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Virtual Planetarium
Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel reveal October's night-sky highlights.
Interview: A Brief History of Black Holes
Astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst discusses the science of black holes, and how humanity has explored them throughout history.
Binocular and deep-sky tours
Download this month's binocular and deep-sky tour charts. The charts are printed in black on white so they can be viewed under red light at your telescope.
Record your observations of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus and the Sun with our handy printable forms.
If you observe the Sun, remember NEVER to look at it with your naked eye; either project it through your telescope or use a solar filter on your telescope's front lens.
Huge prominence on the Sun
Jay Bolt, Crigglestone, West Yorkshire, 18th July 2022
Equipment: Altair 174m mono CMOS camera, Explore Scientific AR127mm refractor, EQ6-r mount, Daystar Quark Chromosphere Ha Filter
The Shark Nebula
Shawn Nielsen, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, July 2022
Equipment: QHY268M cmos camera, Starfield Optics 8in astrograph, Starizona Nexus reducer/corrector for F3, SkyWatcher EQ6 mount
Double star Albireo by Tony Moss, Downham Market, Norfolk, 8th June 2022
Equipment: Altair 269 C camera, Altair Ritchey-Chretien 8in scope, Celestron AVX mount
Supermoon over The Needles
Cenk Albayrak-Touyé, Highcliffe Beach, Dorset, 13th July 2022
Equipment: Canon EOS RP, Sigma 150-600mm lens
M13, The Great Hercules Cluster by
Patrick Cosgrove, Honeoye Falls, New York, May 2022
Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro camera, Astro-Physics 130mm EDT apo scope, IOptron CEM60 mount
The Flame Nebula in Orion
Kfir Simon, Tivoli farm, Namibia, June 2019
Equipment: FLI ML8300 CCD camera, 12" F3.8 ASA telescope, ASA DDM85 mount
Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS)
Martina McGovern, Cambridge, UK, 14th July 2022
Equipment: ZWO ASI294MC Pro colour camera, Sharpstar 100 QII refractor, SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro mount
Saturn at opposition
Padraig Connor, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 18th July 2022
Equipment: ZWO ASI224MC planetary camera, SkyWatcher 200P, Dobsonian mount
The Moon
Sonia Turkington, North Reddish, Stockport, 10th July 2022
Equipment: Google Pixel 6 smartphone, SkyWatcher Skyliner 250PX, Dobsonian mount
Barnard 235, dark nebula in Scorpius
Ash Bull, remote data via Telescope Live, Heaven’s Mirror Observatory, New South Wales, Australia, May 2022
Equipment: FLI PL16803 camera, Takahashi FSQ-106ED telescope, robotic mount
WR134, variable star in Cygnus
Bill Batchelor, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, June 2022
Equipment: SI1600mm C Pro camera, William Optics FLT98 f/6.3 refractor, Celestron AVX mount
Milky Way over Pordenack Point
Russell Carr, Pordenack Point, Cornwall, 5th July 2022
Equipment: Fuji XT-2 camera, Fuji 16-55mm lens, SkyWatcher Star Adventurer mount
The Dumbbell Nebula
Alfonso Merino Lerma, Madrid, Spain, 5th July 2022
Equipment: Canon EOS 700D camera, Celestron HD8” telescope, SkyWatcher NEQ6 pro mount
Jacoby 1 Planetary Nebula in Bootes
Douglas J Struble, Taylor, Missouri, USA, April to July 2022
Equipment: ZWO ASI183MM-PRO camera, Stellarvue SVX102T-R telescope, Orion Atlas Pro mount
The Cigar and Bode's Galaxies John Short, Whitburn, Tyne and Wear. February and March 2022 Equipment: Unistellar eVscope 2 camera, telescope and mount
The Lagoon Nebula without stars
Avinash Baliarsingh, Jatni, Odisha, India, 18 July 2022
Equipment: Astcampan 533mc pro camera, 6" F/4 Newtonian telescope, iOptron CEM 40 mount
The Moon
Matt Harwood, Belvedere, Kent, July 2022
Equipment: Oppo Reno 10x Zoom smartphone, handheld
Sunspots
Kimberley Noton, Woking, Surrey, 19th July 2022
Equipment: Canon EOS R camera, Celestron 8SE telescope and mount
The Heart of the Swan
Jeffery Horne, Nashville, TN, USA, May to July 2022
Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro camera, OPT Telescopes TPO UltraWide 180 telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount
Eye On The Sky
The Cartwheel Galaxy
James Webb Space Telescope, 2 August 2022
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
Stellar movement across the Milky Way
Gaia spacecraft, 13 June 2022
Credit ESA/Gaia/DPAC
Jupiter’s rings, moons and aurorae
James Webb Space Telescope, 22 August 2022
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt.
Zeta Ophiuchi’s beautiful companion
Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer space telescope, 25 July 2022
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Dublin Inst. Advanced Studies/S. Green et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL/Spitzer
Circumstellar disc around young star AS 209
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, 9 August 2022
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), A. Sierra (U. Chile)
Water ice and dry ice on Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 27 June 2022
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Spectrum of Barnard's star
Near Infrared Planet Searcher, ESO 3.6-metre telescope
Credit: ESO/NIRPS consortium
This month's deep-sky tour plan file can be imported into the Argo Navis Digital Telescope Computer using Argonaut software, a free utility available from Wildcard Innovations.Using Argo Navis with this month's deep-sky tour plan file, you can:
• display essential information from the Argo Navis database for each object
• slew your telescope to each object in the plan - requires a compatible mount.
• push your telescope to each object in the plan using the coordinates provided on the Argo Navis display.
To import this month's deep-sky tour plan file into Argo Navis using Argonaut software:
Download and save the file to your hard drive.
Run the Argonaut utility program and transfer the plan into your Argo Navis DTC.
This month's Deep-Sky Tour plan file is produced by Deep-Sky Planner 8 (see knightware.biz/dsp).
Deep-Sky Planner 8 astronomy software for Windows provides the tools you need to make your time at the telescope more efficient and enjoyable.
• sort the objects in the plan according to the best time and order to view each object.
• slew your ASCOM-compatible Go-To mount to each object in the plan - requires ASCOM software (free).
• show a sky chart centred on each object in the plan using one of the top planetarium software titles – requires TheSky, Starry Night, Redshift, Cartes du Ciel (free) or Stellarium (free).
• record your observation in the open, non-proprietary observing log.
Details about Deep-Sky Planner and how to purchase can be found here.
Download the Deep-Sky Planner compatible file of this month's deep-sky tour observing plan file so that you can visit each object directly with Deep-Sky Planner. Save the file to your hard drive and double click it to open it in Deep-Sky Planner.
If you are one of the many astronomers who use the ASCOM driver EQMOD to control your ASCOM-compatible Go-To mount, you can use an add-on application called EQTOUR to call up various sets of sky tours like Messier, Caldwell, Globular Clusters and simply click on an object name to slew to it.
Details about the application and how to download it free of charge can be found here.
Download the EQTOUR compatible file of our monthly Deep-sky tour, so that you can visit each object directly from your EQMod control panel. We've also included a PDF document that explains the system and how to get it installed with your telescope setup.
Copy the .lst file from the folder that appears into the same directory as the EQTOUR application file, EQTOUR.exe, and follow the instructions in the link above.
