Moon lovers rejoice! International Observe the Moon Night returns on Sept. 19. Here's everything you need to know about how to participate in the annual celebration of Earth's natural satellite both in-person and from the comfort of your home.

International Observe the Moon Night takes place around the first quarter moon in September or October, when the moon is conveniently visible in the late afternoon and evening. It's also an excellent phase for exploring features along the terminator — the boundary between lunar day and night — where long shadows help craters, mountains and other features stand out according to NASA.

The global celebration aims to raise awareness of lunar observation, science and exploration, which has intensified in recent years as NASA and its partners work to return humans to the surface of the moon as part of its Artemis program.

How can I participate?

You can join in with the International Observe the Moon Night celebrations either as part of a group or solo from the comfort of your own home!

Looking for an event near you? Search NASA's interactive global map of hundreds moongazing events from star parties organized by local astronomy groups to virtual events hosted by observatories and passionate amateurs.

Or host your own celebration. NASA has advice on how to host your own private or public event to celebrate the occasion, and you can register on the agency's map so other moon enthusiasts can join you.

You can also participate from the comfort of your home simply by stepping out to observe the moon with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Or you can peruse hundreds of images of the moon captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the astronauts of Artemis II as they journeyed to the far side of Earth's moon.

Anyone with a 3D printer can also create models of the lunar surface made from LRO data, including the landing site of the historic Apollo 11 mission, which touched down in the Sea of Tranquility in July 1969.

Space.com also has a range of fantastic lunar resources to help you get to know Earth's moon! Be sure to check out our explainer article detailing everything you need to know about the moon, along with the latest news on NASA's Artemis program to return astronauts to the lunar surface and our September full moon guide.

Read more: Apollo landing sites: An observer's guide on how to spot them on the moon.

New to stargazing? No problem! Simply check out our guide to observing the lunar disk, along with our picks of the best binoculars and telescopes that'll have you exploring the wealth of craters and lunar seas scarring the near side of the moon's surface in no time.

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

When we had an early preview of the Unistellar Envisions last year, our editor-in-chief Tariq Malik said they felt like something out of Star Trek. I have been very excited about getting my hands on these for a long time and I can't wait to use them to identify stars and constellations in the night sky.

You can preorder the Unistellar Envision AR smart binoculars right now, available for $1499 exclusively from Unistellar.

Unistellar announced that pre-orders were opening for the highly-anticipated Envisions at this year's IFA 2026 conference in Berlin and have delivered more details on the type of functionality customers can expect. The 10x50 smart binoculars can be used with or without the augmented reality (AR) overlay which is able to recognise constellations, planets and deep-sky objects in real time, with more functionality expected to be released within the coming months.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

Unistellar have already shown their muscle in the smart telescope department with the Odyssey, eQuinox 2 and eVscope 2 delivering easy and professional astrophotography to beginner and intermediate stargazers alike. Now they are pushing into the world of smart binoculars with the release of the Unistellar Envision smart binoculars.

These binoculars are "smart" in a different way to the rest of Unistellar's products. They use augmented reality to help users identify constellations, stars and deep sky objects, with a red overlay displaying names and information within the 10x magnified view. Our editor-in-chief got his hands on a pair of Envisions last year and was struck by how sci-fi they felt, likening them to something from Star Trek.

Whilst connected to the Unistellar smartphone app, users can select "Guided Navigation Mode" which guides them to their chosen target. This can also be used for custom targets that the user selects and can be used during shared viewing to help others find the same target. Functionality for geographical landmark identification is expected to be released in the coming months and subsequent software updates are expected to introduce new and exciting uses.

This Unistellar Envision pre-order guarantees delivery before Christmas, so if there is a stargazing obsessed loved one in your life, these smart binoculars could be the perfect gift. They are ideal for those who love adventuring and prefer dynamic skywatching with a new tool that boasts over 1,000 astronomical targets of interest and more than 200,000 visible stars in its database.

Key features: 10x magnification, 50mm objective lenses, porro prism design, weight 2.65 lbs (1.2 kg), five-hour AR battery life, operates without battery as classic binoculars, six-degree field of view, BaK-4 fully multi-coated optics, 1,000+ astronomy targets, +1,000,000 terrestrial targets (functionality expected to be released within the coming months).

Product launched: 2025

Price history: Unistellar did offer the binoculars for $999 for those who pre-ordered them last year but the current selling price is $1,499.

Unistellar exclusive: $1,499

Reviews consensus: We tried them out before general release and were impressed with their augmented reality (AR) overlay which helped us identify stars and a geographical target.

Featured in guides: best smart binoculars

✅ Buy it if: You want an interactive display that helps you learn about the night sky and locate targets.

❌ Don't buy it if: You need stronger than 10x magnification for long-distance viewing or features like image-stabilization or extreme waterproofing.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, lego and much more.

Look west at sunset on Sept. 13 to see brilliant Venus shining close to the delicate arc of the crescent moon. The encounter is a prelude to an even closer meeting the following day, when the moon will pass directly in front of Venus for observers across parts of Europe, Africa and Asia.

Tonight (Sept. 13), Venus will appear as a bright "Evening Star," a little over 5 degrees from the 9%-illuminated waxing moon — roughly the width of your three middle fingers held at arm's length against the evening sky.

Venus, often referred to as "Earth's twin" as a result of its similar size and rocky composition, will be easy to spot as a dazzling point of light in the evening sky, while the moon will be a trickier target, with its barely illuminated disk all but lost in the glare of the setting sun.

The moon and Venus will shine less than 10 degrees above the horizon at dusk, so find a spot with a clear view to the west to give yourself the best chance at catching the solar system pairing before they follow the sun out of view a little over an hour after sunset.

The moon and Venus will shine less than 10 degrees above the horizon at sunset and will be visible for less than an hour before the lunar disk follows our parent star below the late summer skyline. Find a spot with a clear view to the west and start scanning the sky as soon as the sun sets to give yourself the best chance at catching the solar system pairing. You can discover the exact timings for sunset for your location using Time and Date's sunset tracker.

Look out for earthshine brightening the unlit side of the lunar disk, as sunlight reflects off our planet to bathe the moon in a subtle glow, revealing ghostly details on the moon's otherwise unlit side. The phenomenon is best viewed on nights surrounding the new moon phase, when Earth is well positioned to bathe its natural satellite in reflected sunlight.

Millions of stargazers across parts of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and southern India will be positioned to see the moon pass directly in front of Venus in the daytime sky starting at 5:26 a.m. EDT (0926 GMT) on Sept. 14, according to in-the-sky.org. Remember: It's never never safe to point a telescope or binoculars at the sun, as doing so can lead to permanent damage to your vision.

The moon and Venus will be below the horizon for viewers in the U.S. as the occultation takes place. By the evening of Sept. 15, the waxing crescent will appear to have leapt to the left of Venus as it nears the point of maximum brightness in its current evening apparition on Sept. 18.

Want to photograph the crescent moon near Venus for yourself? Then check out our guide to photographing the lunar surface with a DSLR or mirrorless camera, along with our roundups of the best lenses and camera bodies for astrophotography.

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Astrophotographer Osama Fathi created this incredible view of Perseid meteors streaking through circling star trails above Egypt's Western Desert on Aug. 13-14, the night following the shower's peak under dark new-moon skies.

Fathi imaged the star trails in 240 consecutive 25-second exposures, which captured the apparent motion of the stars in Earth's sky as they seemed to circle the celestial north pole and the North Star Polaris. The length of each trail reveals how far the stars appeared to move as Fathi captured their ancient light with his Sony A7 III camera and a 16-35 mm lens during the 100-minute shoot.

But Fathi wasn't alone beneath the desert skies as he captured the scene.

"Capturing this photo in Egypt's Western Desert during the Perseids was an unforgettable experience," Fathi told Space.com in an email. "The night was exceptionally clear and I was surrounded by around 200 fellow astronomy enthusiasts sharing stories, stargazing and photographing the sky."

Perseid meteors appear as unbroken streaks of light, captured in a single exposure as tiny particles — often no larger than a grain of sand — burn up in Earth's atmosphere in the blink of an eye.

Dotted trails closer to the horizon depict the trajectories of satellites as they passed silently through the skies over Egypt's Western Desert. Fathi captured the landscape and starscape separately before combining, or stacking, the images into a mesmerizing image.

The result is a gorgeous nightscape that highlights the beauty of the natural landscape, the rotation of Earth and the natural light show of the Perseid meteor shower that we experience as Earth passes through the trail of debris shed by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.

Want to capture beautiful images of the night sky for yourself? Then be sure to read our guide to photographing star trails, along with our picks of the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography available in 2026.

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your photos of the night sky with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Some stargazing feels like you know exactly what you are looking for, but you're still slightly unsure whether you are actually seeing it. Zodiacal light — meaning "light from the circle of animals" — is often like that.

I have chased this so-called "false dawn" for years, and the first few minutes are always the same. I stare toward the horizon and wonder whether the sky is genuinely brighter there, or whether I am simply seeing distant light pollution, the first hint of morning twilight, or something my eyes have invented because I badly want to see it.

However, under a genuinely dark sky — and particularly in a long-exposure image — its cone shape becomes obvious.

Zodiacal light is enormous. It appears as a broad, softly glowing pyramid rising from the horizon. It can be fainter than the Milky Way and has no hard edges, which is precisely why it is so easy to overlook.

This week is a particularly good time to try because the new moon occurs on Sept. 10-11. With no moonlight interfering with the predawn sky, the main problems become familiar ones to any skywatcher: clouds, haze and artificial light.

The phenomenon itself could hardly be more epic. Zodiacal light is sunlight scattered by dust spread through the inner solar system, concentrated broadly around the plane in which the planets orbit. From Earth, we see that dusty structure edge-on along the ecliptic — the path through the sky followed by the sun, moon and planets. It's home, of course, to the 12 (actually 13) constellations of the zodiac — from Pisces the fish to Leo the lion. This is the circle of animals.

From the Northern Hemisphere around the September equinox, dust-hunting observers should look east before morning twilight, when the ecliptic rises steeply away from the horizon, and the faint glow becomes easier to separate from the murk below. It will reach about 30 to 40 degrees above the horizon.

Zodiacal light is the solar system itself made faintly visible — and one of the most subtle and strangest sky sights of all.

What's happening and when to look

For observers at mid-northern latitudes, September mornings offer one of the year's best windows for spotting the "false dawn" — but it's not easy to see. The essential ingredients are an unobstructed eastern horizon (preferably over the ocean or a large body of water) and no light pollution. You'll need to start looking before astronomical twilight begins rather than waiting until the sky is already visibly brightening, which means getting up very early in a very dark place.

Check the time astronomical twilight begins at your location and aim to be outside before then, giving your eyes at least 20 to 30 minutes to adapt to the darkness. The zodiacal light should appear as a broad triangular glow, widest and brightest close to the horizon and narrowing as it climbs.

It's easy to confuse it with a distant town, but artificial skyglow tends to form a rounded dome above one location on the horizon. In contrast, zodiacal light reaches diagonally — or almost vertically upward — along the ecliptic.

Give your eyes time and save up that one vital ingredient, a vanishing human trait any skywatcher must constantly nurture — patience. Zodiacal light is not something you can walk outside and instantly see. It comes only to those who work for it.

How and when I'm photographing it

A little like a faint aurora, a camera almost always detects zodiacal light before your eyes become completely convinced. The easiest way is to use a tripod and a wide-angle lens, preferably something around 14-24mm, compose with plenty of eastern sky and include a simple foreground to make the triangular shape obvious. A starting point of around f/2.8, ISO 1600, and an exposure of roughly 10-20 seconds usually puts you in useful territory, though sky brightness and lens speed change everything.

Shoot RAW, focus manually on a bright star and capture a series of images. Then, once you've photographed it, try to stop looking at the screen — the entire point is to see it with your own eyes.

Stargazer's corner: September 11-18, 2026

With a new moon on Sept. 10, this week sees a run of dark evenings before our natural satellite gradually returns. On Sept. 14, look shortly after sunset for a slender waxing crescent moon beside Venus, extremely low in the western twilight. By Sept. 16-17, the moon moves on towards Antares, a reddish star at the heart of Scorpius. Then Sept. 18 brings a first quarter moon (perfect for exploring with binoculars or a small telescope) and Venus at the greatest brilliancy of its current apparition as the "Evening Star."

Constellation of the week: Orion

Orion is normally thought of as a winter constellation, so September seems an odd time to go looking for it. However, if you're venturing out to an extremely dark place to look for zodiacal light, you're going to be staring Orion in the face. In September, the Hunter is in the eastern sky before dawn, where its stars sit along the same general strip of sky occupied by the zodiacal light. Its famous belt stars will be up, as will be bright Sirius, below. This is one of the pleasures of observing before sunrise. The sky is effectively showing you a preview of another season. The constellations climbing in the September dawn are the ones Earth will face during winter evenings a few months from now. Jupiter and Mars will also be visible — right on the ecliptic where you'll also — hopefully — spy the "false dawn".

An extraordinary exploding star has been spotted in a distant galaxy, and astrophotographers are racing to capture it before it fades from view.

The supernova, called SN 2026aaiv, was first seen by the ATLAS survey on Sept. 1 in NGC 7331 (also known as Caldwell 30), a spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, visible in the Northern Hemisphere and at mid-latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere.

That makes this supernova a prime target for amateur astrophotographers and astronomers worldwide to capture an image of this rare event.

Hundreds of astrophotographers have already captured it, including Andrew McCarthy, who posted his image on Instagram on Sept. 7 with the message, "As luck would have it, I happened to be in the middle of a massive project with this galaxy, and caught the supernova." He shot four hours of data, two before and two after the supernova, as part of a 100-hour project. "The final image will be EPIC!" he said.

Tom Masterson, Mountain Operations Manager at the Mount Wilson Observatory, also captured it on Sept. 10 using a 60-inch telescope.

What you'll need to find SN 2026aaiv

At magnitude 15.7 on Sept. 11, 2026, SN 2026aaiv is relatively dim, but still brightening. Many of the images posted online were captured with large professional telescopes or remote telescopes in dark regions. However, you can find and photograph SN 2026aaiv with relatively modest equipment. You'll need a telescope or large binoculars to see NGC 7331 (at magnitude 10) at all, but the supernova is dramatically more challenging visually. To have a chance of seeing SN 2026aaiv, a large telescope is recommended (observers have confirmed seeing it using a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope). Use the averted vision technique: look slightly to the side of the galaxy's core so the eye's more light-sensitive rod cells can reveal faint detail.

The easiest way is to use a smart telescope, which can quickly find and image the host galaxy NGC 7331. According to Seestar (Official ZWO Group) on Facebook, users of the Seestar S50 have managed to image the SN 2026aaiv with about two hours of 10-second exposures (the default mode).

How to find SN 2026aaiv

SN 2026aaiv has the coordinates RA 22h 37m 05.618s, Dec +34° 24′ 35.37″. From the Northern Hemisphere, turn toward the east after dark, and you'll see four large, bright stars rising in a vast diamond shape. This is the Great Square of Pegasus, part of the constellation Pegasus. At the northwestern corner of the Great Square is Scheat. Just above it, outside the square, is a dimmer star called Matar. NGC 7331 is close by. In light-polluted skies, only the central core of the galaxy is visible, according to NASA. The galaxy, which we see partially edge-on, has spectacular spiral arms that swirl around a bright central region.

What we know about SN 2026aaiv

SN 2026aaiv is a Type Ia supernova, a catastrophic explosion that occurs when a white dwarf in a binary star system gains enough material from its companion to trigger a runaway thermonuclear reaction, destroying the white dwarf. Remarkably, another Type Ia supernova, SN 2025rbs, was found in the same galaxy on July 14, 2025.

NGC 7331, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2018, was first found in 1784 by British astronomer William Herschel, who cataloged over 2,500 deep-sky objects and discovered Uranus and its two largest moons. NGC 7331 is similar in size, shape and mass to the Milky Way.

Jase Parnell-Brookes has reviewed a huge range of skywatching optics, including the best telescopes, binoculars and image-stabilized binoculars. As our trusted authority and expert tester, when they recommend a product and you're in the market for it, their opinions and recommendations are worth paying attention to.

In their Nikon Stabilized 12x25 binoculars review, Jase reckoned they were without doubt the best compact image-stabilized (IS) binoculars they had ever tested. Right now they have $73 off and are at the best price we've seen since Black Friday 2025.

Get the Nikon S 12x25 binoculars, available for just $627 at Best Buy.

Jase awarded them with a perfect 5-star rating, which was mostly thanks to their excellent stabilization, their unobtrusive controls and incredibly small form factor. They also earned a place on our best binoculars guide as the best compact IS binoculars. This Best Buy deal is worthy of your attention if you're in the market for an incredibly versatile pair of binoculars that deliver still views in a compact body.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

These image-stabilized (IS) binoculars punch well above their weight. Tipping the scales at a feathery 13.9 oz (395 g), they pack effortlessly into any bag, giving you rock-steady views wherever you roam. While the compact objective lenses yield a slightly dimmer view than the naked eye, they still deliver fantastic, crisp performance for casual stargazing.

In their testing, Jase managed to see the Andromeda galaxy (M31) with averted vision and the Orion nebula (M42), so these are worth taking out with you at night for a better look at the stars and some of the brighter deep sky objects.

They are also relatively cheap in the image-stabilized world where models can easily go for $1000 and up, depending on the model. Jase was happy to recommend these over another compact IS model, the Canon 8x20 IS binoculars, and they are actually lighter and smaller too. With their silky smooth steadying and clear views, they highly recommended them for anyone looking to get image-stabilized binoculars but doesn't want to spend big bucks.

Key features: 12x magnification, 25mm objective lens diameter, 4.5-degree angular field of view, 12.3mm eye relief, 13.9 oz (395 g) weight.

Product launched: November 2024

Price history: The Nikon Stabilized 12x25 binoculars usually retail for $699.95 on Amazon. This deal from Best Buy beats the Amazon price easily and, at just $626.95, is the best price we've seen since Black Friday 2025.

Price comparison: Best Buy: $626.95 | Newegg: $629.95 | Amazon: $699.95

Reviews consensus: Space: ★★★★★ | Digital Camera World: ★★★★

Featured in guides: Best binoculars, Best compact binoculars

✅ Buy it if: You are looking for an affordable way into image-stabilized binoculars and need a pair that you can slip into your pocket.

❌ Don't buy it if: You need really high magnification or bigger objective lenses. For more powerful image-stabilized binoculars, try the Canon IS 15x50 binoculars.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, lego and much more.

On clear September evenings, I often find myself looking up just after dusk, expecting the sky to feel a little less like summer. Yet there, still commanding the overhead darkness, are Vega, Altair, and Deneb — the three brilliant stars of the famous Summer Triangle.

Their familiar pattern can make the season feel as though it is lingering above us, even as cooler nights and earlier sunsets suggest otherwise. In fact, even as late as mid-November, the Triangle is still nearly overhead soon after sunset at dusk. That contrast raises a simple but intriguing question: if this bright celestial landmark remains so prominent well into autumn, why do we still call it the Summer Triangle?

Why not simply call it the Autumn Triangle?

Why it belongs to summer

The answer lies not in the calendar, but in how the Triangle moves across the sky over the course of a summer night. The chief reason is that, at this time of year, the Triangle does not remain visible all night. By dawn, it has begun to drop beyond the west-northwest horizon. During summer, by contrast, it remains with us from dusk until dawn: already evident in the east-northeast at nightfall, near overhead around the middle of the night, and descending in the west-northwest as daybreak approaches.

A matter of distance and brightness

The stars that compose the Triangle — Vega, Altair, and Deneb — lie at very unequal distances from us, so their apparent brightness can give a misleading impression of their true luminosity.

The closest of the three is Altair, 16.7 light-years away, followed by Vega at 25 light-years. Deneb, however, is vastly farther off, at roughly 1,600 light-years, though various sources place it between 1,400 and 2,600 light-years. Even though we see Deneb by light that may have begun its journey during the last days of the Roman Empire, it still shines at first magnitude (+1.3, to be exact) because it is a brilliant blue supergiant, at least 55,000 times brighter than the sun.

But their apparent superiority is largely a consequence of distance: Vega and Altair are only a few dozen light-years away, while Deneb lies well over a thousand light-years from Earth. Compared with the stellar lighthouse of Deneb, Vega and Altair are, comparatively speaking, penlight flashlights.

How to say "Vega"

Before continuing with this discussion about the Summer Triangle, it is worth pausing briefly on the pronunciation of Vega, a point that became especially noticeable after the 1997 science fiction drama Contact. Based on Carl Sagan's 1985 novel, the film follows astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway, played by actress Jodie Foster, as she discovers a radio signal from Vega containing a sequence of prime numbers.

Throughout the film, the star is pronounced "Vey-gah," perhaps echoing Chevrolet's Vega, the subcompact automobile sold in the 1970s. Astronomers, however, generally use a different pronunciation.

The traditional astronomical pronunciation is Vē-ga, with the stress on the first syllable. In professional astronomical usage, Dr. Arroway and her colleagues would almost certainly have said "Vee-ga," not "Vey-gah." George Lovi (1939—1993), who was widely respected for his knowledge of star nomenclature, often reminded audiences that "Vee-ga is a star and Vey-gah is a car."

Who named the Summer Triangle?

There has long been debate over who first christened the bright stellar trio of Vega, Deneb, and Altair as the Summer Triangle. Some credit the legendary British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore (1923—2012), who wrote, "During a 1958 television broadcast on the BBC, I introduced the nickname of the Summer Triangle, and everyone now seems to use the term, even though it is completely unofficial." Yet several years earlier, in his 1952 sky guide, The Stars — A New Way to See Them, H.A. Rey (1898—1977) referred to the three stars as a "right triangle," and in his 1954 children's book, Find the Constellations, Rey used the Summer Triangle moniker.

Still others believe the term was popularized through U.S. navigator training manuals during World War II. Interestingly, astronomer Oswald Thomas (1882—1963) described Vega, Altair, and Deneb as "Grosses Dreieck" ("Great Triangle") in the late 1920s and as "Sommerliches Dreieck" ("Summerly Triangle") in 1934.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope, The Old Farmer's Almanac and other publications.

Starting today (Sept. 9), skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere have a chance to spot one of the night sky's more elusive sights: the zodiacal light.

Zodiacal light is a faint, pyramid-shaped glow rising in the east before morning twilight. It is caused by sunlight reflecting off interplanetary dust.

The phenomenon is sometimes nicknamed the "false dawn" because its soft glow can be mistaken for the signs of morning twilight. Unlike dawn, however, the zodiacal light appears as a distinct cone or wedge of light extending upwards from the horizon along the ecliptic — the apparent path the sun, moon and planets follow across the sky.

Early fall provides a good opportunity for northern hemisphere observers to look for zodiacal light before dawn, when the angle of the ecliptic helps the glow stand more prominently above the eastern horizon.

Timing and location are everything in order to observe the Zodiacal Light. You must be far from city lights, looking east, around 4:00 a.m. EDT. Give your eyes plenty of time to adjust to the darkness and avoid looking at your phone or other bright lights while searching for the faint glow.

How to find it

Trace the cone of light as high as possible. Under pristine, dark skies, you can follow this glow deep into the zodiacal constellations that lie along the ecliptic. The base of the light cone will start near Cancer, resting just above the horizon, stretching upward through Gemini, and reaching high into the predawn sky toward Taurus.

How to photograph it

Capturing the Zodiacal Light is very similar to photographing the Milky Way. You will want a fast, wide-angle lens (such as a 14 mm lens at f/2.8) to properly frame the sweeping diagonal of these constellations. Use a high ISO (1600 to 3200) and take a 15-to-20-second exposure on a fixed tripod.

Astrophotographer Kevin Boardman captured this spectacular view of the Crescent Nebula, revealing intricate filaments of gas surrounding a massive star nearing the end of its life some 4,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

Boardman's image represents a turbulent chapter in the life of the colossal Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 (HD 192163), which, visible as a blue point of light at the center of the image, is expected to end its life in a dramatic supernova explosion in about 100,000 years.

The 25-light-year-wide bubble is formed from stellar material cast off by WR 136 during its transformation into a red giant star, according to NASA. Repeated impacts by fast-moving stellar winds later send shockwaves through the outer shell, creating the complex filaments we see today.

Catalogued as NGC 6888, or Caldwell 27, the Crescent Nebula, gets its nickname from its crescent-moon like appearance when observed in certain wavelengths of light. Boardman revealed spectacular detail in the nebula by imaging it with a set of narrowband filters over 16 hours and 18 minutes spread across five nights in late July.

"In the image, orange-red H-alpha reveals the tangled filaments while blue-cyan [O III] outlines emission from doubly ionized oxygen around the shell," Boardman told Space.com in an email. Each filter isolates specific wavelengths of light emitted by ionized gases, allowing different structures within the nebula to stand out.

Boardman collected roughly 12 hours of narrowband data from the nebula itself, along with four hours and 20 minutes of data capturing the surrounding stars, before combining exposures using the astronomy software PixInsight during post-processing.

The Crescent Nebula is too faint to be spotted with the naked eye, but can be seen with a moderate-to-large telescope equipped with a light pollution filter throughout September.

First, locate the magnitude +2.34 star Sadr at the center of the cross-shaped constellation Cygnus, which appears high overhead for Northern Hemisphere observers in late summer.

Next, locate the dimmer magnitude +4.03 star Eta Cygni using the simplified star chart above, or with the aid of a smartphone astronomy app. The Crescent Nebula lies directly between these two bright stars and is best seen on the dark nights surrounding this month's new moon phase on Sept. 10-11.

Be sure to check out our roundups of the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography if you're looking to upgrade your equipment, along with our picks of the top telescopes for observing the night sky.

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Looking for a quality camera that marries style and performance? Look no further than the Nikon Zf. Despite its vintage looks, it's one of the best Nikon cameras you can buy and with its excellent low-light performance, we also rank it as one of the best astrophotography cameras. Now, thanks to this deal, it's the cheapest it's been since last year's Black Friday.

Save $453 and get the Nikon Zf camera, on sale for $1,747 at Amazon.

In our Nikon Zf review, our expert called it "A great buy that offers excellent value for money when compared with some of the much more expensive Nikon models." Now less than $1,800, this is a steal for astrophotographers and photographers in general.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

What's not to love about this Nikon Zf camera? We ranked it as the best camera under $2,000, before inflation pushed it past that price point, and this deal makes it the cheapest it's been since last Black Friday.

Not only does this full-frame mirrorless camera offer excellent low-light performance, so much so that we think it's one of the best cameras for astrophotography, it's a brilliant all-rounder too.

In their Nikon Zf review, expert Jase Parnell-Brookes awarded it four-and-a-half stars, discovering that its strengths go far beyond its vintage stylings, remarking that "It delivered an impressive dynamic range and performed well in various lighting scenarios."

And, while you can point and shoot, the Nikon Zf is packed with controls designed to enhance your experience. From changing the ISO and ISO sensitivity, through to switch to black-and-white mode, you have complete control over your images. That much choice may seem daunting but the buttons and dials are intuitive enough that using them becomes second nature.

There are Nikon cameras out there that can beat its 24.5 MP images, but you'd have to spend significantly more. The Nikon Z8, for example, is over half as much again. If you want to make your money count, the Nikon Zf is the camera to buy. However, you'll have to hurry if you want to make the most of this deal. As we write this, there are just a handful of units left in stock.

Key features: 24.5 MP FX CMOS Sensor, Z mount, 100-64000 (expandable to 204,800) ISO, 4K UHD 30p video, 1 lb 9.1 oz / 710 g weight, 1SD UHS-II + MicroSD UHS-I card slots.

Product launched: September 2023

Price history: This is the cheapest this camera has been all year. It last dropped to around this price last Black Friday.

Price comparison: Amazon: $1747 | Adorama: $2197 | B&H Photo: $2047

Reviews consensus: Reviewing the Nikon Zf, we awarded it four-and-a-half stars praising, in particular, its low light performance and how it stacks up to Nikon's more expensive cameras. We were also impressed by its vintage appearance, replicating the look of a film camera. Its Amazon reviews are just as positive, with just a few purchaser complaining about its weight.

Space: ★★★★½ | TechRadar: ★★★★½ | Digital Camera World: ★★★★½

Featured in guides: Best astrophotography cameras, best Nikon cameras, best cameras under $2000

✅ Buy it if: You want a vintage-styled but powerful camera that will let you take stunning shots of whatever you point it at, the night sky included.

❌ Don't buy it if: You want maximum image detail. You can get better than the Zf's 24.5MP sensor; consider the Nikon Z8 instead.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, Lego and much more.

Today (Sept. 8), skywatchers can first catch a striking predawn pairing of the crescent moon and Jupiter, then — where conditions and location allow — attempt the much harder daytime occultation, when the moon hides the planet from view.

Before sunrise: Find the moon and Jupiter

Set your alarm for 5 a.m. local time on Tuesday and look low toward the east-northeast sky. Check in advance for tall obstructions that could block your view of this delicate predawn tableau. A slender waning crescent moon — just under 10% illuminated and resembling a "celestial smile" — will be immediately apparent. About 5 degrees below it, roughly half the width of your clenched fist held at arm's length, will be brilliant Jupiter.

Jupiter rises in the east-northeast shortly before 4 a.m. local daylight time, but it does not climb fairly high until just before dawn's first light. The planet is in the dim zodiacal constellation Cancer; one of my astronomy mentors at New York's Hayden Planetarium, Dr. Ken Franklin, used to call Cancer "the empty space between the Sickle of Leo and the Gemini Twins." If you set up a telescope before dawn, you can be among the first to see what became of Jupiter's tumultuous cloud belts while the planet was hidden in the sun's glare from early July through mid-August.

Later in the day: The daytime occultation

Another moon-Jupiter show awaits later in the day: a daytime occultation, when the thin waning crescent moon will hide Jupiter from much of North America. Unfortunately, a swath of the western United States — anywhere west and south of a line running roughly from Bellingham, Washington, to Rockport, Texas — falls outside the occultation's visibility zone.

The occultation occurs during the afternoon, when the moon and Jupiter will appear somewhat lower than the sun and well off to its right. Jupiter will disappear behind the moon's sunlit limb, with the moon taking roughly a minute or more to inch across the giant planet's face. Approximately 50 minutes later (give or take ten minutes), Jupiter will gradually reappear from behind the moon's dark edge.

Jupiter will vanish (going from north to south) between 2:55 and 3:30 p.m. for those in the Eastern Time Zone, 1:45 to 2:20 p.m. for the Central Time Zone, and 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. in the Mountain Time Zone.

To find out when these events occur at your location, use the accompanying map. Interpolate between the ten selected cities to find the local daylight time of Jupiter's disappearance (top) and reappearance (bottom) for your site.

How to find them in daylight

The chief challenge will be finding the moon and Jupiter at all, so give yourself plenty of time. The easiest method is to locate the pair before sunrise and track them into daylight. Much will depend on the transparency of your local sky — how deep its blue color is. If the day is hazy, the search will be harder.

1. Start before sunrise, when the crescent moon and Jupiter are easiest to identify.
2. As daylight strengthens, keep tracking the pair or return to the same region of sky about 30 degrees — roughly four fist-widths at arm's length—from the sun, mostly to the right and, for most locations, somewhat lower.
3. Sweep the area with a finderscope or binoculars, remembering that the crescent moon's low surface brightness may make it hard to distinguish from the blue sky.

Once you have the moon, the next challenge is Jupiter. In a telescope, it will appear far smaller than the moon — about one-sixtieth of the moon's diameter — and it will have an even lower surface brightness. Watch for Jupiter to return along the moon's dark limb, a captivating sight as the planet seems to emerge literally from out of the blue.

If you miss it

Sighting the moon and Jupiter in daytime will be challenging, so do not despair if you fail to find them. In less than a month, on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 6, the moon and Jupiter will have another interaction, but this time about eight hours earlier, before sunrise in a dark or twilight sky. That resultant event should be a spectacular sight, easily visible with the naked eye, binoculars, or a telescope. Space.com will provide details as the date approaches, so stay tuned!

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope, The Old Farmer's Almanac and other publications.

I've got three telescopes in my home, but the Celestron FirstScope is my first stop when it comes to stargazing. Now this super-portable, beginner-friendly tabletop scope is $60 at Amazon, even cheaper than Prime Day!

Save 20% on this moon-themed Celestron Firstscope at Amazon

What makes the Celestron FirstScope so fantastic? It's all down to ease of use and portability. There's next to no assembly and once you've unboxed it, you can pick it up in one hand and head outside.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

Even though I've got two bigger telescopes in my home, a Skyatcher Classic 200P and a Bresser Solarix 114/500, I wouldn't dream of parting with my Celestron FirstScope. This tabletop scope is so easy to use and so portable, you can just grab it, head outside and get stargazing.

No fuss, no mess, no scraping the door frame because folding the tripod down seems like too much work. It's also small enough that you can sling it in a backpack, ideal for hopping on your bike and pedalling away from light pollution.

It comes with 20mm and 4mm eyepieces, but you can also trade up to any of the best eyepieces. As a tabletop telescope you'll need to find something to rest it on but a wall or even a trash can will do. And if you're a beginner, or buying for children, you'll be delighted with how the FirstScope performs. We think it's the best tabletop telescope for kids.

And, despite its size, it offers respectable views of the night sky. Testing the scope for our Celestron FirstScope review, expert Gemma Lavender was able to view Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and the moon as well as the Pleiades. It may not be one of the best telescopes for deep space, but if you're new to stargazing, you'll find plenty to wow you.

The lack of a finderscope is slightly disappointing but you can purchase one separately and, even without one, this is an impressively capable telescope, at a price that won't break the bank. It really is that simple. Want to watch Saturn at opposition this Oct. 4? Grab your FirstScope, perch it on a table or wall, and home in on this ringed planet. It's excellent for moonwatching too, especially if you're short on time. We think this is the best tabletop telescope for kids and beginners will love it too.

Key features: Newtonian reflector with Dobsonian mount, 2.99-in (76mm) aperture, 11.81in (300mm) focal length, 20mm and 4mm eyepieces.

Product launched: March 2009

Price history: This is even cheaper than Prime Day, when the Celestron FirstScope dropped to $70.

Price comparison: Amazon: $64 | Walmart: $75

Reviews consensus: Reviewing the Celestron Firstscope, we awarded it four stars, saying "It exudes portability, ease of use and a price that's not going to break the bank." That sentiment still stands and its Amazon reviews are just as positive. At this price, it's a steal.

Space: ★★★★

Featured in guides: Best tabletop telescopes, best telescopes for kids

✅ Buy it if: You're a beginner, are buying for children or want a quick grab-and-go telescope

❌ Don't buy it if: You want to gaze into deep space. The FirstScope can see some star clusters but it's best used to view our own solar system.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, Lego and much more.

Soon, the sky's most glamorous evening performer will take its leave.

Since late March, Venus has been the unmistakable "Evening Star," gleaming shortly after sunset and stealing attention from nearly everything else in the twilight. In June, it helped stage a striking three-planet lineup after sundown, outshining both Jupiter and Mercury.

Now the curtain is beginning to fall: Venus is sinking night by night and will trade its evening role for a morning one before October is over.

A familiar dance around the sun

Venus moves to a remarkably regular beat. Our nearest planetary neighbor circles the sun in an almost perfect path, completing 13 orbits in 8 Earth years. From Earth, that rhythm makes Venus appear to trace five great loops across the sky in the same span. It is a long cycle noticed by skywatchers — and important to the ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations — and it gives each Venus year its own recognizable personality. In 2026, the pattern closely echoes 2018, differing by only about two days.

Key dates this month

Venus is about to blaze at peak brilliance, but this farewell performance comes with a challenge. All month long, the planet will slide lower in the southwest after sunset, shortening the window for a good view. If the horizon is clear and the weather cooperates, these are the evenings to circle on your skywatching calendar.

• Sept. 7: On Labor Day, Venus sets about 1¼ hours after sunset.
• Sept. 14: Look low in the west-southwest 30 to 45 minutes after sunset, when a waxing crescent moon appears around 5½ degrees to the left of Venus.
• Sept. 18: Venus reaches greatest brilliancy, shining at a dazzling magnitude of
  -4.8 near the horizon.
• Late September: The planet slips quickly from view, setting just 35 minutes after sundown by month's end.

Why this farewell is so low-key

Ordinarily, the weeks between greatest elongation and greatest brilliancy are prime time for Venus watchers. Not this year. For evening observers, this apparition has been more frustrating than triumphant, with Venus lingering low in the glow of twilight instead of climbing into a commanding position.

The best views came back in June, when Venus lingered until around 11 p.m. Since then, it has been ducking out earlier each night. By Aug. 15, the evening of greatest elongation — when Venus reached its greatest apparent distance east of the sun — it was already setting just as evening twilight faded.

For observers at mid-northern latitudes, the finale is especially low to the horizon. Around 40 degrees north latitude, Venus will stand only about 5½ degrees above the southwest horizon at sunset by the end of September. That is barely more than half the width of your clenched fist held at arm's length — a beautiful but fleeting target in the fading light.

A crescent world in the twilight

Through a telescope, Venus now shows one of its most striking faces: a narrowing crescent. As its sunlit side turns farther away from Earth, that crescent grows thinner and longer, becoming a delicate arc of brilliant light. With very steady binoculars, you may even glimpse the shape during the next couple of weeks, though the planet's low altitude will make the view shimmer and blur.

The morning star returns

By the end of the first week of October, Venus will have slipped from the evening sky altogether. It reaches inferior conjunction on Oct. 24, passing about 6 degrees south of the sun. Around that time, spotting it on nearby evenings or mornings will be extremely difficult.

But Venus never stays away for long. In November, it reappears before dawn, opening a brilliant new morning apparition. By the winter holidays, it will shine high in the eastern sky as a fitting "Christmas Star," rising more than two hours before daybreak — and nearly four hours before the sun.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, Sky and Telescope, The Old Farmer's Almanac and other publications.

Venus is something of a frustration for stargazers. It's the brightest planet and the easiest to see, while the sight of it close to a crescent moon is one of the most achingly beautiful sights in the sky. Yet it gives almost nothing away.

Mars has its reddish color. Saturn rewards even a small telescope with its spectacular rings. Jupiter has moons, belts and an obvious disk. Venus, meanwhile, spends months blazing away in twilight looking exactly like what people who do not stargaze assume a star should look like — a brilliant white point. What we're seeing is sunlight reflected by its global cloud cover, which in turn makes it impossible to see in any detail.

But every now and then, it does something revealing by becoming a crescent. That is when Venus, an inner planet relative to Earth, finally makes sense.

Put a small telescope on Venus this week and its appearance is completely different from the dazzling dot seen with the naked eye. This week, its disk will dim from 36% to 32% lit as it shrinks toward a thinner crescent as September progresses. At the same time, its apparent disk is getting larger because Venus is moving closer to Earth.

Those two changes are connected. Venus reached its greatest eastern elongation, about 46 degrees from the sun, on Aug. 15. It's now swinging around the inside of its smaller, faster orbit of the sun towards inferior conjunction on Oct. 24, when it will pass roughly between Earth and the sun, and be lost in the sun's glare. Before that, it will reach its peak — greatest brilliancy — in the evening sky on Sept. 18, shining at magnitude -4.8 while just 26% lit. That's the sweet spot, when its increasing angular size and decreasing crescent combine at their brightest, as seen from Earth (though its modeled visual brightness peaks a few days later, around Sept.22). After that, it becomes an increasingly dim crescent.

Seeing Venus as a crescent makes the geometry beautifully obvious. We are no longer looking across the solar system towards the brightly illuminated side of Venus. We are increasingly looking at the planet from behind, towards its night side, with sunlight catching only one edge.

It is almost the same idea as a crescent moon — except Venus is another world tens of millions of miles away. As it passes roughly between Earth and the sun on Oct. 24, it will be 0.27 AU away — equivalent to 25 million miles (40 million kilometers). At its farthest, Venus can be 162 million miles (261 million kilometers) from Earth.

The phases of Venus were historically important. When Galileo observed Venus through a telescope in the early 17th century, seeing it display a broad range of phases helped demolish the traditional Ptolemaic model in which Venus was supposed to orbit Earth in a way that could not produce the full sequence he observed.

Four centuries later, the same observation remains one of the simplest ways to understand our place in the solar system.

Venus becomes far more interesting when it stops looking its best through the naked eye and instead becomes a "wow" moment in a small telescope. As the "Evening Star" sinks lower into twilight, we're not just seeing a crescent — we're seeing a planet orbit the sun.

What's happening and when to look

Venus remains an evening object throughout September, but it is rapidly becoming more challenging from mid-northern latitudes. Look very low towards the west-southwest shortly after sunset, where it should be obvious because practically nothing else in the twilight comes close to its brilliance.

Do not search for Venus with a telescope or binoculars while the sun is still above the horizon. Wait until sunset and make sure the sun has disappeared before pointing optical equipment anywhere near the western sky.

Venus will move through Virgo during the coming days before a particularly attractive conjunction on Sept. 14, when a 16%-lit waxing crescent moon will pass extremely close to a 29%-lit Venus. Two crescents together.

How and when I'm watching it

Venus is one of those objects I prefer to revisit several times rather than observe once. A single look shows a crescent, but observing every week reveals movement.

I'll mostly use my small spotting scope in the front yard to look at Venus as a crescent this month, but if I'm short on time, I'll use some 10x50 binoculars, which can also reveal the phase. The trick is not to expect surface detail — just a clean geometric shape.

Atmospheric turbulence near the horizon can make Venus wobble and shimmer, but its phase usually cuts through.

Stargazer's corner: Sept. 4–10, 2026

With the moon now past last quarter, the early evening sky is finally free from bright moonlight. It's an excellent opportunity to revisit the Milky Way, along with star clusters, nebulas and other deep-sky objects before autumn gradually takes over and its bright center slumps into the horizon. Before dawn, the waning crescent moon moves through Taurus, passing close to Mars on Sept. 6 in Gemini, while brilliant Venus continues to dominate the western twilight after sunset. The dazzling planet remains the unmistakable evening beacon, shining low above the west shortly after sunset. Saturn, meanwhile, continues to brighten in the east during the late evening, making this an increasingly good time to point binoculars or, better still, a small telescope toward the ringed planet.

Constellation of the week: Pisces

Pisces is easy to overlook. Its faint stars form two celestial fish joined by a long cord, creating a broad V-shape beneath the easy-to-find Great Square of Pegasus in the eastern evening sky after dark this month.

This week is a great time to find it because Neptune soon reaches opposition within Pisces, making the distant planet brighter than at any other time this year. Although Neptune needs binoculars or a telescope to spot it, learning the constellation

Pisces has been associated with mythology and water for thousands of years, but finding its subtle pattern also signals that the autumn constellations are beginning to take over the night sky.

A spectacular total solar eclipse will coincide with the peak of the Perseid meteor shower on Aug. 12-13. But will you be able to spot shooting stars in the false twilight of totality?

Perseids appear as Earth plows through the stream of debris shed by comet Swift-Tuttle. Up to 100 shooting stars may be seen each hour around its peak under ideal dark skies, as particles from the ancient comet collide with our atmosphere at speeds of 133,200 mph (214,365 km/h) to etch a fiery path through the summer night sky.

It's an unmissable highlight of the skywatching calendar, supercharged in 2026 by the spectacle of a total solar eclipse, which will plunge millions across Greenland, Iceland and Spain into the darkness of an eerie twilight, as the moon crosses the face of the sun.

Is it possible to see shooting stars during totality?

Yes. The most brilliant Perseid shooting stars can shine bright enough to be spotted in the brief twilight of totality. But it's all a question of timing.

"It would have to be a fireball that passed through the darkest portion of the sky," Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society told Space.com in an email. "The Perseids usually produce about one fireball per three hours at night. That's asking a lot for one of these bright meteors to appear during a 2-3 minute window. If anyone does see one, they had better go play the lottery asap!"

NASA Meteoroid Environments Office head Bill Cooke added his own word of caution, noting that the relatively bright sky during totality will likely hide all but the most brilliant Perseids from sight.

"Only Perseid fireballs will be visible," Cooke told Space.com in an email. "Given the brightness and duration of the eclipse, you might see one if you're extremely, extremely lucky. [The] most likely scenario is that you will see no meteors whatsoever."

The odds are definitely stacked against you. But you never know. A piece of comet Swift-Tuttle could've broken away at just the right time, at just the right point in its orbit to meet a fiery end in Earth's atmosphere, just as the sun slips from view. As for our advice? Keep your eyes locked firmly on the eclipse as it unfolds in the skies above you. There'll be plenty of time for hunting Perseids later.

Want to capture gorgeous photos of the Aug. 12 cosmic doubleheader? Then be sure to read our expert guides to imaging a total solar eclipse, along with tips on photographing fast-moving meteors. You can also stay up to date with all the latest news and reports for the field with our total solar eclipse live blog!

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

The Aug. 12 total solar eclipse is just one day away! Here's how you can watch the entire show live online from the comfort of your home

Millions of people across Spain, Iceland and Greenland will see the moon completely hide the sun during the climactic phase of totality on Aug. 12. Countless more skywatchers across Europe will witness a deep partial solar eclipse, as the moon's curved silhouette covers a swathe of the sun's surface, while failing to cover it entirely.

Thankfully, we live in modern times. So there's no need for you to miss out on the solar spectacle if you find yourself outside of the path of totality, or if clouds conspire to ruin your view. Here's where to watch every phase of the 2026 total solar eclipse live online.

NASA

NASA will be hosting its own livestream of the event starting at 1:15 p.m. EDT on Aug. 12, featuring live views of totality from cameras spread throughout the path of the eclipse. The visuals will be accompanied by information on the science of the incredible event and details on how the agency is working to learn more about our sun.

The NASA coverage will be hosted here on Space.com, but can also be streamed through YouTube, Twitch, NASA+, Facebook, Instagram and Amazon Prime.

Time and Date

Time and Date's YouTube livestream kicks off at 12 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Aug. 12, bringing live views of the eclipse from Leon in northwestern Spain and the island of Mallorca, along with live commentary from journalist Anne Buckle and astrophysicist Graham Jones.

The European Space Agency

An official European Space Agency (ESA) livestream will begin at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) on Aug. 12. The stream will feature expert commentary on the science of the eclipse along with live views from telescopes at the Observatorio Astrofisco de Javalambre, which is located close to the Spanish city of Teruel directly in the path of totality.

Royal Observatory Greenwich

London's historic Royal Observatory Greenwich will host two simultaneous YouTube streams featuring live views of the partial solar eclipse starting at 1:15 p.m EDT (1815 GMT) on Aug. 12. The first livestream will be presented by Royal Observatory astronomer Greg Brown, who will discuss the science of the sun while providing expert commentary on the eclipse, while the second will offer a silent livestream, featuring visuals of the eclipse with no accompanying audio.

The Virtual Telescope Project

The Virtual Telescope Project livestream begins at 1:20 p.m. EDT (1720 GMT) on Aug. 12, bringing real-time views from the organization's robotic telescopes in Manciano, Italy, where a partial eclipse will be visible and from the path of totality in Spain. The Virtual Telescope Project will host a separate livestream a few hours later featuring views of the Perseid meteor shower peak, which occurs overnight on Aug. 12-13.

Be sure to check out our live blog for all of the latest news on the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse. We'll also have reports from Skywatching Writer Anthony Wood as he watches the eclipse unfold low in the horizon in central Spain, and also from Skywatching Editor Daisy Dobrijevic as she witnesses the spectacle during a voyage with HX Expeditions to Greenland!

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your eclipse photos with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Originally launched a decade ago, the ZWO ASI174MM is a planetary astrophotography camera — something you insert into the eyepiece of a telescope to take images and video of deep-sky objects, planets, the moon and the sun. This one is very much geared towards the latter, with solar and lunar imaging its goal.

At first glance, the specification looks simple: a 2.3MP monochrome Sony IMX174 sensor, 5.86µm pixels, USB 3.0 connectivity and a compact red aluminum body. The important details are the sensor size, speed and global shutter. For lunar and solar imaging, where you often want to capture large areas in high frame rate videos and freeze split-seconds of steady “seeing” — when turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere doesn’t degrade an image of an astronomical object — those traits matter more than headline megapixels.

The ASI174MM is especially attractive for solar imaging with an H-alpha telescope — a filter that blocks all wavelengths of light other than H-alpha, which is emitted by hydrogen atoms. That’s because its 5.86 μm pixels match the focal ratios typical of solar telescopes, yielding sharp, efficient detail. Its relatively large sensor can cover more of the solar disc than many small planetary cameras, while its high frame rate supports the usual lucky-imaging workflow of capturing video, selecting the best frames and stacking them for sharper images.

ZWO ASI174MM astronomy camera: Design

• Compact aluminum camera body
• USB 3.0 and ST4 guide port included
• Useful adapter bundle

The ZWO ASI174MM has a compact, lightweight and practical design that’s ideal for use as a camera attached to a telescope. Its small cylindrical aluminum body adds very little strain to a focuser, solar diagonal or off-axis guider, which is particularly useful when working with solar telescopes.

Usefully, the camera includes a high-speed USB 3.0 connection, which is important because the ASI174MM’s main strength is capturing and transferring many video frames very quickly. It can also be used over USB 2.0, but doing so gives up much of the performance that makes the camera appealing in the first place.

An ST4 guide port adds extra flexibility. Although the ASI174MM is primarily sold as a planetary camera, it can also be used as a guide camera (mounted on top of a main imaging scope to capture a wide field of view), especially with off-axis guiders (a device that sits between a main camera and the telescope to precisely track stars), where the larger sensor helps find guide stars more easily than smaller-chip models.

ZWO ASI174MM astronomy camera: Performance

• Excellent for solar and lunar video capture
• Global shutter is a real advantage
• Large pixels favor longer focal lengths

The ASI174MM’s combination of a relatively large 1/1.2-inch sensor, 5.86µm pixels, and fast video capture makes it particularly well-suited to imaging the sun and moon. Compared with planetary cameras built around smaller sensors, it records a considerably larger area of the telescope’s field of view, reducing the number of panels needed for mosaics and making it easier to locate and frame a target.

That larger sensor is especially useful for solar imaging, which is what we tested it with. The exact field of view depends on the telescope’s focal length, but the ASI174MM can capture larger active regions — and, with some setups, most or all of the solar disc — without immediately requiring a mosaic. For example, we tested it with the Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha solar telescope, for which it is a natural match, where prominences, filaments, sunspots and rapidly changing structures on the solar surface need to be recorded at high speed.

The camera’s global shutter is another advantage for solar imagers. A rolling shutter (the standard choice for deep-sky imaging) records an image progressively, one row of pixels at a time, to produce a low-noise, high-dynamic-range image. However, atmospheric turbulence, which slightly shifts the image, can cause distortion. A global shutter exposes the entire sensor simultaneously, helping the ASI174MM preserve the shape of solar and lunar features more accurately from frame to frame.

High-speed capture also supports lucky imaging. Instead of trying to produce one perfect exposure, the camera records thousands of short exposures in rapid succession. Software then identifies and stacks the sharpest frames — the brief instants when Earth’s turbulent atmosphere becomes relatively steady.

While it’s ideal for solar imaging, the ASI174MM is much less convincing as a conventional deep-sky camera. Long exposures can reveal pronounced amp glow towards one side of the frame, while the uncooled sensor becomes increasingly noisy as exposure times increase. Calibration with dark frames can reduce these effects, but it adds complexity and cannot turn the ASI174MM into a modern cooled deep-sky camera. It can be used for short-exposure imaging, guiding and some specialist applications, but solar, lunar and planetary video remain its natural strengths.

ZWO ASI174MM astronomy camera: Functionality

• Captures good data
• ZWO software works well
• Little guidance available

The ASI174MM fits neatly into the established workflow for solar, lunar and planetary imaging: capture a high-speed video, identify the sharpest frames, align and stack them, then sharpen and process the image. Its fast USB 3.0 connection enables high data transfer rates, while region-of-interest controls allow the user to record only a selected portion of the sensor. Reducing the size of the recorded area can substantially increase the frame rate, which is particularly useful when imaging an individual sunspot.

Several free applications can control the camera and record these videos, including SharpCap and FireCapture. AutoStakkert! is widely used to analyze, align and stack solar, lunar and planetary frames, while programs such as ImPPG, RegiStax, Siril, Adobe Photoshop and GIMP can be used for sharpening, contrast adjustment and final processing. Windows users have the widest choice of third-party astronomy software.

However, ZWO also provides its own free ASIStudio software suite. For the ASI174MM, the most relevant applications are ASICap, which controls the camera and records lossless SER or AVI video, and ASIVideoStack, which analyses and stacks the resulting frames (and can also be used for post-processing). ASIStudio is available for both Windows and macOS.

The basic capture process is straightforward. After connecting the ASI174MM to ASICap, exposure time and gain are adjusted until the brightest areas of the sun or moon remain below saturation. Because this is a monochrome camera, the live view can be shown either in grayscale or with false color applied for easier viewing. A video containing around 1,000 to 3,000 frames is then recorded, though the ideal number depends on the target, seeing conditions and available storage.

Storage requirements are significant. Uncompressed high-frame-rate video from the full sensor can consume several gigabytes in a matter of seconds, so a fast computer, a USB 3.0 connection and plenty of free drive space are essential.

Once a video is loaded into ASIVideoStack, the software can assess frame quality, align the image and combine a chosen percentage of the sharpest frames. The finished stack can be exported in formats including JPEG and FITS. JPEG is convenient for immediate sharing, but FITS preserves more of the original image data and is better suited to serious post-processing.

The workflow is functional rather than polished. There is relatively little guidance for beginners and obtaining the best results requires experimentation with exposure, gain, frame rate, focus, stacking percentages and sharpening settings. It can take many attempts to determine which combination works best with a particular telescope and observing conditions. For that reason, it’s wise to archive the video files, which can be revisited and processed later as processing skills/software improves.

How we tested the ZWO ASI174MM

We tested the ZWO ASI174MM planetary camera for two weeks and used it in conjunction with the Skywatcher HelioStar 76mm solar telescope and Solar Quest mount to image the sun in H-Alpha (Hα).

Should I buy the ZWO ASI174MM?

Buy the ZWO ASI174MM if your main targets are the sun and moon, especially if you want a monochrome camera with a larger-than-average sensor, fast frame rates and a global shutter. It remains particularly suited for H-alpha solar imaging, where monochrome capture, speed and sensor area matter.

If this product isn’t for you

If you want a cheaper first planetary camera, a smaller-sensor ZWO ASI120-series-style camera may be enough for basic lunar, planetary and guiding use, though it will not offer the same field of view.

If you want a more modern planetary camera, look at newer monochrome planetary models like the ZWO ASI585MM with lower read noise, smaller pixels or higher resolution, depending on your telescope’s focal length.

If your goal is deep-sky imaging, a cooled astronomy camera is a better choice than the ASI174MM. We have reviewed the ZWO ASI533MC Pro and the ASI183MC Pro and gave both of them nothing less than four and a half stars for beautiful deep-sky astrophotography.

On Aug. 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse will sweep across Earth, giving skywatchers across Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain an incredible view of totality. As the moon completely covers the sun, day will briefly turn to twilight, revealing the sun's faint outer atmosphere, the corona. But could totality reveal something else too?

Although totality never produces true nighttime darkness, it does briefly dim the sky to roughly the brightness of twilight. Since eclipse chasers in Greenland and Iceland will be in the auroral zone — the geographic zone around Earth's magnetic pole where auroras are most frequently seen — it's natural to wonder whether the two phenomena could appear together.

The answer is yes — but only if everything falls perfectly into place.

"During totality, the sky brightness is comparable to civil twilight (the first period of darkness after sunset, until the sun reaches six degrees below the observer's horizon). It's uncommon to see auroras during this time, but by no means impossible," Tom Kerss, independent astronomer and Chief Aurora Chaser for tour company Hurtigruten, told Space.com in an email.

Kerss knows this from experience. Last year, he photographed the northern lights in Norway at twilight, demonstrating that sufficiently bright auroras can remain visible even before the sky becomes fully dark.

However, the aurora's position in the sky would impact its visibility.

"During totality in August, the surface brightness of the sun's corona would almost certainly outshine auroras in its vicinity, but other parts of the sky away from the eclipse could host visible auroral structures," said Kerss.

So while it's physically possible, how likely is it?

Not very.

"If the auroral activity stays quiet, we wouldn't expect to see it during totality even though we know some energy is probably being emitted in the dayside portion of the oval," Kerss said.

To have any realistic chance of seeing the northern lights during the eclipse, Earth would need to be in the grip of a severe geomagnetic storm. These storms occur when eruptions from the sun, such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), slam into Earth's magnetic field. During such conditions, auroras can get a dramatic boost, appearing brighter and more widespread than usual.

Kerss explained that observers would almost certainly need a G4 or G5 geomagnetic storm (G5 is the most powerful category) to overlap with the eclipse to have any realistic chance of seeing an aurora show because they will be on Earth's dayside.

"Bright, nightside aurora can be driven by powerful substorm activity, in which energy is stored and released," Kerss explained. "The dayside aurora is driven by a combination of favorably aligned solar wind (which opens the field lines around the Earth's polar cusps) and strong precipitation directly into the auroral oval. This latter requirement is contingent on very strong or extreme geomagnetic activity."

Kerss' thoughts are echoed by Pål Brekke, a solar physicist and northern lights expert working as Lead of Space Science at the Norwegian Space Agency.

Brekke knows just how difficult this is. He attempted to spot auroras during the 2015 total solar eclipse over Svalbard but found the sky never got dark enough.

"The sky never got that dark — we could hardly see any planets and no stars," Brekke told Space.com in an email. "Most probably because the snow-covered valley and mountains reflecting lights leaking in from the side of the moon's shadow. Making the sky too bright even during the eclipse."

Brekke also pointed out that the timings work against eclipse chasers. Totality occurs in the afternoon over Greenland and Iceland, meaning observers will be beneath the daytime portion of the auroral oval. Unlike the nighttime aurora oval, which expands dramatically during geomagnetic storms, the dayside auroral oval changes much less, making displays harder to see even during active space weather.

"The chance for aurora over Spain is very low — that would need a KP=9 or so — and 20:00 [UTC] is still very early so the fattest part of the oval is still not over Spain at that time. So our guess is it will not be very likely," said Brekke.

There is one scenario, however, that could make eclipse day even more extraordinary.

"If the sun launches CMEs in the days before the eclipse, it'll be very exciting for anyone going to Iceland or Greenland, and since the exceptional Perseid Meteor Shower will also peak on that date, there's a rare opportunity to see three of the sky's greatest wonders together if conditions line up," said Kerss.

The odds may be slim, but they're not zero.

If the sun happens to unleash a powerful geomagnetic storm in the days leading up to Aug. 12, eclipse chasers in Greenland or Iceland could witness something truly remarkable.

If not, don't be too disappointed. During totality, the sun itself puts on one of nature's greatest spectacles — and that's where your attention should be.