Messier 36 Pinwheel Cluster
Messier 36, also known as the Pinwheel Cluster, is an open cluster located in the northern constellation Auriga, the Charioteer. Messier 36 is one of the most distant open clusters catalogued by Messier and about…
Gamma Ray Burst: An Introduction
A gamma-ray burst, often abbreviated as GRB, is extremely energetic explosion that is observed in distant galaxies and are the brightest electromagnetic events in the universe. The length of a GRB can vary, with some…
Observing Planets With A Telescope
Some of the first questions that amateur astronomers have when first observing planets is when to can each planet be observed and how large of a telescope is required to see them. NEVER look at…
Opposition
In positional astronomy, two astronomical objects are said to be in opposition when they are on opposite sides of the celestial sphere, as observed from a given body (usually Earth). A planet, asteroid, or comet…
Observation Of Mercury
At its brightest, Mercury can reach magnitude -1.9, a little brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. However, it more normally hovers at around magnitude 0, becoming roughly the fifth brightest object in…
Discovery Of Uranus: Paving The Way Forward
In honor of the 240th anniversary of the discovery of Uranus, we decided to take a look at the discovery and what it meant for science. Although there is a strong case to be made…
Messier 35
Messier 35 is a large open star cluster located in the northern constellation Gemini. The cluster consists of several hundred stars, of which 120 are brighter than magnitude 13. M35 has the size equivalent to…
Galaxy Clusters and Superclusters
Previously we have talked about the different galaxy types, and it got us thinking about structures that could be larger than the single galaxy? The answer is galaxy clusters and superclusters. Galaxy Clusters A galaxy…
Mercury: A Brief Overview
Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. Its orbit around the Sun takes 87.97 days, the shortest of all the planets in the Solar System. It is named after the Roman…
Andromeda Constellation
The Andromeda Constellation is one of the modern 88 constellations as defined by the IAU. One of the earliest recordings of the Andromeda Constellation was the the 2nd-century Greco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy Located north of the celestial equator, the constellation is named…