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Perseid meteor shower 2020 BBC Sky at Night Magazine live, online, webinar, science, how, see

Perseids 2020 Join our live webinar for expert insight into the year's best meteor shower

Mars 2020 NASA's Perseverance rover begins journey to Red Planet

Venus Could we ever land a rover on the hellish planet?

Mars reaches its highest position for August at the month’s close. Credit: Pete Lawrence

Observing guide How to see the planets in the night sky this month

SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour successfully splashes down with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard, 2 August 2020. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Splashdown for first NASA Commercial Crew flight to ISS

Latest articles

Get started in astronomy

Take your first steps in stargazing with our beginners' guides

Make the most of Mars at opposition in 2020. Credit:Pete Lawrence

Observing guide Great ready for Mars opposition 2020

Get to a good, dark location away from light pollution and you will see so many more stars. Credit: Carlos Fernandez

12 top tips for stargazing

Celestron Omni XLT AZ 102 Refractor/basic mount

9 of the best telescopes for astronomy beginners

Man looking at the stars with telescope beside him. Credit: iStock

How to choose your first telescope

Read more beginners' guides

Space science

Spiral galaxy NGC 2273. Credit: Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Greene

Eye On The Sky Hubble spies a spiral within a spiral galaxy

NASA JPL scientist Kevin Peter Hand

Interview Exploring icy moons of the Solar System for signs of life

Galaxy clusters are ideal objects to study in the search for dark energy. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, RELICS

What is dark energy, and how are astronomers trying to find it?

Greta Thunberg takes to the stage, Rome, Italy, 19 Apr 2019. Credit: insidefoto srl/Alamy Live News

Environment How can astronomy help us protect Earth?

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Astronomy equipment reviews

The latest telescopes, cameras, binoculars, mounts and accessories tried and tested.

Explore Scientific Deep Sky Astro Camera 7.1MP review

Explore Scientific Deep Sky Astro Camera 7.1MP review

RVO Horizon 72ED refractor review

RVO Horizon 72ED refractor review

Pentax Astrotracer DSLR camera kit review

Pentax Astrotracer DSLR camera kit

Canon EOS-1D X DSLR camera

Canon EOS-1D X DSLR camera review

Altair GPCAM2 327C video astronomy camera review

Altair GPCAM2 327C video astronomy camera review

Unistellar evscope telescope review

Unistellar eVscope review

Read more equipment reviews

Astronomy guides

Celestron Omni XLT AZ 102 Refractor/basic mount

Astronomy FAQs I'm buying my first telescope. Should I get a reflector or a refractor?

Asterisms (shown in red) can cross constellations, which are in fact regions of sky, not just the main patterns. Credit: Pete Lawrence

Constellations and asterisms: what’s the difference?

Sundogs. Credit: Science Photo Library

Daytime astronomy 6 phenomena to spot before nightfall

Get to a good, dark location away from light pollution and you will see so many more stars. Credit: Carlos Fernandez

12 top tips for stargazing

Podcasts

Listen to the latest episode of the Radio Astronomy Podcast: The Edge of the Solar System. Credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Radio Astronomy Podcast The edge of the Solar System

ESA's Cluster mission

Radio Astronomy Podcast 20 years of ESA's Cluster mission

Podcast icon: Hera hovering over impact crater

Radio Astronomy Podcast Deflecting asteroids with Hera and DART

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Astrophotography

Guides and galleries to help you get imaging the night sky

Credit: abriendomundo / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Astrophotography

Astrophotography All you need to know to image the night sky

How to transform your astrophotos with image processing. Credit: Farknot_Architect / iStock / Getty Images

Astrophoto guides

Image processing Bring out the best in your astrophotos

Create a mineral Moon astrophoto. Credit: Dave Eagle

Astrophoto guides

Image processing Create a mineral Moon astrophoto

Michael Rosinski captured a Perseid display near his home in Michigan, USA, last year. This image was taken with a Canon EOS 70D DSLR camera and 11-16mm lens. Credit: M. Rosinski

Do you need a tracking mount to photograph meteors?

A detail from Alan Friedman's image 'A Little Fireworks. Credit: Alan Friedman

Astrophoto guides

Image processing How to photograph activity on the solar limb

Northern Dragon's Eye Elena Pakhalyuk (Ukraine). Category: Aurora. Equipment Canon EOS 6D camera, 14 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 1600, 30-second exposure.

Gallery Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2020 shortlist images revealed

Astrophotography galleries

Jason Durrant, near Beccles, Suffolk, UK, 11 July 2020. Equipment: Sony A7III, Tamron 28-70mm lens, ISO 3200, 5

Gallery Comet NEOWISE blazes across the night sky

Hubble has helped to define the shape of the Ring Nebula, revealing it to be doughnut shaped, with lower density material at its core. Credit: Credits: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Gallery Hubble highlights: 16 of the space telescope's most iconic images

Graeme Whippy, Essex, UK. Equipment: Nikon D5300 DSLR camera, 55-300mm lens.

Astrophotography

Gallery The 7-8 April Supermoon, in pictures

Soviet Space Graphics

Gallery 10 iconic Soviet space posters of the Cold War era

Veil Nebula 24 September 2015. A small section of the outer shell of the Veil Nebula, the remnant of a star’s violent death 8,000 years ago. Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team

Hubble at 30 21 incredible images of the past decade

The Homunculus Nebula Hubble Space Telescope, 1 July 2019

Astrophotography

Gallery The top space images released in 2019

Spaceflight

Celebrating the latest missions and the history of humanity's journey into space

Images of Jupiter's moon Ganymede captured on 26 December 20198 showing infrared mapping of its North Pole. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM

Eye On The Sky Juno images north pole of Jupiter's moon Ganymede

An Albanian postage stamp showing Laika the space dog. Credit: Blank Archives/Getty Images

Space History Animals in space

An artist's impression of the Perseverance Rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars 2020 The new missions heading for the Red Planet

The Hope Probe has launched on its mission to Mars. Credit: United Arab Emirates Hope Mars Mission

Emirates launches Hope probe to study Mars

Buzz Aldrin pictured on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Credit: NASA

Apollo 11 the journey to land on the Moon

Carey Lisse, an instrument scientist on the New Horizons science team reacts after the team received confirmation from the spacecraft that it has completed the flyby of Pluto, Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Interview New Horizons' Kuiper Belt encounter

Dr Abigail Fraeman, deputy project scientist of the Opportunity rover mission, pictured with a model of NASA's Curiosity rover. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Roving robots on Mars: interview with a NASA Opportunity scientist

Artist's impression of the Kepler space telescope Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Wendy Stenzel

How the Kepler space telescope came to be

DIY astronomy

Read our practical guides to get the most out of your observing sessions

Create a spectrograph for your smartphone. Credit: Mark Parrish

How to create a spectrograph for your smartphone

Attaching two scopes to a side-by-side bar is more stable than simply piggybacking them.

How to set up a dual astrophotography imaging system

Make your own LED torch-pointer. Credit: Steve Tonkin

Make your own LED torch-pointer

More DIY astronomy projects