BBC Sky at Night

Sky at Night magazine is your practical guide to astronomy. Each issue features the world’s biggest and best night sky guide complete with star charts, observing tutorials and in-depth equipment reviews to ensure that amateur astronomers never miss those must-see events.

Welcome • Are you ready for our biggest eclipse in years?

Sky at Night – lots of ways to enjoy the night sky…

This month’s contributors

FREE BONUS CONTENT

OUT OF DARKNESS, INTO LIGHT • JWST’s near-infrared camera reveals the secrets of a dark molecular cloud

NASA names crew for lunar landing test mission • Training for Artemis III’s complex flightplan is already under way

Strongest hints yet of exoplanet magnetic fields • Unusual wind patterns point to magnetism on worlds beyond the Solar System

Rare meteorite is a glimpse of a lost ancient world • Protoplanet fragment found in the desert reveals missing chapter in Solar System history

NASA sends rescue mission to veteran space telescope • Ambitious LINK mission could extend the life of other observatories like Hubble

Toy technology inspires successful tiny Moon rover • Details emerge about the transformable robot that photographed Japan’s Moon lander

First commercial space station may replace the ISS • Two astronaut missions could help shape the future of low-Earth-orbit exploration

Cosmic wind from Milky Way’s black hole detected • After a 50-year search, scientists spot the long-predicted outflow from Sagittarius A*

Have we really detected water plumes on Europa? • Study says evidence for giant vapour eruptions may not be as strong as once thought

Big star nurseries grow up quicker than expected • New observations show larger star clusters emerge faster than smaller ones

Japan is chasing an asteroid, but is it really following a dead probe? • A new study suggests its mission target may be the Russian 1980s spacecraft Phobos 1

Mysterious little red dots may be quasi-stars • A new model seems to explain the baffling objects - but not completely

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT • We’re constantly scanning for habitable planets and alien life outside our Solar System. But, asks George Dransfield, should the search focus on worlds closer to home?

Big Black Holes and Little Red Dots

A family Moon moment

BBC Sky at Night

Why feeling small is good for you • Standing under a starry sky isn’t just a moment of awe - it makes you a more generous, more connected and less self-absorbed human, says Joseph Phelan

The UK’s great SOLAR ECLIPSE • Up to 96 per cent of the Sun will disappear over parts of the UK on 12 August, followed that night by the year’s best meteor shower. Jamie Carter has the details on an amazing observing opportunity

Eclipse times for UK cities • When the maximum eclipse will happen as it travels across the UK

The eclipse: Europe vs North America • From modest partials to deep, near-total eclipses

Rogue worlds • There are a staggering number of planets wandering the Galaxy, not tied to any star. Keith Cooper asks where they all came from and whether these strange worlds could still harbour life

Why rogue planets don’t explain dark matter • These odd drifting worlds once seemed to explain the Universe’s missing matter

How many Solar System planets went rogue? • Some of Earth’s original neighbours were flung out into deep space

Earth is SLOWING DOWN • The days are getting longer and it’s nothing to do with the time of year. Geraint Evans explains why our Moon acts like a brake on our planet’s spin

The strange case of shorter days • Earth sometimes bucks the longer-days trend and spins faster

The Sky Guide • AUGUST...