Ultra-Thin “Young” Crescent Moon Sighted from U.S. Southwest

 Earlier this week, Universe Today challenged North American readers to spot the slender, exceptionally “young” crescent Moon on the evening of New Year’s Day. Three visual athletes based in Arizona took up the challenge on Wednesday evening, with amazing results. Mike Weasner, Rob Sparks and Jim Cadien managed to spot the razor thin crescent Moon …

Amazing Shots! Shenzhou-10 Docked to Tiangong-1, Transiting the Sun

As soon as you see these images, you’ll probably guess who the photographer is … yes, Thierry Legault. He had less than half a second to capture these incredible shots of the Shenzhou-10 module docked to Tiangong-1 Chinese station transiting across the Sun, and it he did it not only once, but twice, on two …

Rare Spectacular Triple Planet Conjunction Wows World! – Astrophoto Gallery

Triple planets (Venus/Jupiter/Mercury) conjunction over Mont-Saint-Michel, Normandy, France on May 26. Credit: Thierry Legault –www.astrophoto.fr Update: See expanded Conjunction astrophoto gallery below[/caption] The rare astronomical coincidence of a spectacular triangular triple conjunction of 3 bright planets happening right now is certainly wowing the entire World of Earthlings! That is if our gallery of astrophotos assembled …

Photos and Videos of Asteroid 2012 DA14 ‘Running Fast Among the Stars’

Yesterday a 50 meter (160 foot) rock passed just over 27,000 kilometers (17,000 miles) from the Earth’s surface. This big space rock, named 2012 DA14, dodged us while another smaller and unrelated asteroid gave us an extraterrestrial punch over Russia (read more about that here). Telescopes around the world — both big professional ones and …

The Moon from Earth As You’ve Never Seen it Before

The Morteus region on the Moon, taken from the suburbs of Paris, France. Credit: Thierry Legault. Used by permission. Think this is an orbital view of the Moon? Guess again. Astrophotographer Thierry Legault took this image from his backyard in the suburbs of Paris, France! He’s taken a series of images of the Moon the …

Big Sunspot; Little Chinese Space Station

[/caption] Astrophotographer extraordinaire Thierry Legault has made a name for himself with his images of spacecraft transiting across the face of the Sun. He has done it again by capturing the first-ever image of the Tiangong-1 space station transiting the Sun. The monster sunspot, AR 1476 absolutely dwarfs the Chinese space station (inside the circle), …

A Beginner’s Guide to Photographing The International Space Station (ISS)

[/caption] If you have seen the International Space Station (ISS) pass over a few times with your own eyes, (here’s our guide on seeing it) you may want to have a go at photographing it. Photographing the ISS is very worthwhile and gratifying. There are two basic methods; one being easy and the other being …