At first glance it looks like a fuzzy star to the naked eye, but I can say without a doubt it’s an absolute celestial treasure when seen with a small telescope or even a good pair of binoculars. The ...

M42, the Orion Nebula, is a stellar nursery located in the Orion Spur of the Milky Way galaxy, approximately 1350 light-years away and over 10 light-years across; it's a component of the larger Orion ...

One of the night sky's grandest sights for binocular users- as well as anyone with a telescope- is the Great Nebula of Orion. Otherwise known as M42, you can actually see this with the unaided eye as ...

With winter just around the corner, we look to the eastern sky on these early December evenings and notice an amazing constellation rising, a true sign of winter. Welcome Orion! This magical ...

Last Friday night at my Mechanicsburg night sky program we looked at the planet Jupiter, a couple galaxies and a couple constellations. Despite the cold, folks stayed for the last and most exquisite ...

This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula, complete with its incredibly rich star-formation region, was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope ...

In his 1926 book The Universe of Stars, the American astronomer Harlow Shapley wrote: “We are therefore made out of star stuff … we feed upon sunbeams, we are kept warm by the radiation of the sun and ...

With the fall season now underway; and the Orionid meteor shower now over, it is a great time to explore the wonders of the constellation Orion as it rises in the east just after midnight. Welcome, ...

At first glance, the Great Orion Nebula looks like a fuzzy star. But using a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you can see it is something fantastic. This week is a wonderful time to take ...

What’s the top-ranked nebula in the entire night sky? The No. 1, must-see target for the backyard astronomer? By sheer grandeur, the hands-down winner would be the Carina Nebula. However, I can only ...

The dazzling Orion Nebula found in the famed constellation of the same name bursts with color in this beautiful night sky image. Astrophotographer Reinhold Wittich took this photo from his backyard ...