Welcome to BBC Sky at Night Magazine - skyatnightmagazine

Saturn and Jupiter appear close together in the sky, and they are joined by a full Moon on 5 July 2020. Credit: Pete Lawrence

Observing guide How to see the planets in the night sky, July 2020

Observing guide See Venus in the Hyades star cluster this month

Why can we see the Moon during the day?

A view of Jupiter and its moons Io and Europa, captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft. Can you spot its fainter moons? Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Roman Tkachenko

Observing guide See Jupiter's moons this month

NASA 10-year Sun time lapse. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO

Eye On The Sky Watch NASA's incredible 10-year time lapse of the Sun

Latest articles

Get started in astronomy

Take your first steps in stargazing with our beginners' guides

Binoculars are a great way for newcomers to get into astronomy. Credit: lucentius / Getty Images

10 of the best binoculars for astronomy in 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.

Altair GPCAM2 327C video astronomy camera review

Altair GPCAM2 327C video astronomy camera review

Unistellar evscope telescope review

Unistellar eVscope review

OVL 1.25 inch and 2 inch H-Beta filters. Credit: OVL

OVL H-Beta 2 inch filter (visual use)

Tecnosky AG70 astrograph review

Tecnosky AG70 astrograph telescope review

Vixen A62SS 2.5-inch achromatic refractor review

Vixen A62SS 2.5-inch achromatic refractor review

Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 70AZ refractor review

Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 70AZ refractor 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

Podcast icon: Hera hovering over impact crater

Radio Astronomy Podcast Deflecting asteroids with Hera and DART

A view of Venus captured by JAXA's Akatsuki orbiter. © PLANET-C Project Team

Radio Astronomy Podcast Venus special: farewell to the evening star

Listen to the latest podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, in which we look back at 30 years of the Hubble Space Telescope

Radio Astronomy Podcast 30 years of the Hubble Space Telescope

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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

Venus in the Pleiades

Astrophotography

Photographing the ring of Venus

How to see and photograph the lunar occultation of Venus. Credit: Pete Lawrence

Lunar occultation of Venus, 19 June: how to see and photograph it

Andromeda Photoshop processing

Astrophoto guides

Image processing Processing the Andromeda Galaxy in Photoshop

How to safely photograph the Sun. Credit: Pete Lawrence

Astrophoto guides

How to safely photograph the Sun

Creat a pinhole camera and track the path of the Sun across the sky

How to make a pinhole camera

Astrophotography galleries

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

A dragon and the witch’s hat Craig McDearmid, Kirkjufell Mountain, Iceland, 7 December 2018. Equipment: Sony a7S digital camera, Samyang 14mm lens, tripod

Astrophotography

Gallery Best readers' astrophotos of 2019

Spaceflight

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

Linda Morabito’s computer displays the image in which Io’s volcanic plume was revealed. Image provided by Bill Peters and used with permission.

Volcanoes on Io: an interview with Voyager scientist Linda Morabito

Hera orbiting Didymos

Hera: Europe’s asteroid mission to defend Earth

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo by Julian Leek/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

SpaceX Crew Dragon launches in historic first crewed flight

Earth from space: the Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia captured from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/ESA

Eye On The Sky Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast glimmers in International Space Station image

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

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

Make your own LED torch-pointer

How to polar align an equatorial mount safely using the Sun. Credit: Dave Eagle

How to safely polar align an equatorial mount using the Sun

Use your own back garden as a Stellarium landscape

Stellarium: how to create a customised landscape

More DIY astronomy projects