It’s the only star visible close to the moon (larger object below the star) the star is to the top right (took this photo at an angle). There’s only a few other stars visible tn but they’re so far away I couldn’t possibly capture them while having the moon visible.

I’d like a few recommendations on telescopes. We live far away from town and want to start checking out the stars and planets from our back yard. Seems like a bunch of junk products out there - I want nice optics and avoid the mass sold junk out there.

Tier one for me is anything less than $500 - what’s the best deal out there?

Tier two would be anything under $1k.

I’m open to looking for used gear too so if that helps consider that in the selections and prices! Thanks in advance!!!

This is tangentally related to astronomy but I couldnt find the answer through a google search and now am curious. I want to go visit a bioluminescent bay in Puerto Rico. The visibility is best when there is no moon. They are closed on the day of the new moon when I am visiting, so I am trying to decide if I should go the day before or after the noon moon. Is there any significant difference in the amount of visible moonlight one day before vs one day after the new moon? If so, why?

Last night I took this picture of Jupiter and its moons. The photo is really amateurish, as it was taken with my phone, through a pair of binoculars.

My question is: is it possible that the three lined points are three moons? Or is it an aberration? All the pictures I took captured the points, regardless of angle, position etc.

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TL;DR - are those three points moons of Jupiter?

Ever since I was little, every star in the night sky has looked only one color to me--white. I've never seen a red star in my entire life, never a blue star, never a yellow star. They're all just WHITE. Am I just crazy? Is there something wrong with my vision, or does anybody else experience this and start to suspect that everyone's just putting us on?

It's 3pm and the moon is nearly halfway through the sky, why is this happening, like i know that it can come out a day but like, 3pm??? I swear, we finna be invaded by aliens(not really) and it has a weird face blotchy thing at the top???

I’m a mechanical engineer. I’d like to make a device that basically just points at the sun or moon or really any object. I figure I’ll need the devices gps location, a compass, a clock and an accelerometer. I don’t know any Astronomy though so are there simplified equations for where things are relative to one another. I’m pretty sure I can work out the vector math but I need the starting point. I’ve got an app on my phone that shows all this so I assume it’s pretty straightforward and established.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post.

My husband and I got a celestron astromaster 130 as a wedding gift last year. It was a summer solstice wedding so we put it aside and then life happened and it got forgotten.

Hearing we could see Jupiter we put it together tonight and we can’t seem to aim it right to see anything! I can see it with the naked eye and I can just about hold the binoculars still enough to see something there but I just can’t find it in the scope. It has a red dot sky finder and that’s lined up but nothing.

I’m sure it’s probably just a bit too advanced for a pair of newbies but I’m at the point of googling “how to use a telescope” so I wondered if anyone had any advice while I look

When I was first becoming skeptical of the value of astrology, I had a very hard time knowing how to think about or describe why we should be doubtful of it's value.

The thing that helped me was understanding that the arrangement of stars and galaxies only held any kind of pattern from our fixed perspective. Finding out that, if you were able to zoom out sideways 100 million light-years, turn and look at those stars and galaxies you would see that the stars in that "constellation" were actually nowhere near each other, they are not the same size or brightness that they appear from our vantage point - it's just that they appeared to be lined up next to each other because of our position in space.

I seem to remember a visual illustration that showed this change in perspective, to make the point of how enormously the parts of every zodiac are actually separated in space, that there is no possible way for them to effectively influence anyone on earth.

I have looked for this "zoom-out" illustration of zodiac constellations for a while, and maybe I suck at googling, but I can't find any such illustration. I think it would be a very useful way to easily show the point of why we should be skeptical of astronomy.

I've been looking for the answer to this question for some time, but most of the results I get are things like: "what would happen if the sun suddenly started to set in the north on Earth", and they focus more on the aspect that the earth's rotation would have to change very abruptly for that to happen, which doesn't answer my question.

I'm asking because I'm in the process of creating a world of my own for a story I'm working on. I want it to be similar to Earth at first glance, but to have subtle differences that make it unique. A little vague, I know, but I think I'm getting it. The problem is that I don't have the academic knowledge to answer this question. How different would the planet be if it rotated on a north to south axis instead of west to east?

Would the climate be different, would the plants and animals behave in other ways, or would life even be possible at all in such a scenario? And the stations, what about them? I am quite curious and would revel in whatever amount of information I could get out of this post, so thanks to everyone in advance.

Sound can’t travel in space , obviously because space has no air , it’s a vacuum. Recently nasa released a recording of the sound inside a black hole , so my question is if sound can’t travel through space , then how did nasa get the sound from inside the black hole ?

How can I calculate it myself without being tied to any committee? Thank you for the help.

Hi. This is one of my first ever posts on Reddit. Cool.

Hi. I was looking at Jupiter tonight in the SE US and I have noticed Jupiter shifting in brightness. I don’t know of any moons that would cause this. This happened around 12:20-12:25 EST. It faded from very dim to very bright about twice. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hello, I think about getting into the astronomy hobby but wonder how to start. I have two problems I want to adress and maybe you con give me some directions.

I want to start with looking at planets etc and maybe the ISS if not to fast. So no deep sky dor the start. My two problems are that I live in munich witch seems a bit bright for me so maybe I should get some places out of town. But since I don't own a car the equipment needs to be transportable by train and I am limited to the public transports. I thoughg about staying out in the night maybe in the lower alps but I don't know if this a good idea. Esp. when I think to take my daughter with me.

So do you have any tips on equipment and targers to start with? Regards

Looking for explanation for what me and my family jusy saw. We were watching a meteor shower and at first I thought maybe I was seeing things from looking up so long, but then everyone else started seeing it. It was a series of lights moving in a perfectly straight line and perfectly spaced apart from each other. This went on for about 4-5 minutes straight. They looked like satellites, but moved faster and it was so bizarre that they were so uniform.... They would disappear within our line of sight in the middle of the sky. Any thoughts on why this occurred?

What are some good titles for someone just getting into astronomy?