Access this month's Bonus Content. If you are having trouble with any of the download links, right-click on the link, select 'Copy Link Address' and paste the link in a new window in your web browser.
Virtual Planetarium
Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel guide us through July's night-sky highlights.
Interview: Cosmic Collisions
Planetary scientist Simone Marchi reveals the tumultuous history of our Solar System, and how collisions have shaped its planets and moons.
DIY Astronomy
Illustration showing what our galaxy the Milky Way likely looks like.
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.
Jupiter in a new light: infrared, visible and ultraviolet
GEMINI NORTH, HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 11 MAY 2021
CREDIT: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/NASA/ESA, M.H. Wong and I. de Pater (UC Berkeley) et al.
Edge-on galaxy UGC 10738
VERY LARGE TELESCOPE, 24 MAY 2021
CREDIT: Jesse van de Sande/European Southern Observatory
Galaxy cluster Abell S0295
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 17 MAY 2021
CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Pacaud, D. Coe
Message to Martians
PERSEVERANCE, 14 MAY 2021
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Delicate spiral galaxy NGC 5037
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 24 MAY 2021
CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario. Acknowledgement: L. Shatz
Giant molecular cloud W49A in radio and infrared
VERY LARGE ARRAY, 4 MAY 2021
Credit: DePree, et al.; Sophia Dagnello, NRAO/AUI/NSF; Spitzer/NASA.
Emission nebula NGC 2313
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 10 MAY 2021
CREDIT: ESA/Hubble, R. Sahai
Hubble traces the location of four fast radio bursts (FRBs) to the spiral arms of four distant galaxies
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 20 MAY 2021
CREDIT: NASA, ESA, A. Mannings (UC Santa Cruz), W. Fong (Northwestern), A. Pagan (STScI)
The Andromeda Galaxy, the start of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument’s (DESI) 5-year project to map the Universe
NICHOLAS U MAYALL 4-METER TELESCOPE, 17 MAY 2021
CREDIT: DESI collaboration/DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/ NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/unWISE
BRI 1335-0417: the most ancient spiral galaxy ever observed
ATACAMA LARGE MILLIMETER/SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY, 20 MAY 2021
CREDIT ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), T. Tsukui & S. Iguchi
Irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans B
NICHOLAS U MAYALL 4-METER TELESCOPE, 28 APRIL 2021
CREDIT: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA. Data obtained and processed by: P. Massey (Lowell Obs.), G. Jacoby, K. Olsen, & C. Smith (AURA/NSF). Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)
Readers' Gallery
The Leo Triplet
Peter Rea, Appley Bridge, Wigan, 16 March 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 533MC Pro colour camera, Altair 72mm EDF refractor, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 mount
Saturn
Eric Sussenbach, Willemstad, Curaçao, 25 April 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 462MC colour camera, Celestron 11” EdgeHD SCT, Celestron AVX mount
100 days of sunspots, photographed by Soumyadeep Mukherjee, Kolkata, India, December 2020–April 2021
Equipment: Nikon D5600, Sigma 150–600mm lens, Digitek DTR 520BH tripod
Orion at Ribblehead
Pete Collins, North Yorkshire, 15 April 2021
Equipment: Canon 6D DSLR, Samyang 24mm lens, tripod
The Dark Shark Nebula
Simon Todd, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, March–April 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 6200MC Pro colour camera, SharpStar Optics 15028HNT astrograph, Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro mount
Saturn and its moons, captured by
Sreesha Belakvaadi, Bangalore, India, 1 May 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI290MC colour camera, Celestron 9.25” SCT, iOptron CEM40 mount
The Moon’s southern highlands
Luke Oliver, Bedford, 18 April 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 178MM mono camera, Sky-Watcher Skyliner 400P Dobsonian
The Statue of Liberty Nebula
Alexander Curry, remotely via El Sauce Observatory, Chile, 21 March 2021
Equipment: FLI PL16803 CCD camera, Planewave CDK24 astrograph, Mathis MI 1250 mount
Lunar mosaic
Dmitry Ardashev, Zaprudnya, Moscow region, Russia, 17 April 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 462MC colour camera, TS-Optics UNC 10-inch f/5 Newtonian reflector, EQ6-R mount
The Heart Nebula
Russel Carr, Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire, 5–17 April 2021
Equipment: QHY 9 mono CCD camera, Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED DS-Pro refractor, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro mount
Centaurus A
Davide Mancini, Perth, Australia, 21 April 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 2600MC colour camera, SharpStar 150mm f2.8 Newtonian, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 mount
The Sun
James Robertson, Croydon, 23 April 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 178MM mono camera, Lunt 60 Ha f8.3/500mm
The Milky Way over the Rollright Stones
Babak Soleimani, Oxfordshire, 4 April 2021
Equipment: Canon M50 camera, Samyang f2 12mm lens
Hyginus
John Brown, Leicester, 19 April 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 290MC colour camera, Sky-Watcher Skymax 127T Maksutov-Cassegrain, Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi mount
Arp 84
Peter Goodhew, Peter Goodhew, via e-EyE, Fregenal de la Sierra, Spain, 16-17 April 2021
Equipment: twin QSI 6120wsg8 CCD cameras, twin APM LZOS 152 apo refractors, 10 Micron GM2000 HPS mount
One-armed spiral galaxy NGC4725
Chad Leader, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, USA, April 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 294MM Pro mono camera, Celestron EdgeHD 8-inch SCT, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount
Solar prominence
Sue Silver, Sheffield, 19 February 2021
Equipment: ZWO ASI 120MC-S colour camera, Lunt LS60THa solar telescope, Sky-Watcher EQ5 Pro mount
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.
