As NASA prepares to launch the Artemis II mission to the Moon this week – potentially as early as April 1st, 2026 – many of us will be wishing we could be there at Kennedy Space Center to watch lift-off live.
We've seen multiple posts on forums asking whether Artemis II will be visible around the world through back-garden telescopes.
More on Artemis II
The answer is that, while technically Artemis II would be visible temporarily in the sky after launch, by the time it gets to the Moon, the Orion capsule's apparent size will be much too tiny to see.
Enter the Virtual Telescope Project, a team of amateur astronomers – 'amateur' in the loosest possible definition – who plan to track Artemis II with their enormous telescopic set-up and broadcast their livestream to the world.
Anyone with a keen interest in space and astronomy will likely have heard of the Virtual Telescope Project before.
They're headed by founder Gianluca Masi and are based at Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy.
The team have several robotic telescopes that are remotely accessible across the world via internet connection, and they often livestream astronomical events like meteor showers and eclipses to the world, for free.
Most recently, the Virtual Telescope Project showed live views of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.
But this week, they're planning to turn their telescopes to the launch of Artemis II and track the Orion capsule on its journey to the Moon and back.
Artemis II is the first crewed mission in NASA's Artemis programme, and will see four astronauts take a 10-day trip around the Moon.
It could launch as early as 18:24 EDT (22:24 UTC) on April 1st, 2026.
We got the chance to ask Gianluca about the Artemis II tracking project, how they'll do it and what we can expect to see.
How will you know where Artemis II is from your location?
I start from the ephemerides generated via NASA's Horizons System, which anyone can access and which is always very reliable.
The Artemis II orbit is part of their database, so observers can use it to see where to look for the spacecraft from their locations.
What equipment will you use to track Artemis II?
Our goal is to capture tracked images of Artemis II. So, after locating the spacecraft and pointing our telescope at it, our robotic system will be able to carefully track it.
For this, our 10-inch astrograph telescope is mounted on a Software Bisque Paramount ME high-end mount.
That's able to track at virtually any rate, thanks to an advanced feature in its SkyX Pro software.
We've used it many times, particularly with asteroids making very close approaches to Earth, and it always works to perfection.
What you expect to be able to capture? What will we see?
Likely, we will see the Artemis II Orion capsule and ICPS – the rocket's upper stage – as a dot of light, quickly moving against the streaks left by the stars on the background.
We will track focussed on the spacecraft, so distant background stars will look like long trails. It will be thrilling!
We always stream in real-time from the telescope we use to try to capture the target of interest.
So if you watch our livestream, it'll be like you're sitting in front of our computer in the control room with us.
We love sharing the experience, even the backstage tweaks like slewing the telescope, refining the pointing and so on, not just the final result.
Have you done anything like this before?
Yes, we did something even more extreme in the past. I remember the very demanding re-entry in our atmosphere of a large Long March 5 rocket body in May 2021 and the European Space Agency's BepiColombo spacecraft flyby in April 2020.
In both cases we captured great images.
In 2022 we tried to track Artemis I soon after launch, but the weather did not cooperate. However, we were able to capture it later on in the mission.
What about Artemis II launch day? Are you excited/worried?
Oh, we are very excited! Of course, we might not be able to manage it for a few reasons.
Mainly the weather, but also because it is a very demanding task, with such a short time window to try and track it (about 1 hour).
The target will be low – about 15 degrees – on the southwest horizon, so the sky needs be clear. But we will try!
Our telescopes are in the town of Manciano, Central Italy, so let's hope weather will be fine.
We're very excited to see Artemis II lift-off and begin a new adventure in space.
What are your thoughts on Artemis II? Let us know by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com
