Astronomy Now5- Page

M67 is an ancient open cluster in Cancer that hosts many red-giant stars. Image: Bernhard Hubl. Messier 67 in Cancer is somewhat of an anomaly for an open cluster, having

A composite image of the 2014 Quadrantids. Image: Leo Lam. The Quadrantid meteor shower kicks off the meteor-watching calendar, peaking this year on 3 January. Renowned for its reliability, it

Mercury in a transparent early-evening sky on 24 January 2021. Image: Martin Campbell. Mercury, the fast moving inner planet, passed through inferior conjunction between Earth and the Sun on 6

Jupiter, by far the Solar System’s dominant planet, imaged on 29 November 2024. Image: Damian Peach. Jupiter reaches its long-awaited opposition on 7 December when it lies in Taurus with

Venus and a young crescent Moon close together on the early-evening of 26 April 2020. A young moon lies close to Venus on soon after sunset on 5 November, Bonfire

Image: ESO/VPHAS+ Team. This eerie, dark silhouette is a cometary globule designated GN 16.43.7.01. Despite their name, cometary globules have nothing to do with comets, beyond having a similar shape

A Hubble Space Telescope false-colour view (left) of a 100-billion-mile-wide disc of dust around the star Vega. The James Webb Space Telescope (right) resolves the glow of warm dust in

Magnificent NGC 253, the Silver Coin Galaxy in Sculptor. Image: Warren Keller/Telescope Live. Amateur astronomers just love the challenge of checking out those horizon-hugging southern constellations and seeking the deep-sky

The gruesome palette of these galaxies is owed to a mix of mid-infrared light from the James Webb Space Telescope, and visible and ultraviolet light from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Messier 103 in Cassiopeia is an impressive open cluster that gives a good view through a small- to medium-aperture telescope. Image: David Wills. Messier 103 (NGC 581) is Cassiopeia’s second