On 15 January 1989, The Sky at Night investigated a 2,000-year-old mystery surrounding Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. If you look at the star tonight, you’d see it appears to be a bright white, but there are several sources from around the 1s

Star charts are maps of the night sky, and you will find them in this magazine and astronomy books and online too. At first glance they can look confusing, covered with dots, lines and bizarre symbols that look like they should be in a Hogwarts spell

• Price ZS61-II: £499.99; 50mm UniGuide guidescope: £125 • Optics Two-element, air-spaced apochromat (FPL-53 glass) • Aperture 61mm • Focal length 360mm (f/5.9) • Focuser Dual-speed, rack and pinion, 2-inch barrel with 1.25-inch adaptor • Extras Soft

Many astronomers – experienced and absolute beginners – use their mobile phones and tablets to help them find their way around the sky. There are many astronomy apps available which use GPS to pinpoint the user’s location on Earth and show them what

Launch date: 31 January 1971 Launch location: Launch Complex 39A Landing location: Fra Mauro Time on surface: 1 day, 9 hours, 30 minutes Duration: 9 days, 1 minute Return date: 9 February 1971 Main goals: investigate the Fra Mauro region; orbital sci

Maggie and Chris look back on 2020 with a selection of highlights from the past year of The Sky at Night. Some famous faces from the world of space and astronomy will pick their own favourite memories from 2020, and the team will also be selecting th

Once it’s all set up you’ll be impatient to sweep your new telescope around to point at something on our list and have a good look. However, you’ll need to wait just a little longer, because even if you and your new instrument are ready to begin tour

At 47, former navy pilot Alan Shepard was the oldest Apollo astronaut. He was the first American in space during his Freedom 7 mission on 5 May 1961. He served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1963-1969, before joining the Apollo programme. He l

• Price £439 • Mount Bresser StarTracker Astronomical Photo Mount PM-100 • Tripod Bresser TP-100 DX aluminium tripod with carry bag • Payload capacity 2kg equatorial mode; 5kg altazimuth mode • Tracking rates Star, Sun, Moon, half-speed and time-laps

Email your queries to scopedoctor@skyatnightmagazine.com I’m just getting started in astronomy, but arthritis makes it a struggle to look through my Celestron Powerseeker 76AZ. Can you suggest a setup that will help me observe more comfortably? KEVIN

Mercury is elusive; despite sometimes appearing bright, the planet never leaves the bright sky near the Sun and this makes it tricky to see. The best spotting times are after sunset or before sunrise, depending on where the planet sits relative to th

Countdown paused with eight minutes left on the clock Apollo 14 launches Engine burn sends the spacecraft on a trajectory towards the Moon First attempt at docking the Lunar Module (LM) and Command Module (CM) Docking finally successful LM pressurise

Just how big or small can a black hole be? The biggest we see are about 50 billion times the mass of the Sun, but we don’t know any reason they couldn’t be as big as the observable Universe. The smallest probably weigh about a few thousandths of a se

On Christmas Day many budding stargazers will discover a new telescope under the tree waiting to be unwrapped. Yet telescopes and astronomy both reward experience, and excitement can turn to disappointment when it’s taken out under the stars for the

The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of four top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion’s Star Chart, Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Northern Constellations, Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest’s 202

► Check photos: Before you make a purchase, always look carefully at any photographs. Be wary of any adverts using catalogue or website photos for a product, or which have no photos. Almost everyone has access to a smartphone camera these days, so ne

Janna Levin Bodley Head £9.99 • HB We all love black holes. There’s something captivating about these mysterious, scary objects that can rip every particle in our body apart should we get too close. But did you know that black holes, quite literally,

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Editor Chris Bramley Art Editor Steve Marsh Production Editor Neil McKim News Editor Ezzy Pearson Staff Writer Iain Todd Reviews Editor Paul Money Charlotte Daniels, Lewis Dartnell, Glenn Dawes, Ben Evans, Pallab Ghosh, Chris Grimmer, Lewis Haley, Pe

Universal Time (UT) is the standard time used by astronomers around the world. British Summer Time (BST) is one hour ahead of UT These coordinates are the night sky’s equivalent of longitude and latitude, describing where an object is on the celestia

Price £43 • Supplier Harrison Telescopes Tel 01322 403407 • www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk This Barlow lens extends the focal length of your optical system by five times, allowing you to achieve high magnifications without having to use uncomfortably s