This week’s naked-eye object is the Beehive Cluster in Cancer the Crab. Because this cluster is bright — magnitude 3.1 — it has acquired other proper names throughout history. Messier made it number ...

The constellation Taurus the Bull is an easy one to find in the Northern Hemisphere’s fall and winter skies. It stands opposite the Sun at the beginning of December. The head of the figure is a large ...

Astrophotographer Ronald Brecher captured a haunting vista in July earlier this year, in which several deep-sky objects take on the collective appearance of a colossal cosmic shark hunting in the ...

Few things are as captivating as a dark, star-filled sky. But the stars we see and enjoy don’t just “exist”; they all came into being long ago inside of ...

In the quiet darkness of his Mount Tabor backyard in Southeast Portland, Josh Romberg carefully points his 4-foot telescope at the North Star. Unlike amateur astronomers of decades past, he isn’t ...

In context: Astronomers have been observing the wheel-shaped nebula NGC 1514 for over three centuries. In 1790, William Herschel described it as the first deep-sky object that looked cloudy. Unlike ...

Not too long ago, if you wanted to witness the wonders of the universe, you'd need to lug around a bulky telescope and possibly spend hours making fine adjustments to zero in on celestial targets. ZWO ...

From nebulas and galaxies to star clusters, the sun and the moon, here’s what to image in the night sky using a smart telescope — and the best one for the job. When you purchase through links on our ...

Deep inside the Ring Nebula, astronomers have spotted a structure that should not exist: a narrow, glowing bar of iron ...

If you already own a telescope and want more from your amateur astronomy hobby, have you considered astrophotography? With the advent of new camera technology, it is now possible for the average ...

Shannon Silverman guides us through the cosmos above West Virginia. Shannon Silverman, an Astrophysicist at the Clay Center in Charleston West Virginia, guides us through the cosmos above West ...