Charles Messier was a French comet-hunter who occasionally spied objects masquerading as comets due to their fuzzy appearance through his small scope. But they didn’t move against the starry ...

It’s been six months since astronomy clubs around the globe hosted events for the Messier marathon. The goal of this single-night observing challenge is to catch all 109 deep-sky objects in French ...

Telescopes 4 inches or less in diameter are portable, easy to use, and great beginner instruments. Here, I’ll walk through ...

For one brief stretch each spring, amateur astronomers attempt one of backyard astronomy's most ambitious challenges: spotting an entire catalog of deep-sky objects in a single night. Known as the ...

Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, amateur astronomers had 12 new objects to observe during the annual Messier Marathon held March 17 and 18. The challenge is often scheduled around a new moon in ...

"Deep Sky Companion" at the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Credit: Lia Halloran For her latest exhibition, called “Deep Sky Companion,” artist Lia Halloran was inspired not by the ...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - “When I was a kid, my cousin showed me Saturn from a telescope when I was young and that got me hooked.” Tom Weber, the President of the Cedar Amateur Astronomers recalled.

Starting in the mid-1700s, Charles Messier cataloged more than 100 galaxies, nebulas, star clusters and other objects — and today, they remain popular skywatching targets. Ninety-three of the objects ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. If you spend any time with astronomers, sooner or later, you'll hear them use the phrase "M" ...