Telescopes & Astrophotography
Telescopes and mounts, astrophotography equipment and software, practical reviews, night-sky events and astronomy discoveries for amateur observers.
About this list
This reading list brings together items from the sources selected for Telescopes & Astrophotography. Open each item at its original source for the complete article, episode or video. This is a selection of current coverage, not a complete archive.
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A fun ride with Saturn, 10/13/2026
As I let our Border Collie out one last time yesterday evening, I noticed the sky was relatively clear. This surprised me, as it did NOT correlate with the forecast I had checked earlier in the afternoon. Thankful I had not had much to drink that evening, I opened the observatory roof, powered on the equipment and turned the scope to Saturn. I was immediately impressed with the steadiness of the atmosphere to the south (Saturn was just approaching the meridian, so almost due south).
ESA’s Hera Mission Targets Binary Asteroid Pair in November
In just one more month, the European Space Agency’s Hera mission will make history. Moving at 12 kilometers per second versus Earth, the mission is about to rendezvous with the binary Dimorphos-Didymos asteroid pair. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission slammed into Dimorphos in 2022, and now Hera will provide a follow up view of the mission’s resulting handiwork.
Distant NGC 3137 reveals clues about our own galaxy
Astronomers suspect NGC 3137 and its large spiral neighbor, NGC 3175, mimic the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies in our Local Group.
Looking to rebuild / upgrade an existing 10" Dobsonian scope
Hello to everyone! I'm brand new to the forum and this is my first post. I bought this 10" Dobsonian scope at a swap meet back around 2010 and have been using it since. I'm somewhat of an astronomical evangelist, hauling out my telescope for strangers to enjoy. Last weekend was family weekend at my kid's summer camp, and I brought along the telescope to show people sights like Saturn and the Pleiades.
Mars near M44
I chronicled my sadness with this conjunction in the General Astronomy forum, but the short version is I have been looking forward to this conjunction for a couple of weeks and when the time drew near rain was in the forecast. My plan changed, get what I could- so I went out Friday morning, did a sketch. Then I was to go again Saturday, but I was beat and slept through my alarm. At midnight we had clear skies, Mars and M44 were set to rise about 2am so I hoped to get out 2:30 - 3am, but when I got up at 5am it was 100% cloud coverage.
Our 16th annual star products
Discover this year’s most exciting new astronomy products selected by Astronomy’s contributing editor and gear guru, Phil Harrington.
2026 Full Moon calendar: When to see the Full Moon and phases
The next Full Moon is the October Hunter’s Moon, which will occur at 12:12 a.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026.
NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars sets off-world driving record
The Mars Perseverance rover has set a new distance record on Mars. It has driven 28.10 miles (45.22 km) across the surface of the red planet. The post NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars sets off-world driving record first appeared on EarthSky.
Weirdest cloud on Mars formed via ‘exotic physics’
The weirdest cloud on Mars has a funny-sounding name. Scientists call it the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud. Come find out what's weird about it! The post Weirdest cloud on Mars formed via ‘exotic physics’ first appeared on EarthSky.
Awesome Astronomy - Extra: The Hubble Tuning Fork & Citizen Science
Paul Hill hosts solo! Damien Phillips, John Wildridge and Dustin Ruoff produce. In this podcast extra episode we talk to Dr. Karen Masters, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Haverford College, Pennsylvania about The Hubble Tuning Fork and Galaxy classification. But it's not only about that canonized galaxy classification system, it's also about how citizen science – astronomy done by absolutely anybody from their homes – can and does change the accepted wisdom and advance science. Galaxy Zoo: http://zoo1.galaxyzoo.org
Meet Aquarius the Water Bearer and its stars
Aquarius lies in a “watery” part of the sky, near Pisces the Fish, Cetus the Whale, Eridanus the River and Piscis Austrinus the Southern Fish. The post Meet Aquarius the Water Bearer and its stars first appeared on EarthSky.
Is it really that hard?
Hello everyone. I'd like to ask a simple question: Is it really that hard? And what makes it hard? Let me explain. I'm a Seestar S50 user. It opened the door to this hobby that I really love. So now I have an EQ5 that I'm going to motorize, and I bought a Sky-Watcher 80ED to have a classic setup. I'm fairly comfortable with NINA, I know how to do a proper polar alignment, and I process my data well. So now all that's left is to choose my camera and start imaging. What difficulties can you run into that make this hobby "demanding"?
Time Dilation & Cosmic Mysteries: Unpacking Your Space Queries
Sponsor Link: This episode of Space Nuts is brought to you by NordVPN. Protect your online privacy today by visiting www.nordvpn.com/spacenuts for an exclusive offer! Space Nuts: Fast-Moving Planets, Photon Pressure, and the Nature of Moons In this engaging Q&A episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a series of intriguing listener questions.
New Crater
The surface of the Moon seems eternal. There’s no air or water to reshape it, and no plate tectonics to jiggle things around. But the Moon does change – sometimes in a hurry. Scientists recently discovered an impact crater that’s almost 750 feet in diameter. It had been gouged during the spring of 2024.
Ep. 804: Mission Tech Series: Fairings, Docking & Airlocks
Ad-Free thanks to your support at patreon.astronomycast.com! Instead of sending up an entire space station for every mission, you can just send up a tiny can filled with astronauts. But that takes docking. And today we're gonna talk about what it takes to connect two spacecraft together. How to keep a cargo safe to get into orbit, and how to get in and out of your spacecraft without killing everyone! Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live on Oct 3, 2026. Mission Tech Part 3.
Hubble Spots a Suspected Second-Generation Planet
Diligent sleuthing by astronomers has broken open a cold case in the data archive of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. In a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy, researchers report uncovering a surprising chemical clue that indicates the white dwarf star HS 0209+0832 may host a second-generation planet.
Why does it take 8 years to get to Mercury?! #shorts
Basically, sending stuff to Jupiter is like putting up hill in golf, and sending stuff to Mercury is like putting down hill in golf. If you’re not careful, the ball will pick up too much speed and fly past the hole. So when you send something to Mercury, you need a way to slow down the spacecraft, so that it doesn’t just fly past Mercury. You could just use fuel to slow down but that would require a lot of fuel, whereas planet fly-bys allow you to change the relative speed and direction of a spacecraft for free. So passing behind a planet in the direction of its orbit pulls the spacecraft forward, stealing a tiny bit of the planet's orbital energy to increase the spacecraft’s speed. Whereas, passing in front of a planet means the spacecraft is working against the planet's movement, and so it instead transfers a tiny bit of energy to the planet’s orbit which reduces the spacecraft’s speed. So the most efficient way to get to Mercury is through many planet fly-bys. After Bepi Colombo launched, it slowed down with one fly-by of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury. So the Bepi Colombo mission is a real feat of both engineering and orbital dynamics to make it possible for us to orbit Mercury so close. And it’s all in the name of science. Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst --- 📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): http://lnk.to/DrBecky --- 👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): https://dr-becky.teemill.com/ --- 🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive --- 🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video! --- 👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with a
Primordial Helium Further Confirms Our Understanding Of The Big Bang
Most helium in the Universe is primordial helium, formed during the Big Bang. But a fraction of helium was formed by long-dead stars. Distinguishing between the two allows astronomers to further confirm our observations of the Big Bang.
Autumn observing targets for large telescopes
Uncover various deep-sky objects you can see this fall using a large telescope, including the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635), the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33), Stephan’s Quintet, and more!
How Will Water Flow on the Moon?
Growing fresh food on the Moon is going to be crucial if astronauts there are ever going to eat anything other than freeze-dried rations. Since husbanding animals on the lunar surface is…difficult (to put it mildly), most mission planners believe that plants are the solution. But we still don’t entirely understand how one of the most fundamental materials to plant growth, water, operates under partial gravity.
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