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" ...

French astronomer Charles Messier's list of the best and brightest deep sky objects is popular with skywatchers of all experience levels. During the new moon period in early spring each year, it's ...

The Pleiades star cluster, Messier 45, amid the faint and dusty nebulosity that surrounds it. The stars of the Pleiades are passing through the dust clouds in Taurus and are lighting them up as ...

In a nod to the global amateur astronomy community, as well as to any space enthusiast who enjoys the beauty of the cosmos, the Hubble Space Telescope mission is releasing its version of the popular ...

The Messier marathon is an activity that’s been popular with astronomy clubs since the 1980s. It’s a test of endurance and skill to view each of the 109 deep-sky objects in French comet-hunter Charles ...

Amateur astronomers had 12 spectacular new images to look to during this year's Messier marathon, a skywatching challenge that happened on the weekend of March 17 and 18. Messier Marathons happen in ...

In 1781, French astronomer Charles Messier published a catalog of 103 objects in the heavens. He was primarily interested in comets, but kept finding fuzzy smudges that did not move against the ...

Anyone spotting a globular star cluster like M13 for the first time through an amateur telescope will recognize a fascinating white spot, which at first glance could also be a comet without a ...

M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and its satellite galaxies M32 (a hazy star just above-left of M31's center) and M110 (the oval structure below-left of M31's center). Photograph taken at Kopernik ...

"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 ...

If you look to the east at night with a telescope this week, you may see a bright cluster of stars with a powerful name and a discovery story that dates back to the 18th century. The cluster is an ...

BEIJING, CHINA - SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 - This picture taken on September 25th, 2019 shows The Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976, in the Milky Way.- PHOTOGRAPH BY Costfoto / ...