SUNSET: 
"Barely There" Lunar Eclipse
If you forgot to check out last night's penumbral lunar eclipse, you didn't miss much!
Jupiter Without Moons
On the night of September 2-3, a remarkable celestial event will take place. For almost two hours, all four of Jupiter's Galilean moons will be hiding either behind or in front of the giant planet.
Spitzer Scope Warms to New Mission
Since exhausting its supply of ultracold liquid helium in May, the Spitzer Space Telescope has warmed to the point that two of its detectors no longer function. But NASA astronomers still have big plans for their orbiting eye on the infrared sky.
Podcast: The Soundtrack of Space
Astrophysicist Neil Cornish (Montana State University) talks about recent progress in the hunt for gravitational waves.
Hubble Readies for Full Operation
It took five grueling spacewalks by Space Shuttle astronauts and a billion-dollar investment to restore the Hubble Space Telescope to good health. Now NASA astronomers are nearly ready to show us just how good the 19-year-old space observatory is.
Tour August's Sky — By Ear and Eye!
It's time again for the Perseid meteor shower! Meanwhile, Saturn and Mercury are huddling together low in the west, while Jupiter rises after sunset in the east. Spot these planets and more by listening to Sky & Telescope's downloadable guided tour of the night sky.
Betelgeuse: A Hotheaded Superstar
New, ultrahigh-resolution observations reveal that the red supergiant marking Orion's shoulder is throbbing, churning, and spewing shells of its outer layers into the space around it.
Perseid Meteors by Moonlight
Mark your calendar for August 11th and 12th — even though a last-quarter Moon horns in on the annual show.
Jupiter Blots Out a Star
From August 2nd to 5th, the 6th-magnitude star 45 Capricorni masquerades as a fifth moon of Jupiter, forming striking patterns with the Galilean moons. And at the peak of the action, the star passes behind Jupiter's disk.
A Megascope for Hawaii
There was a certain amount of politics behind the decision to site the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea. But there was science behind the politics too.
Eclipse Over a Pacific Isle
The coral-ringed islet of Ouba in Kiribati (the Gilbert Islands) is less than a kilometer in circumference and about the remotest corner of Earth from which one could witness the total solar eclipse on July 22, 2009. A select group from Ring of Fire Expeditions did just that.
Totality on a Tropical Sea
More than 1,000 eclipse-seekers watched totality from a specially chartered ship that had steamed into the western Pacific for the "Eclipse of the Century."
Clouds Part for Solar Eclipse
With the monsoon in full swing, observing conditions were iffy across the entire land path — from India through China — of the July 2009 total solar eclipse. Nonetheless, a surprising number of people managed to obtain great views of totality through holes in the clouds.
The Impact on Jupiter!
There's compelling evidence that an asteroid or comet crashed into Jupiter around July 18th, leaving a dark mark that's readily visible through amateur telescopes in good seeing.
Apollo Landers Seen on the Moon
NASA's new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has such a high-res camera that, at long last, it's possible to see the Apollo landers sitting on the Moon. You can even see the trails of astronauts' footprints! Browse the just-released pictures.
Asteroid to Occult Star July 18-19
Around 1 a.m. CDT (2 a.m. EDT) on the night of Saturday-Sunday, July 18-19, the moderately large asteroid 790 Pretoria occults a 10th-magnitude star in Pegasus for observers from Florida through Minnesota.
U.S. Meteorite Hunters Go Bicoastal
Two intense fireballs, one over Arizona and another three days later over the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, have triggered searches for fresh-fallen stones from interplanetary space.
Mapping Starspots by Exoplanet Transits
Astronomers have detected individual starspots by watching exoplanets cross in front of them. New advances may enable extensive mapping of stars' spottedness by this technique, filling gaps left by other methods.
Image Stacking Nets Ancient Supernovae
Astronomers have turned up a pair of supernovae in extremely distant galaxies (like these) that exploded more than 11 billion years ago, during the universe's infancy. And they did it using a basic technique familiar to thousands of amateur astronomers.
The Great Eclipse of 2009
The century’s longest solar eclipse is about to sweep across China and the Pacific. Eclipse-chasers from around the world are counting down the hours until July 22nd.
