BBC Sky at Night

Interview: X-ray eyes on the sky Dr Charly Feldman on China's Einstein probe and how X-ray vision unlocks the secrets of the Universe. Keep up to date with Moon times and phases by downloading and printing our PDF poster covering all of 2024. View ou

Japan became the fifth nation to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon, on 19 January at 15:20 UT. Initially it seemed celebrations would be short-lived due to a problem with the spacecraft's solar power system, but the team were able to re

VLT SURVEY TELESCOPE, 21 DECEMBER 2023 This 1.5-billion-pixel image of the Running Chicken Nebula, which lies 6,500 lightyears from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, is a mosaic compiled from hundreds of frames taken by the OmegaCAM instrument

Astronomers could soon be tracking down exoplanets with liquid water oceans not by looking for the presence of water, but instead by searching for the absence of carbon dioxide in their atmospheres. The search for habitable worlds has been governed b

Astronomers have mapped the cold, dense gas that will one day become stellar nurseries in the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. This is the first time such an extensive map has been created for a galaxy beyond the Milky Way. “To investigate the early phases of

Dark energy – the mysterious substance that's apparently driving our Universe apart – could vary with time, according to the latest results from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). In 1998, two teams of astronomers measured the expansion of the Universe by

It is possible for disappearing islands to float on the methane seas of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, a new study has found. Titan's atmosphere is rich with organic material and its surface is covered in rivers and oceans of methane and ethane. In 20

Sky-watchers in the last few months of 2023 reported an explosion in the number of polar stratospheric clouds – rainbow-hued clouds formed from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. Temperatures in the stratosphere reached a 40-year low of –85°C, cau

After months of careful work, NASA has now completely extracted from its return capsule the sample of asteroid Bennu brought back by the OSIRIS-REx mission. The precious space rock will now be divided up and sent to waiting scientific institutions fo

Most cosmologists believe that dark matter, the mysterious substance that seems to account for six-sevenths of the matter in the Universe, exists in the form of myriad weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. The WIMPs won out over ideas of a

The year 2023 was the 66th year that The Sky at Night has appeared on our televisions and the first year that I worked as the show's production coordinator. The production base had recently moved from London to Glasgow and the new team were eager to

Scientists have long speculated about whether Venus could harbour life. Its thick, carbon dioxide atmosphere creates a powerful greenhouse effect and the surface is searingly hot (over 450°C). Indeed, the planet is often described as ‘Earth's evil tw

Kelling Heath Holiday Park, Holt, Norfolk, 5–12 March One of Britain's best-known star parties returns. A strict no-lights policy is in force, making it the ideal place to meet up with fellow astronomers and enjoy the delights of the night sky. Plus:

National Agricultural and Exhibition Centre, Coventry, 23 March The annual gathering of the UK astronomy industry returns, with the free event having proven so popular that this year it's moved to a new, larger venue. Exhibitors at this year's show i

As a species, the gradual unveiling of the mysteries of the Universe has only been achieved through the results of our own innovation, unaided and unassisted by anyone else. From early cave paintings that captured the heavens, to tracking the motions

Everything we can see in the world around us is made of atoms. But where did those atoms come from? It's a question that's fascinated natural philosophers and scientists for centuries, and is one we're still learning more about today. At the start of

While we've explained the main routes through which the elements are made, the full story of their origin is incredibly intricate. Sometimes a smaller star can create elements much heavier than it normally would through fusion alone. In one rare case

Though stars have acted as cosmic factories, gradually enriching the Universe with heavy elements for the last 13.7 billion years, they cannot account for the second-most common element of all: helium. Stars do indeed make helium, but nowhere near en

EXTRA Aurorae are one of nature's most beautiful spectacles, but also one of the most elusive. For aurora hunters, some nights will yield little more than a green smudge on the horizon, others nothing at all. But then will come the nights when the ai

The first group of people to bring attention to the growing problem of light pollution were astronomers. At no point in our history have we produced and consumed light more than we do now, bringing an increase in light pollution at an alarming rate,

16-PAGE CENTRE PULLOUT Catch morning comet C/2021 S3 PanSTARRS's close encounter with the Coathanger Cluster Hunt down lunar domes from our Moon's volcanic past Six beautiful galaxies to find in the Bowl of Virgo Astronomy expert Pete Lawrence is a s

More diffuse than other displays, these blobs of light tend to spread out across the sky. Many displays begin as a curve of bright light across the sky, known as an arc, before transforming into more complex shapes. Created from rays of light moving

Bright Venus appears very close to Mars this morning, but the mag. +1.3 Red Planet is rapidly lost to the brightening dawn sky. Minor planet 3 Juno reaches opposition today, when it can be found shining at mag. +8.6 against the stars of Leo. The Moon

Aurora displays can show up at any time after dark, but there are definitely times when an aurora sighting is more likely, whether it's near solar maximum or not. As aurorae are most visible against dark skies, it's best to hunt for them in spring, a

Comet C/2021 S3 PanSTARRS is not the only bright comet around at the moment. 12P/Pons–Brooks is predicted to brighten from mag. +7.1 to +5.2 throughout the month, the latter value taking it close to naked-eye territory. There's a bit of cosmic balanc

BEST TIME TO SEE: 1–17 March and 29–31 March Visible in the morning sky, comet C/2021 S3 PanSTARRS is predicted to shine at a binocular-friendly eighth magnitude all month. It's currently passing through a part of sky more associated with summer than

There's a lovely encounter between the waxing crescent Moon and Jupiter on the evening of 13 March. This bright meeting will be a great target if you have a smartphone with a camera sensitive enough to record astronomical objects. The Moon will have

Best time to see: 25 March, 40 minutes after sunset Altitude: 10° Location: Pisces Direction: West Features: Phase, surface markings Recommended equipment: 150mm scope or larger Mercury is an evening planet, but having passed superior conjunction on

Asteroid 3 Juno reaches opposition on 3 March, when it can be found in southern Leo, near the border with Sextans, shining at mag. +8.6. It starts the month close to mag. +4.8 58 Leonis and shining at mag. +8.8 – a binocular possibility, but best see

Cancer the Crab is represented by a faint, inverted Y shape. The base of the Y, which marks the north point of the pattern, is mag. +4.0 Iota (ι) Cancri. Located 1.3° further to the east-southeast is mag. +5.9 Rho1 (ρ1) Cancri, with mag. +5.2 Rho2 (ρ

As the Moon is well placed in the evening sky during March, this month we're taking a look for lunar domes. Much of the Moon's detail you can view through a telescope has come from meteoric impacts on the lunar surface. Features such as craters and b

We'll start with a favourite ‘made for binoculars’ target. Look midway between mag. +2.9 Cor Caroli (Alpha (α) Canum Venaticorum) and mag. +2.1 Denebola (Beta (β) Leonis) and you should see a misty patch about 6° across. Your 10x50s will resolve it i

Virgo is a sprawling constellation defined by the Bowl of Virgo asterism. Inside the Bowl lies the ‘Realm of Galaxies’, thanks to the presence of the Virgo Supercluster. NGC 4517 is in the less populated southern part of the Bowl. This mag. +10.4 gal

The largest and most sensitive radio observatory in history, the Square Kilometre Array is currently being built in two remote areas in the Southern Hemisphere: the Great Karoo semi-desert in South Africa and the outback of Western Australia. As you

SKA director Phil Diamond admits that ‘Square Kilometre Array’ is a bit of a misnomer. The 197 dish antennas of SKA-Mid in South Africa have a total surface area of 33,000m2 (0.033km2). The effective receiver surface area of the dipole antennas of SK

Beyond the Solar System lie cold, dark and vast regions that were once shrouded in mystery. It is here that we have discovered various worlds, objects left over from the early days of the Solar System, a barrier that shelters us from harmful interste

As the late Douglas Adams wrote in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, “Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is.” And, to be fair, he wasn't wrong. For astronomers – especially those focusing on

(Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope) A huge radio dish, built in a natural bowl-shaped valley in Pingtang County, Guizhou, southwest China. With a surface area of 0.2km2, FAST is currently the most sensitive radio telescope in the world.

Can machine learning and AI help detect the unexpected in astronomical datasets? Alex Andersson, a researcher at the University of Oxford, believes it might. “You can look at certain models of physics, like how stars work or galaxies behave, and so h

Arguably, 2023 was the year that artificial intelligence (AI) really gained mainstream attention, inspiring – like any technological advance throughout human history – both evangelical enthusiasm for its potential benefits and apocalyptic horror at i

We all want to get the best out of our equipment. Whether it's equatorial or altaz, your Go-To system will work at its best if you pay attention to how you initially set up your tripod, mount, telescope and accessories. Equatorial mounts need precise

Using a compass, locate north for your observing site. Set up the tripod assembly on firm ground, ensuring that one leg is pointing towards north. Spread out the legs for stability and adjust to a comfortable height suitable for the user. Attach the

Lunar clair-obscur effects are tricks of the light that produce recognisable shapes on the Moon's surface. They occur when jumbled areas of light and shadow produce something that looks familiar. Most occur near the terminator and fade into and out o

CAUTION When observing atmospheric optics, always block the Sun with your hand, a roof or a tree. NEVER look through a camera viewfinder pointed towards the Sun Almost everybody has seen a rainbow, but far fewer people have seen any kind of atmospher

Pick your target and make plans for capturing it. A few upcoming events are listed above and we publish predictions in our Sky Guide every month, but there are others out there too. There's an excellent list at the-moon.us/wiki/Clair-obscur; you may

Find our extended Gallery at www.skyatnightmagazine.com/ bonus-content Chirag Upreti, Acatenango summit, Guatemala, 9 November 2023 PHOTO OF THE MONTH Chirag says: “To get this shot of Volcán de Fuego with the Milky Way, I climbed to the summit of Vo

• Price £319 • Sensor SC2210 CMOS • Sensor size 1,920x1,080 • Frame rate Full resolution 96.5fps at 8 bit; 60fps at 16 bit • Exposure range 15ms-15 minutes • Memory 512MB DDRS RAM • Connectivity USB 3.2, ST4 • Size 77mm x 40mm • Weight 90g • Extras I

• Price £1,015 with 1.0x flattened £1,025 with 0.8x flattener • Optics FPL-53 doublet • Aperture 80mm • Focal length 560mm, f/7 • Focuser Dual-speed rack and pinion • Extras Tube rings, Vixen bar, dovetail, guidescope, 1.0x field flattener, illuminat

Rebecca Boyle Sceptre Books £22 • HB Why are we so fascinated with the Moon? It is a cold wasteland, devoid of life, but since our ancient ancestors walked the Earth, the Moon has been a source of wonder and curiosity, evoking spiritual feelings with

QHYCCD describes the SC2210 sensor as a ‘domestic CMOS’ unit. It isn't entirely obvious what they mean by this, but that doesn't detract from the excellent performance that the diminutive chip is capable of. The 4μm x 4μm pixels are arrayed in a 1,92

What capabilities will the Giant Magellan Telescope offer astronomers? The Giant Magellan Telescope – due to see first light in 2031 – will be optimal for looking at light from Earth-like planets. It will be able to decompose this light and detect wh