Observing | Page 9 of 71 | Astronomy.com

Blackeye Galaxy

The Sky This Week from August 23 to 30: Comet Olbers gets a black eye

My first image of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) was effectively zoomed in so far that the object looked nothing like a lagoon. It was taken with a Nikon D3100 on my Celestron 8-inch SCT, with an exposure time of 30 seconds at ISO 3200.

Astrophotography, Observing Basics

How to choose the right focal length for your astrophotos

Observing, Science

Where did the constellations come from?

No matter how many Full Moons appear in any given timespan, its color will not actually change to blue. Credit: John Chumack.

Observing, The Moon

What is a Blue Moon? When’s the next one?

Sturgeon Full Moon

The Sky This Week from August 16 to 23: It’s a Blue Sturgeon Moon

August 14, 2024, 5 AM, looking east

Observing, Planets, Upcoming Events

How to see tomorrow’s conjunction of Mars and Jupiter

Observing, Upcoming Events

Catch the Perseid meteor shower! This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher

The constellation Orion the Hunter hosts two of the 10 brightest stars in the sky, Betelgeuse and Rigel. At magnitude 0.5 and 0.2, respectively, Betelgeuse (orange star at upper left) and Rigel (blue-white star at lower right) stand in stark contrast to many of the surrounding stars.

Why do astronomers measure stars in magnitudes?

Mars and Jupiter conjunction

The Sky This Week from August 9 to 16: A conjunction of Mars and Jupiter

Perseid meteors

Observing, Upcoming Events

How to watch the Perseids, 2024’s best meteor shower

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the nearest major galaxy, and spans a width equivalent to more than six Full Moons.

Deep-Sky Objects

How to grasp the scale of the cosmos from your backyard

Observing, Observing Basics

Why aren’t the constellations always drawn the same way?