You searched for "growing"

25 growing astronomy news items found

Why Maui does not want the Haleakala telescope project

After weeks of growing public pushback, the Maui County Council in Hawaii has now unanimously opposed the military’s proposal to construct up to seven telescopes within a state conservation area on Haleakalā. Recently the council approved a resolution urging the U.S. Air Force to deny the project’s draft environmental impact statement, which outlines a $5...

Galaxies previously unseen discovered with help from physicist

I chase photons that perhaps left their homes before our oceans found their tides (if you believe photos actually travel anyway). Those photons slide into a sensor as if they are shy travelers, and if I treat them with patience they will draw a picture that was always there, just hidden under the noise. The same impulse guides the researchers behind the Hobby Eberly Tel...

Astrobiscuit: The nerd who made the universe fun

In 2017, Rory Griffin—better known as Astrobiscuit—asked his wife for a telescope. She rolled her eyes. “It’ll just gather dust,” she said. But the first night he pointed that Sky-Watcher Mak 90 into the London sky, Jupiter floated into view. Its moons lined up like tiny pearls, and Rory was hooked. Suddenly, astrophotography wasn’t j...

MLAstro SAL-33 harmonic mount setup and safety guide

The MLAstro SAL-33 harmonic drive mount is still new on the scene, arriving in small production batches and just beginning to find its way into the hands of early adopters. Even so, it has already sparked interest among mobile astrophotographers looking for a budget friendly harmonic drive mount that does not feel like a compromise. On paper and in early field use, it c...

Astronomy in November 2025

This month offers a bit of everything: a once-in-a-lifetime interstellar visitor passing through, a brilliant supermoon lighting up the sky, two bright comets fading out after their October glory, planets dancing in interesting ways, and even a couple of meteor showers (plus the promise of the auroras glimmering for those far north). It&rsq...

Reflect Orbital satellites could roast the night sky!

Are you kidding me? As if the ever-growing wall of light pollution from every city, streetlight, and LED billboard wasn’t already bad enough, now we’ve got a startup that wants to beam sunlight back down to Earth at night. Reflect Orbital - backed by Sequoia Capital and Baiju Bhatt, no less - wants to fill the sky with thousands of satellites th...

Unistellar anniversary promotion 10 percent off telescopes

Unistellar telescopes is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a global promotion offering 10 percent off its smart telescope lineup. The milestone reflects a decade of innovation in augmented optics, as well as the development of citizen science programs in partnership with NASA and the SETI Institute. Founded in Marseille in 2015, Unistellar has grown into a compan...

Cloud Appreciation Day 2025 is here

For us astronomers—clouds can suck (on Earth anyway). But cloud Appreciation Day is an annual initiative by the Cloud Appreciation Society that invites people worldwide to stop, look up, and celebrate the clouds above them. The event encourages participants to photograph their local skies, write reflections, and submit their contributions to the Memory Cloud Atlas...

Starfront Observatories installs Custom 24-Inch F3 telescope

Starfront Observatories in Rockwood, Texas has installed its largest telescope yet. A custom-built 24 inch f/3 Newtonian astrograph now rides atop a wedge-mounted PlaneWave L-600, marking a significant leap forward in the observatory’s growing array of customer hosted telescopes. This instrument was handcrafted in Italy by Marco Guidi of Doc Telescopes, a name tha...

Under One Sky 2025 information and registration

Under One Sky is a 24-hour virtual conference hosted by DarkSky, the organization leading the fight against light pollution worldwide. The event brings together advocates, scientists, students, and people who care about preserving dark skies. Taking place entirely online, it follows the path of night across the globe, linking people from many time zones into one continu...

Rouz Astro talks gear and vision

Rouz Astro is a company known throughout the astrophotography community for its precision-engineered imaging accessories and smart DIY solutions. At the helm is its founder, Rouz, whose journey into astrophotography began in the late 1990s, back in the film era, before digital sensors took over. What started with black-and-white images of the moon soon became a full-blo...

Sky-Watcher 100i Strain reviewed by Dylan O Donnell

When you look at the evolution of astrophotography equipment, there are these moments when the ground shifts beneath our feet. One of those moments is happening right now with strain wave, or harmonic drive, mounts. Once considered experimental or niche, they have rapidly become the standard for portability and reliability. These instruments are compact, surprisingly st...

Astrophotography FAILS: The bad habits ruining your shots

Astrophotography is a pursuit that balances technical discipline with creative expression. For newcomers, the journey from capturing raw data to presenting a stunning final image is both exciting and intimidating. Along the way, however, many photographers, particularly beginners, fall into common traps that can degrade image quality or misrepresent the cosmos entirely....

The golden age of amateur astronomy is finally here

Not long ago, the kind of jaw-dropping space photos we see today were out of reach for all but professional observatories. A decade ago, a backyard astronomer would have dreamed of capturing images that could rival those taken with million-dollar telescopes. Fast forward to now: technology has unleashed a revolution in amateur astronomy. Affordable high-end cameras, exq...

2025 Bootleg Star Party

Each year, under the sweeping canopy of the cosmos, astronomers, astrophotographers, and skywatchers gather to celebrate one of the Midwest’s most anticipated amateur astronomy gatherings, The Bootleg Star Party. Known for its pirate-themed bravado and serious devotion to stargazing, the 2025 edition promises to be another unforgettable chapter in this storied tra...

Best harmonic drive telescope mount value today

So what’s it gonna be - which harmonic drive mount from this ever-growing buffet of beltless wonders are you going to throw your wallet at next? You’ve got more options than a possum in a peach orchard. iOptron, ZWO, Pegasus, Hobym, Rainbow Astro, Lacerta, and now even mystery brands from deep in the digital bowels of Alibaba, like the Jouer 14, Jouer 17, ev...

Astrophoto app Picastro: Exclusive Interview with Tom McCrorie

We recently caught up with Tom McCrorie, founder of the Picastro app and a lifelong astronomy enthusiast, shares the personal journey and inspiration that led him to create a dedicated social platform for astrophotographers and space lovers. McCrorie discusses how his early fascination with the night sky, reignited by a birthday gift telescope, evolved into a passion fo...

Exploring the Cosmos Through Code

At just 15 years old, Luciana Ortiz Nolasco has done something that even seasoned developers struggle to accomplish, she’s written an astronomy-focused app that combines education, community, and gamification into one cohesive digital experience. Her project, BreakDownCosmic, earned her a spot among the 2025 Swift Student Challenge winners, a program hosted by App...

Chiefland Astrofest 2025

There’s something magical about standing under a sky so dark and clear that the Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon, glowing like a cosmic river overhead. If you’ve ever longed for a place where the stars feel close enough to touch, where telescopes hum quietly across a field of fellow stargazers, and where deep conversations about black holes and ba...

How many telescopes do you actually need

I was about eleven years old when I met the night sky "officially". It was the late-1980s, and one calm summer evening in the Ozarks I lugged a little 60 mm refractor, bright red, wobbly tripod and all, into the backyard. I had a star chart from the box my telescope came in, along with a ton of raw curiosity, I pointed that modest telescope at the Moon. B...

MLAstro SHG 700 reviewed by Cuiv

There’s something quietly humbling (a terrifying) about pointing a tele at the Sun. Not for the glare or the danger—though there’s plenty of both—but because you start to realize just how much is going on up there that we never notice. The Sun isn’t just a ball of fire in the sky; it’s a living, breathing storm system the size of a mi...

RAS Award nominations for 2026 now open

The Royal Astronomical Society has officially opened the nomination period for its 2026 Awards, offering scientists, educators, and public outreach professionals the opportunity to be recognized for their exceptional contributions to astronomy and geophysics. Among the accolades available is the Society’s highest distinction, the Gold Medal, a prestigious award wi...

Pickleball light pollution

Did you recently receive your newsletter from Dark Sky about light pollution and pickleball courts? If you did, you might have noticed the alarming details about how the rise of this popular sport is inadvertently fueling one of the fastest-growing forms of environmental pollution in the United States. It turns out that pickleball, though beloved for its accessibility a...

Supernova light echo captured by Hubble

It’s not every day that a telescope 340 miles above Earth drops a view that feels more like science fiction than astrophysics, but when Hubble turned its attention toward a stellar explosion that happened ten million years ago, it gave the world something close to time travel. Not the shiny, whirring-machine kind. Something quieter. Slower. You’re not steppi...

Buyer beware HAC125DX

The Sky-Watcher HAC125DX is a compact, high-speed astrograph designed for imagers seeking fast optics in a small and portable form. While it initially generated buzz as a new release, it has now been on the market long enough to be considered a known quantity, with real-world results and growing user feedback helping shape its reputation. Targeted toward astrophotograph...