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July 2026: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?

Features, Science

Our planet’s electronic vulnerability

A black and white photograph of a total solar eclipse. The Moon appears as a dark circular disk at center, surrounded by the Sun's glowing white corona extending outward in streaks and rays — most prominently upward and to the lower left. The background is nearly black, emphasizing the dramatic contrast of the corona's light.

Science, Solar System

Why is the Moon exactly the same apparent size from Earth as the Sun?

Stargazing under city lights

The Milky Way stretches in a broad arc across a dark, star-filled sky above a mountain range with snow-dusted peaks and green alpine valleys. Bright pink and magenta clouds of glowing gas are visible in the upper left portion of the sky, with patches of dark dust threading through the dense band of stars. A few small structures — including a tiny settlement — are visible at the base of the mountains.

Astrophotography, Features

Capturing the night sky in Kyrgyzstan

A dense web of thin blue-purple filaments spans the entire frame, threading through deep red and maroon voids to converge on a blazing central cluster of orange, yellow, and white gas. Scattered across the field, smaller orange and gold clumps glow at the intersections of the filaments. The overall effect resembles a three-dimensional cosmic spiderweb

Cosmology, Features

Untangling the cosmic web

Telescopes and Equipment

Kickstart summer with these new astronomy products

Side-by-side grayscale comparison of the Moon's two hemispheres. The left image shows the familiar near side of the Moon, featuring large dark volcanic plains called maria that give it a distinctive mottled appearance. The right image shows the far side of the Moon, which lacks significant maria and instead appears more uniformly cratered and bright, with prominent crater ray systems radiating outward from impact sites.

Science, Solar System

Why does one side of the Moon have a lot of craters, while the other does not?

X-ray and optical composite image of IGR J11014-6103, a pulsar wind nebula, from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. A large, diffuse cloud of magenta/pink X-ray emission dominates the upper left, representing a supernova remnant. To the lower right, a smaller bright green and pink structure shows a pulsar with jets and a curved tail of X-ray emission trailing behind it, indicating rapid motion through space. Background stars are visible throughout. Credit: Chandra X-ray Center (chandra.si.edu).

What does the term ‘supersonic’ mean in astronomy?

Two bright planets — Venus and Jupiter — shine as close points of light in a deep blue twilight sky above an illuminated city skyline at dusk. The city's skyscrapers, tower, and sprawling lights glow against a gradient sky that fades from deep blue above to lighter blue near the horizon, with low clouds hugging the rooftops.

June 2026: What’s in the sky this month?

A twilight photograph taken from the shore of a calm lake, looking toward a park with trees, streetlights, and a tall flagpole silhouetted against a deep blue and orange dusk sky. Three planets — Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter — are visible as bright points of light in the sky, with two clustered close together near the horizon and one higher up. Their reflections shimmer faintly in the still water below, which is dotted with aquatic plants.

June 2026: What’s in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month?

A wide-field view of M44, the Beehive Cluster, showing a loose, sprawling grouping of bright, individually resolved stars scattered across the center of the frame. The cluster's most prominent members are large, brilliant blue-white stars, contrasted by several warm orange and golden stars interspersed among them. The cluster has no tight central concentration, spreading openly across the field with a rich background of much fainter stars visible throughout the deep black sky.

Deep-Sky Objects, Observing

Observe spring’s star clusters