A total lunar eclipse is the highlight of the month. For planetary action, Jupiter is well placed most of the night and there are many events involving its Galilean moons. Soon after sunset, brilliant ...

The only child of astronomer William Herschel, John Herschel was born March 7, 1792, in England. After studying mathematics at Cambridge University, Herschel began working with his father from 1816 ...

To many of you, Observable Space — formerly PlaneWave — needs no introduction. Starting as a breakaway from Celestron in southern California in 2006, PlaneWave was founded by Rick Hedrick and Joe ...

The longer nights of August beckon with several treats this month. Saturn and Neptune undergo their second conjunction of the year, appearing together in a low-power telescope eyepiece. Telescopic ...

A newly discovered comet has astronomers excited, with the potential to be a spectacular sight in early April. C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was spotted by a team of four amateur astronomers with a remotely ...

Asteroid 7 Iris reaches opposition at 1 P.M. EST today. Now shining at 9th magnitude, you can best spot the main-belt world after dark, rising higher in the hours after sunset. By 10 P.M. local time, ...

A total lunar eclipse, sometimes called a Blood Moon, occurs over much of the world this morning, including the U.S. Total lunar eclipses can only take place during the Full Moon. Full Moon officially ...

The well-known star Betelgeuse is Orion the Hunter’s alpha star. Shining at magnitude 0.5, this aging sun lies roughly 500 to 600 light-years away. It’s also one of the best candidates for the next ...

On Oct. 10, 1846, William Lassell peered through his 20-foot reflector in Liverpool, England. Lassell was a self-funded amateur astronomer who had made a fortune as a brewer, and he’d built his own ...

In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out on the evening of March 8 to see a close grouping of two planets. This time, brilliant Venus — the ...

Already high in the east as darkness falls, Jupiter still dominates the constellation Gemini. The gas giant’s large moon Ganymede transits the disk this evening, with its shadow following a few hours ...

Twenty-one months after the deaths of the Apollo 1 crew in a fire during a test on the launchpad, the three men who had originally served as their backup crew — Walter Schirra Jr., Donn Eisele, and ...