The Moon, Sun, planets, comets, asteroids and the worlds closest to home.
It returns roughly every 76 years, was the first comet ever imaged up close by spacecraft, and won't be near Earth again until 2061 — here's what makes 1P/Halley worth knowing now.
20 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Pluto is smaller than our Moon, but its landscape is far from featureless. Water-ice mountains, nitrogen plains and a thin atmosphere make this distant dwarf planet a useful lesson in how different kinds of ice can behave.
20 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
The most distant of the eight planets is a cold, pale blue-green world with an active atmosphere. Its quiet-looking colour hides fast winds and changing storms.
19 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
A pale blue-green planet has one of the strangest orientations in the Solar System. Its tilted axis changes how sunlight reaches its poles for decades at a time.
19 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
A crescent Moon isn't fully dark, even in its shadowed half. Here's the phase, the timing and the old name behind that faint glow.
19 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
Here's what actually happens when the Moon seems to vanish each month — and why that instant isn't the same as the thin crescent everyone pictures.
19 Oct 2026 · 4 min read
The innermost planet combines a heavily cratered exterior with an active metallic interior. Its polar shadows show why distance from the Sun alone cannot describe the conditions across a whole world.
18 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
The sixth planet is far more than a ringed globe. Its moving ice particles, unusual moons and thick atmosphere form a system that changes how you look at a familiar planetary image.
18 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
The Moon keeps a familiar face toward Earth, yet a different angle of sunlight can transform the view. Its dark plains and bright craters tell parts of a much older story.
17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
Our nearest star is a moving, magnetic ball of plasma. Its familiar light comes from a world whose surface, atmosphere and activity keep changing.
17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
Nearly Earth's twin in size, Venus spins backward and bakes under acid clouds. Those clouds hide its volcanic surface from ordinary visible-light views.
17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
Earth is the third planet from the Sun: an ocean-covered rocky world with a breathable atmosphere, moving crust and the only life yet confirmed anywhere.
17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
Mars is a rust-colored rocky world with giant volcanoes, two small moons and the remains of ancient rivers. Its changing distance from Earth transforms the view through a telescope.
16 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Jupiter holds more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined. Its cloud bands, giant storms and four large moons make it a rewarding first telescope target.
15 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
Archived October 2026 event: why Mercury’s wide evening separation favored southern latitudes, what a telescope could show and how to plan a safe search.
5 Oct 2026 · 4 min read