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 • Pluto, the Solar System's underdog, keeps surprising us

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

This month's contributors

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ONE-ARMED SPIRAL • Hubble images lopsided Arp 184… and makes out like a bandit!

Universe could end sooner than we think • New model suggests Hawking radiation is speeding cosmic decay

Soviet spacecraft plunges to Earth after 53 years • Decades after its aborted Venus mission, Kosmos 482 crashes into Indian Ocean

JWST finds frozen water in a young star system • Long-awaited discovery finds crystalline water-ice in star's debris disc

One of largest space structures to date discovered • The giant ball of hydrogen, named Eos, has been found on Earth's doorstep

Hide and seek! A massive star hides in the centre of nebula Sh2-46 • The blue-white star, caught on camera by the VLT Survey Telescope, may have formed in the nearby Eagle Nebula

Prowling supermassive black hole spotted • The roving, off-kilter giant is devouring a star 600 million lightyears away

NASA's oldest active astronaut returns to Earth • Don Pettit touches back down as a 70th birthday present

Mystery of Jupiter's luminous aurorae solved • High-energy particles trigger ultra-bright dancing lights in Jupiter's atmosphere

Signs point to Planet 9 • We may have found the first direct evidence of a ninth major planet in the Solar System

Early ‘Hot DOG’ is crammed full of gas • Infrared reveals young galaxy has far more mass than expected

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT • In June, The Sky at Night celebrated 350 years of the Royal Observatory Greenwich. George Dransfield talks time and how the clock rules her own astronomy

Strange New Worlds

Dwarf 3 gets Flora in focus

BBC Sky at Night

SOCIETY IN FOCUS

Alyn Wallace's legacy shines over the Elan Valley • A new memorial to one of Wales's most talented astrophotographers has a special place in the landscape, says Katrin Raynor

Pluto: 10 years on • The New Horizons fly-by of this ancient, icy world continues to surprise a decade later. So what have we learned? Ben Evans investigates

From ice desert to water world? • Finding a liquid ocean will mean dramatically rethinking Pluto's ability to host life

Beyond Pluto • Pluto was just the beginning – New Horizons is now bound for the very edge of our Solar System

Chandra Uncovering the high-energy Universe • The world's most powerful X-ray telescope has been changing our understanding of space for a quarter of a century. Jane Green celebrates Chandra's achievements through some of its most spectacular images

Memories of Hale–Bopp • Three decades on, Stuart Atkinson vividly recalls the wonder of witnessing the last Great Comet

How will we find the next Great Comet? • Automated telescopes scan the skies, searching out new comets

The Sky Guide • JULY 2025

JULY HIGHLIGHTS • Your guide to the night sky this month

NEED TO KNOW • The terms and symbols used in The Sky Guide

THE BIG THREE • The top sights to observe or image this month

THE PLANETS • Our celestial neighbourhood in July

The planets in July • The phase and relative sizes of the planets this month. Each planet is shown with south at the top, to show its orientation through a telescope

THE NIGHT SKY – JULY • Explore the celestial sphere with our Northern...