All articles tagged with #astrophotography
June's Strawberry Moon—the year's lowest-hanging full moon for Northern Hemisphere observers—rose low in the southeast and lit up skies worldwide, yielding standout photos from locations like New York's Empire State Building, Cape Sounion in Greece, and Meishan and Qingzhou in China, among others; the piece highlights top images and notes the next full Moon, Buck Moon, on July 29.
Astrophotographer Efrain Morales captured amateur footage of China's Tiangong space station crossing the Moon's Tycho Crater from Puerto Rico on May 29 at 11:33 p.m. EDT, showing Tiangong's silhouette and solar panels as it streaked across the lunar disk near Tycho. Tiangong comprises the Tianhe core module with the Wentian and Mengtian laboratory modules and is crewed by Shenzhou 23 astronauts Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying.
An artist-musician attached a modified 1998 Game Boy Camera to Mount Wilson Observatory's 60-inch telescope using a 3D-printed C‑Mount adapter and eyepiece adapters, effectively turning the telescope into a roughly 730,000mm-long lens (about 24,384mm equivalent) to photograph Jupiter after a Moon shot proved too close. The shot revealed Jupiter’s bands and limb, and the image was printed on a Game Boy printer. The creator, Chris Graue, is known for past game‑console hacks and plans to continue experimenting during his Alaska tour with Lo(u)ser.
Space photographer Soumyadeep Mukherjee compiled a 30-image collage titled “Closer, Everyday,” capturing the apparent approach of Venus and Jupiter in Kolkata’s western sky from May 11 to June 9, using a Nikon Z6II and Sigma 50mm lens across civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight. The composite shows the two planets moving closer in Earth’s sky, culminating in a near-conjunction on June 9 (less than 2 degrees apart), while acknowledging that Venus is actually receding in three-dimensional space. The piece highlights the consistent gear and timing across days and suggests readers explore astrophotography gear and skywatching opportunities.
June is a prime time in the Northern Hemisphere to shoot the Milky Way as the galaxy’s bright core climbs into the southeastern sky around 11:30 p.m. Local viewing windows are best between the last-quarter moon around June 8 and the days after the new moon around June 14, with dark skies crucial. Use a full‑frame DSLR/mirrorless with RAW, a sturdy tripod, and a wide lens (14–24 mm); set about f/2.8, ISO 3200–6400, and 10–25 second exposures, then manually focus and post‑process for contrast and color. Don’t forget compelling foregrounds to add depth, and consider southern destinations in July–September as the Milky Way moves across the sky.
Space.com showcases stunning images of Jupiter and Venus in a close twilight conjunction on June 9, captured around the globe—from Avebury in the UK to Kuwait City and Egypt’s Black Desert—celebrating one of the year’s most beautiful celestial sights.
Backyard astrophotographer Mark Johnston captured two timelapse views of solar prominences at the sun’s edge: a May 22, 2026 event showing plasma streams that appear to fall back as coronal rain, and a May 31, 2026 'Godzilla'-like plume looming above the solar surface. He explains the motion is driven by the Sun’s magnetic fields and gravity rather than flame. Filmed from Scottsdale, Arizona using a 160mm refractor with a hydrogen-alpha filter, the footage highlights giant plasma structures tethered by magnetic field lines and serves as a reminder to observe the Sun only with certified filters.
Jamie Carter explains how he used to resist bringing a telescope on trips until a Seestar S30 Pro smart telescope changed his mind. The device auto-aligns via plate-solving, stacks multiple exposures in real time, and streams a live deep-sky image to a phone, letting him see galaxies (like the Whirlpool) clearly in dark skies with minimal setup. He now uses smart telescopes for quick, light-travel astro-imaging, including Sun and Moon observations, and finds them especially handy for astro-tourism; purists may miss the eyepiece, but the convenience and results make observing accessible and rewarding.
A meteor blaze lit up the night above Arizona’s Kitt Peak National Observatory, captured by Petr Horálek, NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador. The image frames the WIYN telescope domes and nearby constellations (Orion and Canis Major), illustrating how rare and difficult it is to photograph a meteor in motion and highlighting the observatory’s place on Tohono O’odham Nation land as part of NOIRLab.
A Dutch astrophotographer spent 60 hours over 18 clear nights photographing the Leo Triplet from his Heiloo balcony, producing a detailed composite that reveals 548 catalogued galaxies and a 300,000-light-year tidal tail, with PixInsight used in processing as part of a project to image the full Messier Catalogue.
May 31, 2026's Blue Moon—the second full moon in May—was the year's smallest full moon (a micromoon). Space.com highlights dramatic lunar photography from Paris, New York, Athens, San Francisco, and Sydney, and notes that the next full moon will be the Strawberry Moon on June 29.
The Milky Way Photographer of the Year awards celebrate 25 awe-inspiring dark-sky images captured in remote locations worldwide, highlighting photographers’ patience and planning as they document the Milky Way’s arch above deserts, waterfalls, coasts, and mountains.
Vaonis has unveiled two new smart telescopes, the Vespera III and Vespera Pro 2, featuring sharper optics and upgraded sensors to improve color contrast, reduce chromatic aberration, and deliver edge-to-edge sharpness for astrophotography. The Vespera III uses a Sony IMX585 8.5MP sensor with a 50 mm aperture and offers up to 11 hours of battery and 115 GB of internal storage; the Pro 2 packs a higher‑resolution Sony IMX676 12.5MP sensor with 225 GB storage. Both models share a 245 mm focal length, include a tall aluminum tripod, add a humidity sensor with an anti‑fog system, and upgrade to USB‑C for faster file transfers. They are priced at $2,490 and $2,990 and are available now from BH Photo & Video and other retailers, continuing Vaonis’ push toward automated alignment, tracking and smartphone-based imaging for enthusiasts and beginners.
Astrophotographer Ronald Brecher captured a striking image of Markarian's Chain—an extended string of galaxies in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster—from his home in Guelph, Canada, using a Skywatcher Esprit 120 and multiple filters to accumulate about 9.5 hours of exposure. The shot highlights the galaxy pair NGC 4438/NGC 4435, nicknamed 'The Eyes', with nearby ellipticals M86 and M84 also visible; Markarian's Chain is a dense segment of the roughly 2,000-member Virgo Cluster. Brecher captured the image between April 17 and 27, and the article explains how to spot Markarian's Chain in spring skies: find Leo's Denebola and Virgo's Vindemiatrix and sweep a 6-inch telescope to the patch between them.
A Guardian gallery showcases a global roster of Milky Way photographs for 2026, featuring remote locations from New Zealand to Argentina and Spain. Photographers describe demanding shoots and sophisticated techniques—long exposures, focus stacking, and post-processing—to reveal the galaxy with extraordinary clarity, amid challenging terrain, harsh weather, and strict light-pollution limits, underscoring the value of dark-sky conservation.