Comets and asteroids

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the lack of true darkness in the middle of the year doesn’t make astronomy that easy to do. The planets are good at cutting through slightly brighter skies,

BEST TIME TO SEE: Nights of 9/10, 10/11 and 11/12 July A full Moon occurs when the Moon is opposite the Sun in the sky or, in other words, when its ecliptic longitude is 180° from the Sun. The eclipti

1 Jul 00:00 AEST (30 Jun, 14:00 UT) 15 Jul 23:00 AEST (13:00 UT) 31 Jul 22:00 AEST (12:00 UT) The chart accurately matches the sky on the dates and times shown for Sydney, Australia. The sky is differ

Type: Lunar sea Size: 330km Longitude/latitude: 94.7° W, 19.9° S Age: 3.8–3.9 billion years Best time to see: Determined by libration and phase (15–23 June and 11–20 July) Minimum equipment: 10x binoc

Type: Sinuous rille Size: 80km x 2.5km Longitude/latitude: 3.1° E, 25.7° N Age: 3.2–3.9 billion years Best time to see: First quarter (2–3 July) and six days after full Moon (16–17 July) Minimum equip

The summer solstice on June 21 brings the longest day ‒ and might be good reason to get up early to see the sun rise just before 4am. For those in the mood, try these sunrise ‒ and sunset ‒ spots