The only child of astronomer William Herschel, John Herschel was born March 7, 1792, in England. After studying mathematics at Cambridge University, Herschel began working with his father from 1816 ...

To many of you, Observable Space — formerly PlaneWave — needs no introduction. Starting as a breakaway from Celestron in southern California in 2006, PlaneWave was founded by Rick Hedrick and Joe ...

February 24 was the date a new information pipeline began for astronomers around the world. Their computers received a deluge of cosmic notifications — 800,000 alerts about new asteroids, supernovae, ...

In this episode, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to head out on the evening of March 8 to see a close grouping of two planets. This time, brilliant Venus — the ...

The well-known star Betelgeuse is Orion the Hunter’s alpha star. Shining at magnitude 0.5, this aging sun lies roughly 500 to 600 light-years away. It’s also one of the best candidates for the next ...

Asteroid 7 Iris reaches opposition at 1 P.M. EST today. Now shining at 9th magnitude, you can best spot the main-belt world after dark, rising higher in the hours after sunset. By 10 P.M. local time, ...

Already high in the east as darkness falls, Jupiter still dominates the constellation Gemini. The gas giant’s large moon Ganymede transits the disk this evening, with its shadow following a few hours ...

A newly discovered comet has astronomers excited, with the potential to be a spectacular sight in early April. C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was spotted by a team of four amateur astronomers with a remotely ...

The bright star Sirius dominates the southern sky late this evening, blazing high in the south around 10 P.M. local time. You can use this sparkling star to point your way to the open cluster M47 in ...

Mercury, Venus, and Saturn put on an early-evening display in the west, while Jupiter dominates the rest of the night. Jupiter features many events involving its four major moons that are well worth ...

Saturn’s four brightest moons are lined up for ideal viewing this evening. You can catch the ringed planet for a few hours after sunset, as it slowly sinks toward the western horizon. Around 7 P.M.

In 2026, astronauts will travel around the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era, powerful new space telescopes will prepare to survey billions of galaxies, and multiple nations will launch ...