You may have bought this December issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine because you’ve been given – or you’ve treated yourself to – a new telescope for Christmas. And you may be wondering what to do with

2 Sunday Mag. +0.4 Saturn is 5.7° from this morning’s 82%-lit waxing gibbous Moon. Catch them together before they set at around 01:00 UT. Tuesday 4 Callisto’s shadow transits Jupiter’s disc from 07:0

First up is the mag. +11.9 planetary nebula IC 351, located 2.3° west and 0.8° south of Menkib (Xi (ξ) Persei). Despite its small apparent size – just 8 x 6 arcminutes – it’s visible through a small s

Imagine this: you set up a small telescope in your back garden. On your phone’s screen, you tap on the Orion Nebula. Seconds later, the scope slews to it, focuses and begins revealing the colourful sw

Autumn, winter and spring are the best seasons to stargaze, says Neill Sanders, outreach astronomer at gostargazing.co.uk. “Most stargazing events are organised from the time clocks go back in October

The quality of your astro images isn’t just down to your processing skills. Key is the relationship between your telescope’s optics, your camera’s imaging chip and your local atmospheric ‘seeing’ cond