Amateur astronomy

Earth can only hold so many photography subjects – but the universe is basically infinite, and so is its beauty. The Astrophotography Prize is a relatively new international competition that celebrates this art, and this year’s winners have been unveiled.

Stargazing can be a complicated and expensive business, but the folks at Beaverlab are looking to make things a little easier and cheaper with the Finder TW2 – a beginner-friendly telescope that's billed as the world's first AI-powered planetary camera.

Gazing at the night sky is all well and good, but the arrival of smart digital telescopes has given stargazers the power to capture and share celestial majesty with relative ease. At under 3 lb, the Dwarf III is one of the most portable around.

Mobile apps and AI processing are making things a lot easier for stargazers via smart telescopes that automate complicated and fiddly processes. The latest addition to Celestron's range can also throw celestial captures onto a smart TV screen.

It's safe to say that French smart telescope innovator Vaonis took the internet by storm last year with the launch of the book-sized Hestia. Now the company has returned to its Vespera model for a second-generation upgrade.

Unistellar has been on a mission to make stargazing easier for amateurs for years, and has now launched its cheapest models to date. The Odyssey range packs in Nikon optics, brings autofocus, and allows for observation of nearby and distant objects.

If you own a DSLR camera, you can simply buy more lenses as your needs dictate, instead of having to buy a whole new camera each time. The Sevunscope is intended to bring that same sort of upgradability to consumer telescopes.

Back at CES 2023, smart telescope maker Unistellar launched a new model that could digitally remove light pollution from cities to give users a clear view of the stars. Now the company has improved on the formula with its new Deep Dark Technology.

Named after renowned photographer David Malin, the Southern Hemisphere’s most prestigious astrophotography competition has delivered a stellar collection of images celebrating everything from stunning deep space snaps to more earthbound nightscapes.

An incredible image of a solar eclipse has won this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Selected from more than 4,500 entries, the shot was awarded alongside other highlights, including a technically masterful mosaic of our Milky Way.

NASA has released a collection of 50 stunning Hubble images to celebrate the veteran telescope’s 30th anniversary, which took place earlier this year. The images show 30 cosmic objects, visible to amateur astronomers across the globe.

Amateur astronomers have made some pretty amazing observations in the past. Now, an Argentinian amateur astronomer named Victor Buso is thanking his lucky stars, after capturing on camera the very moment a star went supernova.