A great many lunar craters, asteroids and comets have been named after either their discoverer or, as an honorary gesture, those involved in a field of corresponding scientific work. Literally thousands of human names are scattered across the heavens

BEST TIME TO SEE: 23/24 May from 23:00 BST (22:00 UT) The full Moon has an interesting event lined up in late May. On the evening of 23 May, it rises above the southeast horizon at 22:00 BST (21:00 UT), as the sky is darkening. As it gains altitude,

On 12 August 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station into the pre-dawn Florida sky on a mission to become the first-ever spacecraft to ‘touch the Sun’. Later this year, on 24 December 2024, Parker will

When I was an astronomy graduate student in the early 1990s, no one knew if there were any other planets in the Universe other than the eight that orbit our Sun. Since scientists believe the formation of life requires a planetary surface or ocean, th

PICK OF THE MONTH Best time to see: 31 May, 04:00 BST (03:00 UT) Altitude: 12° Location: Aquarius Direction: Southeast Features: Rings, subtle atmospheric banding, brighter moons Recommended equipment: 75mm or larger telescope There’s no getting away

Hold up a finger and look at it with just one eye, then switch to just the other and you'll see your finger appear to ‘jump’ from side to side. The further away the finger, the smaller the jump. This apparent shift of a nearby object against a distan

BEST TIME TO SEE: Morning of 6 May, 02:00 BST (01:00 UT) until dawn The Eta Aquariid meteor shower reaches peak activity on 5/6 May with best rates seen from the UK in the run-up to dawn on 6 May. It’s one of two meteor showers associated with comet

As an all-in-one 50mm refractor with integrated astro camera, the Seestar S50 arrives ready for action. The sleek, compact and lightweight design is a winning feature: it’s so easy to pack up and pick up that you can be outside and imaging in a short

SpaceX’s Starship successfully reached orbit for the first time on 14 March, during the spacecraft’s third test flight. It later broke up on re-entry. At 13:25 GMT, the 122-metre-tall (400ft) spacecraft assembly launched from SpaceX’s Starbase launch

Mental Health Awareness Week 13–19 May A way from the city and looking up at the stars on a clear night, the quiet only disturbed by the occasional hoot of an owl, it can feel like our everyday stresses become lighter, even if only temporarily. When

• Price £849 • Optics S-FPL53 doublet • Aperture 101mm • Focal length 1,111mm, f/11 • Focuser Dual-speed geared • Extras Tube rings, dovetail bar • Weight 4.8kg • Supplier Altair Astro • Tel 01603 721946 • www.altairastro.com Long-focal-length refrac

The oldest-ever ‘dead’ galaxy, which stopped making stars a mere 700 million years after the Big Bang, has been spied by astronomers. JADES-GS-z7-01-QU was identified in recent images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. It appears the galaxy had

The formation of the Solar System was a little like making a cake. A set of ingredients – in this case, a vast cloud of interstellar gas and dust – were mixed together over 4.5 billion years to create the Sun, planets and moons that we see today. Pla

If you’ve ever been lucky enough to witness a solar eclipse, you’ll certainly have been struck not only by the eery dimming of the light in the middle of the day, but also by the sudden chill in temperature. There have also been reports that just bef

In April 2018, the China National Space Administration put out a call for international partners to submit proposals for experiments Chang’e 6 could carry to the Moon. A total of 10kg (22lb) of payload mass was available and the following four were s

PHOTO OF THE MONTH Tim Jackson, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 5 March 2024 Tim says: “The comet 12P/Pons–Brooks visits us every 71 years, so this was the only opportunity I would have to image it in my lifetime. I only had a one-hour window after the

Held twice a year at the remote Kielder Campsite in Northumberland, the hardy stargazers who attend this star party enjoy some of the darkest skies in the UK. www.facebook.com/Kielderstarcamp The largest star party in the UK, this week-long gathering

On 16 December 2020, the return capsule of the Chang’e 5 mission landed in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It had travelled hundreds of thousands of miles from the Moon, carrying 1,731g (61 oz) of precious lunar dust. Remarkably, this repre

Alunar occultation occurs when the Moon appears to move in front of something more distant, such as a star or a planet. Lunar occultations of brighter objects aren’t as common as you might think, but this month, on the night of 23/24 May, the bright

A pair of supermassive black holes that have been trapped dancing around each other for billions of years have now been found to be the heaviest binary ever measured. Though theory predicts that such pairs of supermassive black holes should merge tog

Shortening nights mean this month’s tour is best seen at the start of May. We start with the iconic form of M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. This is a mag. +8.0 side-on peculiar galaxy with a prominent dust lane running south of its equatorial plane. Locat