SUNSET: 
Science Teams Await Leonid Storm
Researchers worldwide are looking forward to the new knowledge that they hope to gain from intensive studies of the Leonids' "last hurrah."
Astronomers Discover Unique Brown-Dwarf System
Astronomers have imaged a brown dwarf system only 14 astronomical units from its companion.
Lunar Leonids Strike Again
This video frame shows a lunar impact taken by Anthony Cook from atop an 11-story building in Alexandria, Virginia. Click on the image to see an animated GIF (334 KB) of the event. Each frame represents 1/60 of a second. The Leonid impact took place at 00:18:58 Universal Time November…
Spacecraft Readies for Risky Comet Dash
Concerns about camera pointing and fuel reserves will make the Deep Space 1 encounter with Comet Borrelly a risky proposition.Courtesy JPL and Spectrum Astro. The Deep Space 1 probe was never designed to chase comets. It has no shielding to protect its delicate systems from a pummeling of hypersonic dust.…
Nova in Sagittarius Borders on Naked-Eye Visibility
An amateur astronomer in Japan spotted a naked-eye nova in Sagittarius.
Watching Dust in the Wind
A binary system has been seen shooting fountains of dust into space.
Stardust Checks Out Asteroid Annefrank
A half hour of target practice paves the way for a high-speed dash comet dash in early 2004.
Cassini's First Look at Saturn
Although its arrival is still more than two years away, the Cassini orbiter is already drawing a bead on its final destination.
Galileo's Last Rendezvous
The spacecraft that takes a licking and keeps on ticking is about to make its last flyby.
Comet Ikeya-Zhang Now Naked Eye
This 1-minute exposure of Comet Ikeya-Zhang was taken by Sky & Telescope senior editor Dennis di Cicco at 0 hours Universal Time on March 1, 2002. He used a CCD camera attached to a 16-inch telescope at f/3.3. The field of view is about 1/3° wide. North is up. According…
Benson Prize Winner
Amateur astronomer Leonard Amburgey recently won the Benson Prize for his discovery of asteroid 2000 NM.Courtesy Leonard Amburgey. Public-school teacher and amateur astronomer Leonard L. Amburgey of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, is receiving the Benson Prize for his discovery of Earth-approaching asteroid 2000 NM. Established by Space Development Corp. founder James W.…
Eros's Puzzling Surface
Scientists are beginning to understand the complex asteroid's surface.
A Hit-and-Miss Annular Eclipse
Only a lucky few captured Friday's annular eclipse on film. Observing from near the eclipse's southern limit at Herradura Beach on Costa Rica's Pacific coast, Kelly Beatty recorded a cloud-laced view (left) using an Orion 90-mm f/13.9 Maksutov-Cassegrain. Just 7 km farther north, Paul Maley outraced the clouds to snare…
A Comet's Brush with the Sun
The SOHO spacecraft watched as a comet swung past the Sun.
Giant Telescopes Snare Surprising Quadruple Star
An infrared ground-based view (1) of a wide binary system in the molecular cloud MBM 12. The same view using Gemini's adaptive optics system (2) reveals that the upper star is actually a close pair. In a longer exposure of the upper, close pair (3) another faint object is resolved,…
An Early Universe Teeming With Stars
By taking a 3-dementional look at the Hubble Deep Field, astronomers are learning about the earliest epochs of star formation.
Jupiter's Shrinking Red Spot
Compare the size (and color) of Jupiter's Great Red Spot as drawn by Thomas Gwyn Elger in November 1881 (left) and as imaged by Texas amateur Ed Grafton (right) 120 years later. South is up. Telescopic observers from the 19th century may not have had the technological wizardry available to…
Delta Scorpii Brighter Than Ever
A naked-eye star in the dawn continues its unexpected — and very obvious — flareup.
The Leonids' Best Home Videos
Fifteen images from a high-speed video freezes the split-second flight of a Leonid meteor at 10:48:59 Universal Time, November 18th. Inspection of several hundred images such as these has revealed the details of a meteor's glow.NASA-ARC/Image courtesy Hans Stenbaek-Nielsen, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Thanks to some high-tech videography, researchers at…
Gamma-Ray Bursts Next Door?
Astronomers have found Gamma-Ray bursts coming from closer places than ever before seen.
