The year 2025 has been a vintage one for astronomy. In January, we were hooked on reports of a building-sized asteroid on course to collide with Earth. The risk was quickly downgraded from worrying to

It’s a cold, clear February evening on Brighton beach. The sun has not yet dipped below the horizon and the last of the light is that strange, luminescent blue that presages dusk. Hundreds of pairs of

In late October, my friend and I took a three-hour drive to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California. It’s a beautiful place for hiking and for unusual geological formations, and it compl

Planetary nebula NGC 6537 is nicknamed the Red Spider Nebula for its narrow ‘body’ and spindly ‘legs’ that stretch into the cosmos. But in this new view from the James Webb Space Telescope, what leaps

1 Jan 00:00 AEDT (31 Dec, 13:00 UT)15 Jan 23:00 AEDT (12:00 UT)31 Jan 22:00 AEDT (11:00 UT) The chart accurately matches the sky on the dates and times shown for Sydney, Australia. The sky is differen

It’s easy to get downhearted during these long weeks in the dead of winter, but all sorts of little treats can pop up to help us through. A wet day only six hours long doesn’t have a lot to offer to t