Molly Wakeling, Author at Astronomy.com

Watch Jupiter’s moons in action this month

Molly Wakeling — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 14:00:00 +0000

It may be cold this month, but now is a great time to get outside and explore Jupiter’s beauty and might. The fifth planet will not only reach opposition on Dec. 7, it will also be at perigee (closest to Earth) on Dec. 6, putting on its biggest and brightest show of the year. KnownContinue reading "Watch Jupiter’s moons in action this month"

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Finding your first astroimaging rig

Molly Wakeling — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Getting started in astrophotography can be daunting. With so many different telescopes, cameras, and mounts and all their variations, where do you start? The first piece of equipment you should choose is a mount, the mechanical base that the telescope attaches to. For astrophotography, the mount must be motorized, and ideally computer-controllable. This might soundContinue reading "Finding your first astroimaging rig"

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What gives stars their colors?

Molly Wakeling — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 13:00:00 +0000

When we think of color in the night sky, we often think of beautiful images of galaxies and nebulae. Unfortunately, most of the time, their faint, diffuse light shows no color to our human eyes. Stars, on the other hand, have more concentrated light, and there we can see color — even with the nakedContinue reading "What gives stars their colors?"

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How to choose the right focal length for your astrophotos

Molly Wakeling — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

On the first night out with my brand-new Celestron NexStar 8SE back in July 2015, I knew little about the relative sizes of astronomical objects. I was bowled over by my first view of Saturn — an impressive sight through an 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) — and I was eager to see more. I knewContinue reading "How to choose the right focal length for your astrophotos"

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Tools for finding dark skies

Molly Wakeling — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Have you ever seen the Milky Way? Only 20 percent of people in the U.S. live in a location where they can. Away from light pollution, the wide, ghostly band almost looks like clouds, and the stars overhead look so big and real that you feel you might fall into the sky. Through the eyepieceContinue reading "Tools for finding dark skies"

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How to take Hubble-like photos: Filters and post-processing guide

Molly Wakeling — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 14:29:21 +0000

Since the early 1990s, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured breathtaking images of tens of thousands of celestial objects, inspiring a generation of professional scientists and amateur astronomers. Some of its most captivating images are of nebulae like the famous Pillars of Creation at the heart of the Eagle Nebula (M16), rendered in vibrant greens,Continue reading "How to take Hubble-like photos: Filters and post-processing guide"

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These are the safe ways to look at the Sun (and you know you want to)

Molly Wakeling — Wed, 08 May 2024 13:31:27 +0000

You heard it from your parents. You’ve seen it printed in bold on telescopes. “Do not look at the Sun!” But how can you resist observing the fiery ball of furious fusion that dominates the sky? Fortunately for the curious among us, there are some safe ways to do just that. And while the totalContinue reading "These are the safe ways to look at the Sun (and you know you want to)"

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How to observe the Sun safely during a solar eclipse

Molly Wakeling — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:42:06 +0000

The April 2024 total solar eclipse across North America is fast approaching! Being in the shadow of the Moon and taking in the incredible view of the Sun’s corona is an unforgettable experience. Totality is just a few minutes of the whole experience, however — watching the Moon taking a larger and larger bite outContinue reading "How to observe the Sun safely during a solar eclipse"

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Here are a few targets Messier missed that are worth a visit

Molly Wakeling — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 15:00:00 +0000

In 1781, French astronomer Charles Messier published a catalog of 103 objects in the heavens. He was primarily interested in comets, but kept finding fuzzy smudges that did not move against the background stars — so he published a list of objects to avoid while comet hunting. The list includes diffuse nebulae, planetary nebulae, openContinue reading "Here are a few targets Messier missed that are worth a visit"

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Observing Basics: How you can take sharp pictures of the planets

Molly Wakeling — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 15:00:00 +0000

How do astroimagers get such sharp images of the Sun, Moon, and planets? The answer is a technique called lucky imaging. As every astronomer has witnessed, the atmosphere roils with waves as hot and cold air mix, causing our neighboring celestial bodies to blur at the eyepiece or in the camera. Fortunately, lucky imaging canContinue reading "Observing Basics: How you can take sharp pictures of the planets"

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