Q&A WITH A BLACK HOLE PHYSICIST

The Event Horizon Telescope continues to test Einstein's general relativity predictions under the most extreme conditions

Speed up your workflow

Save time by automating common processing steps like boosting contrast and reducing noise

Experiments with Venus

Try out these activities while the Evening Star is shining bright in our skies

Build a Bahtinov mask

Make an astrophotography focusing aid to fit any telescope

Master the art of averted vision

If you're new to stargazing, a faint object like C/2022 E3 ZTF, the comet that had us all excited earlier this year, isn't the best target for a first look through a telescope - the chances are you won't see a thing.

The new Space Age

With 70 nations, space-mad billionaires and eager private companies all vying for a stake - but no laws or rules -space today is verging on a free-for-all.

Does the Universe have an edge?

It's one of the most perplexing questions in cosmology: does our Universe have an edge?

Mercury returns to twilight

The inner wanderer graces our evening skies once again this month.

JUICE TAKES FLIGHT

Set to launch this month, the European-led JUICE spacecraft will explore the frozen worlds orbiting the gas giant Jupiter.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year

Supported by Liberty Specialty Markets, The world-class competition returns in 2023, seeking the best astronomy image of the past year

O&A WITH A PLANETARY SCIENTIST

The materials that form the building blocks of life on Earth have been found in distant planet-forming discs that are the same size as the Solar System

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY PROCESSING

Reduce star trailing in your astro images, An easy processing tip to remedy stretched and unsharp stars

Bring out the colours of stars

From reds to yellows to blues, here's how to reveal the subtle tones of stars in your images

Build a zero-magnification finder

Make an illuminated aiming device you can use on any telescope

The Columbia Space Shuttle disaster

Twenty years on, Amy Arthur looks back at fateful flight STS-107

The man who put the Sun at the CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE

This month marks 550 years since the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus. Emily Winterburn explores his life and legacy

OBSERVING VARIABLE STARS

Pete Lawrence is your guide to viewing variable stars so you can record their changes in brightness

Expansion and gravity

Though the Universe is expanding, gravity helps keep it together

Does the Universe expand faster than light?

Govert Schilling continues to explain cosmology's confusing concepts In part 2 of our series

DEEP-SKY TOUR

We'll start in Orion's Sword where M42, the Orion Nebula, takes pride of place. Magnificent through any instrument, smaller scopes give a lovely overview of this fourth-magnitude nebula, easily revealing the bright kidney-shaped 'core' within which the tightly packed stars of the Trapezium Cluster are embedded.

THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE

Can you beat Sirius's glare to identify its faint companion the Pup Star?

BINOCULAR TOUR With Steve Tonkin

This month we're off to a dog show, finding the best in class in Canis Major

STAR OF THE MONTH

Muscida, the nose of the Great Bear, Ursa Major

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS

Fingers crossed for comet C/2022 E3 ZTF reaching naked-eye visibility this month

Fra Mauro

Fra Mauro is a quintessential example of a walled plain. Measuring 96km in diameter and 800m in depth, its ancient form can be located east of 300km Mare Cognitum, the sea that has become known’.

Jupiter

Jupiter is rapidly losing ground to the evening twilight, appearing 29° above the southwest horizon under deep twilight conditions at the start of the month, but reaching only 12° above the western horizon by the time we reach the end of the month.

Favourable southwest lunar libration

BEST TIME TO SEE: 9-16 February

Venusian encounters

BEST TIME TO SEE: From 15 February, after sunset

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF

BEST TIME TO SEE: 8-23 February

Chelyabinsk 10 years on

In 2013 Ezzy Pearson visited the site of a massive meteor explosion. A decade later she looks back at what we learned from the event