On 9 August Saturn’s rings are tilted by 2.6°, a shallow enough angle to allow Titan to move behind Saturn at about 4.45am BST. Presently, there are a number of events taking place involving Saturn’s moons. Saturn’s moons revolve in the plane of Saturn’s equator, so the outline of their orbits matches that of the…
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A Perseid meteor from 2015. Image: Alan Tough. The annual Perseid meteor shower has been underway since last month and it predicted to reach its usual eagerly-anticipated maximum early next week, on 12 August between 13h and 16h UT. The Perseids is the year’s most popular meteor shower and one of the major highlights on…
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Saturn is occulted by a near full Moon on the pre-dawn of 21 August in an event visible across the UK. From London, Saturn disappears behind the Moon’s bright limb at 4.27am BST, only to reappear at 5.20am. Titan is occulted too. AN graphics by Greg Smye-Rumsby. Let’s hope for some clear skies on the…
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Processing images in wavelengths outside the visible range of the spectrum can lead to spectacular results — like this iconic James Webb Space Telescope view of the so-called Cosmic Cliffs. The gas and dust in the field of view surrounds NGC 3324 near the Carina Nebula. The filters used in this image range from 0.9…
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This 1874 lithograph was created by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot with the 15-inch refractor at the Harvard College Observatory, for the purpose of measuring the nebula’s extent. A glass plate with dark black lines was placed on the focus of the telescope for marking placement. No wonder it shows no central star. Credit: Annals of the…
In living color | Astronomy Magazine false product in-living-color https://www.astronomy.com/picture-of-the-day/photo/in-living-color/ In living color | Astronomy Magazine Daniel Phillips from Oceanside, California The open cluster NGC 6823 in Vulpecular is ensconced within the emission nebula Sharpless 2–83, bursting with color in this Hubble-palette rendition. Reaching inward toward the cluster are pillarlike tendrils of star-forming cold, dense…
Jupiter’s Equatorial Zone and Great Red Spot stand out in this infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope because their high-altitude hazes reflect sunlight well. Also note the bright auroral emissions near the giant planet’s north and south pole. Credit: NASA/ESA/Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Judy Schmidt Dark matter is a mysterious substance…
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