years, and WISE J0855-0714 at 7.3 light-years. But with an estimated mass of only 3 to 10 Jupiters, WIS

WHEN Early March 10 pm Late March 9 pm Early April 8 pm Late April 7 pm These are standard times — add Daylight Savings if it applies to your location. HOW Go outside within an hour or so of a time listed above. Hold the map above your head with

Planet watchers are in for a real treat, as March will see the five bright planets all together in the early morning hours and forming up into attractive pairings or triplets throughout the month. By April, Mercury will have switched to the evening s

There are two meteor showers of note during March and April. Although neither is particularly strong, they’re definitely worth a try… especially if you have dark skies. The Gamma Normids is active from February 25 to March 28, with an expected peak o

1 Saturn 5° north-east of Moon 1 Mercury 3° north of Moon 3 Saturn 0.5° north-west of Mercury 6 Jupiter in conjunction with the Sun 13 Mars 4° south of Venus 13 Moon 2° south-east of Pollux 16 Moon 6° north-east of Regulus 20 Venus, greatest el

New Moon …… 2nd, 17:35 UT First Quarter …… 10th, 10:45 UT Full Moon …… 18th, 07:18 UT Last Quarter …… 25th, 05:37 UT Apogee …… 10th, 23h UT, 404,268 km Perigee …… 23rd, 24h UT, 369,760 km New Moon …… 1st, 06:24 UT First Quarter …… 9th, 06:48 UT Full

The first time I saw HH 1/2 was in January 2012 at the visitors’ centre on Mauna Kea. After the nightly sky show had ended, several local observers were sharing views through their telescopes, one of which was an intriguing 50-cm ball scope. Mike Con

The current NACAA working committees that make up the running of each convention, the Local Organising Committee, the Programme Committee and the National Secretariat have made the decision to hold the 2022 National Australian Convention of Amateur A

In October 2022, the Tamworth Regional Astronomy Club will be offering its ‘Tamworth Astronomy Experience’. Assisted by Dr Stephen Bosi, senior physics teacher at the University of New England, this five-day, action-packed experience will include beh

US price: $329 each player-one-astronomy.com Adjustable sensor tilt Internal memory prevents dropped frames No models large enough to frame entire Sun or Moon at high resolution… yet ■

MIKE AMES PURCHASED a 90-mm objective in its cell quite some time ago but didn’t find time to do anything with it until the recent pandemic slowdown. Suddenly finding himself with plenty of time, he sat down to design a scope. He had several criteria

Images should be sent electronically and in high-resolution (up to 10MB per email) to contributions@ skyandtelescope.com.au. Please provide full details for each image, eg. date and time taken; telescope and/or lens; mount; imaging equipment type and