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Virtual Planetarium
Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel guide us through June's night-sky highlights.
Interview: How to capture a black hole
Astronomer Heino Falcke reveals how an international team of astronomers photographed the black hole in galaxy M87.
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.
Bode’s Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy Craig Ogier, Minehead, Somerset, 16 and 17 March 2021. Equipment: ZWO ASI 1600MC camera, Sky-Watcher Explorer 200P reflector, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro mount
ISS close-up Gabor Sagi, Witney, Oxfordshire, 29 September 2020. Equipment: ZWO ASI 224MC colour camera, Sky-Watcher Skymax-127 Maksutov-Cassegrain, Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi mount
Zodiacal Light Joshua Rhoades, Mason County, Illinois, USA, 7 March 2021. Equipment: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR, Irix 15mm lens, Sky-Watcher StarAdventurer
The Orion and Running Man Nebulae Ed Holt, Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, 30 January 2021. Equipment: Canon 60D DSLR, Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED apo refractor, Celestron CG-5 GT mount
NGC 3242 Peter Goodhew, via e-EyE, Fregenal de la Sierra, Spain, 6 January–9 March 2021. Equipment: twin QSI 6120wsg8 CCD cameras, twin APM LZOS 152 apo refractors, 10 Micron GM2000 HPS mount
ISS crossing the Moon James Grandfield, Dublin, 24 March 2021. Equipment: Nikon D500 DSLR, Nikon 200–500mm lens
The Lion Nebula, Sh2-132 Terry Hancock, Purdy Mesa, Colorado, USA, December 2020–January 2021. Equipment: QHY600 mono camera, Takahashi FSQ-130 apo refractor, Paramount ME mount
Moonrise over Mourmouri city Arman Moradi Fard, Iran, 28 March 2021. Equipment: Nikon D7200 DSLR
The Milky Way Jason Durrant, Kessingland beach, Suffolk, 19 March 2021. Equipment: Sony A7S full-frame mirrorless camera, Samyang 18mm f2.8 lens
Mineral Moon Fernando Oliveira de Menezes, São Paulo, Brazil, 21 March 2021. Equipment: ZWO ASI 6200MC Pro colour camera, Sky-Watcher Esprit 150ED apo triplet, iOptron CEM60-EC mount
M63, The Sunflower Galaxy Kfir Simon, via Tivoli Astro Farm, Namibia, 8–13 June 2019. Equipment: Apogee Alta U16M CCD camera, 16-inch Dream Astrograph, Astelco NTM-500 mount
The edge of the Moon Dmitry Ardashev, Zaprudnya, Moscow region, Russia, 27 March 2021. Equipment: QHY178M camera, TS-Optics UNC 10-inch Newtonian reflector, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R mount
Sh2-308, The Dolphin Nebula Amal Biju, via Telescope Live, Rio Hurtado, Chile, 17 November 2020. Equipment: FLI PL16803 camera, ASA 500N Newtonian, ASA DDM85 mount
The Pleiades Prabhu, Mleiha, UAE, 18 and 19 October, 17 December 2020. Equipment: ZWO 1600MM Pro camera, Sky-Watcher Esprit 80mm apo refractor, Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 mount
Stable titanium bubbles in supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY/NuSTAR/HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 21 APRIL 2021. IMAGE CREDIT: Chandra: NASA/CXC/RIKEN/T. Sato et al.; NuSTAR: NASA/NuSTAR; Hubble: NASA/STScI
Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, makes its first flight. MARS PERSEVERANCE, 19 APRIL 2021. IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
OSIRIS-REx revisits its landing site on Bennu. OSIRIS-REx, 20 APRIL 2021. IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
Comet 2I/Borisov may be most pristine ever observed. VERY LARGE TELESCOPE, DECEMBER 2019. IMAGE CREDIT: ESO/O. Hainaut
The Necklace Nebula, PN G054.2-03.4. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 26 APRIL 2021. IMAGE CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll
Magnetic fields around Centaurus A. SOFIA/EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY AND ATACAMA PATHFINDER EXPERIMENT/ CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY/SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE, 8 APRIL 2021. IMAGE CREDIT: Optical: European Southern Observatory (ESO) Wide Field Imager; Submillimeter: Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy/ESO/Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX)/A.Weiss et al.; X-ray and Infrared: NASA/Chandra/R. Kraft; JPL-Caltech/J. Keene; SOFIA/L. Proudfit
A Close-up of spiral galaxy NGC 4603. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 19 April 2021. IMAGE CREDIT: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Maund
Hubble discovers two rare double quasars. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 6 APRIL 2021. IMAGE CREDIT: NASA, ESA, H. Hwang and N. Zakamska (Johns Hopkins University), and Y. Shen (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
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.
