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.
Horsehead and Flame Nebulae Ethan Roberts, Shoeburyness, Essex, 20 December 2019 to 18 January 2020
Equipment: Altair Hypercam 183M Pro Tec camera, Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED refractor, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 mount
Altair and Vega
Sérgio Conceição, Castle of Noudar, Barrancos, Portugal, 3 August 2019
Equipment: Canon EOS R mirrorless camera
Welsh aurora
Bethan Cayford, Blaenavon, South Wales, October 2015
Equipment: Samsung WB250F camera
Equipment: Samsung WB250F camera
The Pleiades
Stephen Tolley, Liskeard, Cornwall, 19 January 2020
Equipment: Nikon D600 DSLR, Tamron 150-600mm lens, Celestron AVX mount
Equipment: Nikon D600 DSLR, Tamron 150-600mm lens, Celestron AVX mount
Jellyfish Nebula
Karl McCluskey, Castleford, West Yorkshire, 17 January 2020
Equipment: Altair Hypercam 183m Pro Tec camera, William Optics GT71 apo triplet refractor, Celestron AVX mount
The Moon
Kevin Lyons, Webster, New York, 1 January 2020
Equipment: Canon EOS 600D DSLR, Stellarvue Access 125mm refractor, Celestron CGEM mount
Rosette Nebula
Bob Bowers, Haverhill, Suffolk, 20 January 2020
Equipment: Atik Horizon one-shot colour camera, Celestron 8” Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt astrograph, Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 Pro mount
Equipment: Atik Horizon one-shot colour camera, Celestron 8” Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt astrograph, Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 Pro mount
Venus and the Moon
Michael Bate, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, 28 January 2020
Equipment: Olympus EPL-7 mirrorless camera, Sky-Watcher HEQ-5 Pro mount
Venus
Peter Presland, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, 18 January 2020
Equipment: ZWO ASI 290mm mono camera, Celestron C9.25 OTA, Sky-Watcher HEQ5 mount
Flaming Star Nebula
Michael Caller, South Croydon, Surrey, 17/18 January 2020
Bode’s Galaxy
Steve Fox, Camberley, Surrey, 22 January 2020
Equipment: ZWO ASI 1600MM mono camera, Celestron Edge 9.25 SCT, Celestron CGX mount
Monkey Head Nebula
David Shaw, Consett, County Durham, 22 January 2020
Equipment: QHY163m mono camera, Sky-Watcher Esprit 80ED apo triplet refractor, Sky-Watcher NEQ6 mount
Orion Nebula
Duncan Farrar, Selby, Yorkshire, 21 January 2020
Equipment: ZWO ASI 294MC colour camera, Sky-Watcher ED80 refractor
Star trails
Hemraj Parmar, Parashar Lake, Himachal Pradesh, India, January 2019
Equipment: Nikon D3300 DSLR
The Moon
Michael Cassidy, County Meath, Ireland, 19 January 2020
Equipment: Samsung S10e smartphone, Sky-Watcher 200P Skyliner Dobsonian
Crystal Ball Nebula
Peter Brownsea, North Hampshire, January 2020
Equipment: ZWO ASI 385MC colour camera, Sky-Watcher ED80 DS Pro refractor
California Nebula
Angelo Gambino, Palermo, Italy, 16 December 2019 to 2 January 2020)
Equipment: ZWO ASI 1600MM mono camera, Orion 80ED apo refractor
The Double Cluster, photographed by
Chris Duffy, Hexham, Northumberland, 18 January 2020
Equipment: Altair Hypercam 183C camera, William Optics Zenithstar 61mm apo refractor, Sky-Watcher EQ6 mount
Supermassive black hole explosion
Chandra X-ray Observatory, XMM-Newton space telescope, Giant Metrewave Telescope, Two Micron All-Sky Survey, 27 February 2020
Credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/NRL/S. Giacintucci, et al., XMM-Newton: ESA/XMM-Newton; Radio: NCRA/TIFR/GMRT; Infrared: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF
Spiral galaxy NGC 691
Hubble Space Telescope, 24 February 2020
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.
Binary system HD101584
Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array, 5 February 2020
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Olofsson et al. Acknowledgement: Robert Cumming
Planetary nebula CVMP 1
Gemini Observatory, 20 February 2020
Credit: The international Gemini Observatory/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/AURA
Protoplanetary disks
Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array, 20 February 2020
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Tobin; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello
An image of the Pallas asteroid, by the Very Large Telescope, 24 February 2020
Credit: ESO/M. Marsset et al./MISTRAL algorithm (ONERA/CNRS)
Gullies on Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 26 February 2020
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Dimming Betelgeuse
Very Large Telescope, 14 February 2020
Credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al.
Jupiter’s equator
Juno spacecraft, 19 February 2020
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
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 7 (see knightware.biz/dsp).
Deep-Sky Planner 7 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 centered on each object in the plan using one of the top planetarium software titles - requires TheSky, Starry Night, Redshift or Cartes du Ciel (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.