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If you shoot your astrophotography images with a color camera in the city, there is a good chance that light pollution filters can make your life a little easier. No matter which astrophotography camera you use, filters can make the difference between a decent image and a great one.  They ignore specific wavelengths of light... […]

This article was updated on October 25, 2024, to include the latest features. The SeeStar S50 is an all-in-one smart telescope that makes astrophotography easy. While its main goal is to deliver electronically assisted views of objects in space, the pictures it takes are pretty darn good. If you thought smart telescopes were just “expensive... […]

If you have ever tried to hold your phone up to the night sky to take pictures of stars, the Milky Way, or even a full moon, you’ll know that astrophotography with a smartphone has its challenges. While modern smartphones are capable of impressive photos of the stars (the Google Pixel even has an ‘astrophotography... […]

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Editor’s Note: This article was updated Nov. 20, 2024 shortly after BioSentinel’s mission marked two years of operation in deep space. Astronauts live in a pretty extreme environment aboard the International Space Station. Orbiting about 250 miles above the Earth in the weightlessness of microgravity, they rely on commercial cargo missions about every two months to deliver new […]

With NASA’s fleet of heliophysics spacecraft, scientists monitor our Sun and investigate its influences throughout the solar system. However, the fleet’s constant watch and often-unique perspectives sometimes create opportunities to make discoveries that no one expected, helping us to solve mysteries about of the solar system and beyond. Here are five examples of breakthroughs made […]

A polar cap of carbon-dioxide ice may have provided the thermal blanket needed for rivers and a huge lake to form in the planet’s southern highlands. The post Icy Rivers May Have Flowed on Ancient Mars appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Even though it’s nearly 4½ billion miles from the Sun, far-flung Makemake has surprised observers with a warmer-than-expected temperature that is challenging to explain. The post Makemake’s “Hot Spot”: Icy Volcano or Dusty Ring? appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Discovered in 2019, odd radio circles (ORCs) are among the newest and most mysterious astrophysical phenomena. New research examines how bubbles blown by black hole jets could create these striking features. The post A Bubbly Origin for Odd Radio Circles appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

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My own Hubble View! These galaxies lie between 10 to 50 million light years away. How many galaxies do you see? A pretty tricky part of the sky to image, really. You're utilizing almost your entire field of view with an 80mm scope, so dealing with all that comes with wide-field. This is the best […]

A nice clear night last night until around 12:30 when clouds rolled in. Managed to get this image of the lovely M51 Whirlpool galaxy. It lies around 23 million light years away and it is interacting with a smaller galaxy (yellow~ish bulge to the left). Three supernova (star explosions) have been detected in this galaxy […]