Images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed new secrets about a nearby galaxy, leaving European Space Agency (ESA) astronomers with all sorts of questions about its mesmerizing structure and glistening star formations.

Centaurus A (also known as NGC 5128) is located 11 million light-years away from Earth and has been well documented by scientists since its discovery in 1826. However, vibrant cosmic dust shrouding the galaxy’s central region made it difficult to observe, and even the Hubble Space Telescope couldn’t provide detailed enough images.

But unlike Hubble, JWST features a Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) that cuts through the hazy space gases, which the ESA says exposes the galaxy’s inner workings and a prime case of “galactic archaeology”.

Most notable to the astronomers is the “warped” parallelogram-like band of light peppered with stars stretching across the center of NGC 5128, while wisps of material flow outward like clouds.

This formation was revealed by combining images from the MIRI with those captured by the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), with the ESA thinking it could have been the result of a cosmic collision with another galaxy billions of years ago.

The astronomers also used James Webb’s spectroscopy instruments to determine how the black hole at the center of Centaurus A influences the galaxy as a whole. While the researchers are certain it can trigger new star formation by compressing gas, and also limit this by pushing cosmic material away, the “complex” answers continue to elude them.

Even though the ESA astronomers have been left scratching their heads, they’ve said that the new images have enabled them to trace dust, resolve millions of stars and reveal the motion of gases in unprecedented detail, transforming Centaurus A into a “vivid record of cosmic history”.

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Instead of relying solely on billion-dollar space telescopes, NASA should also consider using pictures taken by astronauts with commercial handheld cameras to study the cosmos. That’s what astronomers at Tokyo City University, Japan, have suggested in a new research paper.

The paper has revealed how an image taken by one of the astronauts during the recent Artemis II lunar mission has improved understanding of the F corona – scattered light from cosmic dust forming part of the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere.

The image was taken on day 6 of the lunar mission as the astronauts witnessed a total solar eclipse from the far side of the Moon. We don’t know which astronaut pressed the shutter, but we do know, thanks to EXIF data, that they used a Nikon Z9 and Nikkor 35mm f/2D lens, with settings: 2secs at f/2, ISO 1600.

According to the Japanese astronomers, the F corona is a faint spreading structure that can be seen in the image surrounding the Moon, which is obscuring the Sun, and special conditions such as a total solar eclipse are required for observation.

By analyzing the image, the astronomers deduced that the extent to which the F corona is distributed in the north-south direction is greater than scientific models have previously predicted, revealing new understanding of the origin and evolution of materials within the solar system.

The Tokyo-based researchers have said the study represents a pivotal intersection of science and human activity, as “a single photograph taken by a person in space” has highlighted a potentially crucial role astronauts using handheld cameras could play in the future of astronomy.

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European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot has shared the latest of the incredible images she’s captured from aboard the International Space Station (ISS), this time treating us to a mesmerizing shot of the aurora borealis as it glistened over Earth.

Adenot is part of the Epsilon mission crew, who are expected to remain in orbit for around nine months conducting microgravity research, and this new image was captured on day 127 (orbit 1,968) some 250 miles above the planet.

“That aurora was absolutely spectacular… shimmering and dancing beneath us, stretching as far as the eye could see, and so intense it lit up the Station in shades of green,” said Adenot. “Moments like these never get old up here; the whole crew suddenly find themselves vying for a good spot at a window!”

An aurora occurs when electrically charged particles from the Sun collide with gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere, causing atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen to glow vibrantly.

Adenot said she’s seen several since the mission began, but this one was “on a completely different level”, requiring different camera settings than usual. To capture the shot, she set her trusty Nikon Z9 to 1/4 sec, f/1.4 and ISO8000.

The astronaut has been documenting the mission with camera in hand since the beginning and has built out an amazing portfolio.

On day 103 (orbit 1,598) she snapped an awesome image of Mt. Vesuvius – the volcano which destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii – and Mt. Etna, an active stratovolcano on the island of Sicily, while smoke billowed from its crater.

With roughly a month left of the Epsilon mission, I’m sure we can expect more fascinating images from her before the space odyssey comes to an end.

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Photographers may have more than fireworks to capture this Fourth of July weekend, as several sun flares could mean a natural night sky light show over the next few days. Heightened solar activity could increase the odds of seeing the aurora farther south than usual over the weekend.

The sun emitted several flares over a 24-hour period on June 30. Those flares could potentially spark an aurora this weekend, as early as tonight, with heightened chances for an aurora continuing into the weekend.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s three-day geomagnetic forecast predicts that the highest levels of activity could potentially hit a KP6, a moderate G2-level storm, around 18:00 ET today. The levels remain above a KP4 for more than 24 hours, however.

NOAA, however, notes that this particular solar activity makes the forecast unpredictable, and the timing could come earlier or later than expected. The sun unleashed 10 flares over a 24-hour period, and how those flares interact makes the aurora even more challenging to predict than usual.

The organization notes that there is “some uncertainty” on the timing due to that unpredictability – if the solar activity hits during daylight hours, the aurora would not be visible.

With the timing uncertain, photographers should check NOAA’s short-term forecast – which tends to be more accurate than the three-day forecast – before losing sleep.

If the conditions remain favorable, northern US states and Canada could see some aurora activity:

The UK's MET Office is also monitoring the activity and notes a potential aurora, but says that "any aurora is likely to be restricted to the northern parts of the UK and similar latitudes."

Thankfully, photographing the aurora is a little like photographing a fireworks show: Bring a tripod and prepare to use slower shutter speeds.

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NASA’s deep space images often feel like both science and art. But NASA’s latest images are art in more ways than one: they come with sound. NASA recently released a set of new images that are impressive on their own, but come accompanied by music created from scientific data.

NASA’s sonigications translate different data points from the photographs into different musical elements. The brightness of the image, for example, turns into volume, creating a crescendo at the brightest points of the photograph.

NASA used different scans, such as left to right and a clockwise circle, along with using different instruments to represent different data. In one sonification of the Milky Way cluster NGC3603 for example, the data that comes from Chandra’s X-ray observations becomes piano notes, while the Hubble data becomes an acoustic guitar.

A photo that creates a song is unusual in itself, but the set of images also features red, white, and blue galaxies and nebulae as NASA’s nod to America’s 250th birthday this Fourth of July. That seems extra appropriate, because what fireworks show is complete without sound?

Those colors, however, aren’t just patriotic but represent different visual data and hint at where that image came from. Chandra’s x-ray technology tends to render blues, purples, and whites. Layering those images with visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet photographs from additional space telescopes, like Hubble and James Webb, offers both more colors and a more complete dataset.

The cluster of Milky Way stars known as the nebula NGC 3603 looks almost like an exploded firework. NASA says the bright red cluster of stars is revealed by mixing data from Chandra with images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The new collection also features the galaxy NCG 4736 or Messier 94, a shot that mixes images from Chandra with photos from astrophotographers on the ground using telescopes. The combination shows off the galaxy’s inner starburst ring, where new stars are forming.

The blue inside the final image collection comes from Hubble data on a distant cluster of galaxies known as ZwCl 0024+1652, while data from Chandra’s X-ray data adds the red superheated gas to the image.

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The world’s largest camera was built for scientific discovery, but as the Vera C. Robin Observatory begins its decade-long survey of the night sky, the researchers are calling the work both scientific and a “blockbuster movie of the Universe.”

The Vera C. Rubin’s record-breaking size and resolution are the result of two decades of research and engineering, but on June 30, the camera’s ten-year survey of the night sky officially began.

The ultra-high definition, ultrawide-angle camera has begun creating a time-lapse of the night sky, which researchers expect will continue for a decade. “Today, we begin filming the greatest cosmic movie ever made,” said Brian Stone, the Chief of Staff, currently performing the duties of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director.

Deputy Director of Rubin Operations for SLAC echoed a similar theme of the observatory’s impact on both science and technology. “It’s taken 20 years of hard science, engineering, and more to get to the point where we can call ‘action’ as we start rolling on this blockbuster movie of the Universe,” Marshal said. “Millions of alerts in just the last couple of months show that Rubin is up and running as a discovery machine. Now we’re putting it all together.”

Located on a mountain in Chile, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is operated by the NSF’s NOIRLab and the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory took its first 3,200 megapixel photograph of the universe last June as part of the initial testing, but now the massive 6,200-pound / 2800 kg camera has officially begun its ten-year time-lapse of the night sky.

NOIRLab calls the observatory “the most powerful Solar System discovery machine ever built.” The Legacy of Time and Space Survey’s anticipated scientific contributions stem from both the tech behind the camera and the camera’s ten-year survey that could map out changes in the night sky over the next decade.

The observatory is now capturing one photo of the southern sky about every 40 seconds overnight. While the survey will pause for unfavorable conditions such as cloud cover, the system is expected to take around a thousand images every night for the next ten years. That’s about ten terabytes of data every night in operation.

Researchers believe that the camera’s high resolution and ultra-wide lens will uncover details about the universe not previously observed by earlier technology. During just the month and a half of early surveys to prep for the decade-long survey, researchers noted that Rubin had spotted more than 11,000 asteroids that had never been spotted before.

Software will help sift through the massive amounts of data, with researchers estimating that the system could send as many as seven million alerts each night.

The observatory’s early images are available to explore online.

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July 2026 is a month of contrasts for astrophotographers in the Northern Hemisphere. On one hand, nights are short, compressed into a narrow window between lingering twilight and early dawn. On the other hand, what darkness remains is hard to resist. This is peak season for the Milky Way’s brightest region and the last chance to image Jupiter in evening twilight. Add a well-timed new moon, a photogenic full ‘Buck Moon’ and a meteor shower, and July becomes less about quantity of darkness and more about timing. Here’s everything you need to know about astrophotography in July 2026:

Read: 10 must-shoot events for astrophotographers in 2026

July 11: Moon and Pleiades

If you can get up an hour before sunrise and you have a clear east-northeastern horizon, look for a 15%-illuminated waning crescent moon curled around the Pleiades open cluster (M45), with Mars and orangey red supergiant star Aldebaran below.

Read: When to photograph the moon

July 11-12: Manhattanhenge

July’s best celestial photography opportunities are not confined to dark skies. Twice each year, three weeks before and after the summer solstice, Manhattanhenge occurs in New York City. On both evenings this weekend, the setting sun will align perfectly with Manhattan’s grid of streets and be framed by the borough’s skyscrapers. On 11 July, the entire disk of the sun will appear on the horizon between the skyscrapers, while on 12 July, it will be possible to capture the “kiss the grid” effect, with half the sun appearing below the horizon line as it sets directly within Manhattan’s grid. For photographers, this is about geometry and timing. Use a long lens (200mm or more) to compress the scene and position yourself along major streets such as 42nd or 34th. Arrive early, as crowds gather quickly. Bracket your shots to retain detail in both the sunlit sky and the shadowed foreground. The definitive source for details about Manhattanhenge is New York’s American Museum of Natural History.

Read How to photograph Manhattanhenge

July 17-18: Dark sky window

Night is short enough in July without having to contend with a bright moon. So keep your attempts to image the Milky Way and anything in the deep sky to a few nights before and after the new moon on Tuesday, July 14. In mid-northern latitudes, the brightest part of the Milky Way becomes visible low in the southeast after dusk and climbs higher through the night. Use a wide-angle lens (14-24mm), a fast aperture (f/2.8 or thereabouts), ISO 800-3200 and exposures of 10-20 seconds to capture it, then use post-processing software to draw out detail. A star tracker will allow longer exposures and finer detail, revealing dust lanes and star clouds.

Read: How to photograph the Milky Way

July 17-18: Crescent moon returns

The nights after the new moon offer a chance to capture an ultra-thin crescent moon in the western twilight sky. On July 17, you can catch a 16%-illuminated waxing crescent moon close to Venus, with it slightly brighter and farther away from the planet on 18 July. You’ll need a clear horizon, precise timing and a tripod. Use a short telephoto lens (100–300mm) and expose for the crescent itself — Earthshine may be visible as a faint glow across the rest of the lunar disk.

Read: The best star tracker camera mounts

July 29: Full ‘Buck Moon’ rises

The time to image July’s full moon — known as the Buck Moon — is at moonrise where you are as its light passes through more of Earth’s atmosphere and takes on a warm orange hue. Scout a clear southeastern horizon and use apps like The Photographer's Ephemeris and PhotoPills to align the rising moon with foreground elements such as buildings, hills or coastlines. A telephoto lens in the 200-600mm range will exaggerate the moon’s size relative to the landscape.

Read: How to photograph the full moon

July 30-31: Delta Aquariid meteor shower peaks

The Delta Aquariids peak overnight, though this year the bright moon will significantly reduce visibility. Even so, it’s worth attempting wide-field imaging, being sure to orient the camera away from the bright moon’s glare. Meteor photography relies on persistence and volume. With a camera and a wide-angle lens on a sturdy tripod, aim away from the moon and start with ISO 800-3200, f/2.8, 20-25 seconds. Then, when you’re happy the finished image is balanced and sharp, switch to continuous shooting for a few hours.

Read: The best lenses for astrophotography

Astrophotography shot of the month: The Milky Way in H-alpha

July is arguably the best month of the year to photograph the Milky Way’s brightest section visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Rising high on warm, moonless nights, the galaxy’s central regions in Sagittarius and Scorpius become prime targets for wide-field astrophotography. However, shooting the Milky Way in Hydrogen-alpha — or H-alpha — reveals a new view.

Most standard DSLR and mirrorless cameras block up to 90% of H-alpha light, which is why many astrophotographers increasingly use astro-modified cameras or narrowband H-alpha filters combined with star trackers for long exposures. Think of it as switching from ordinary night vision to an X-ray view of the galaxy’s hidden structure — suddenly the Milky Way appears alive with stellar nurseries and glowing interstellar clouds.

H-alpha filters isolate a deep-red wavelength of light emitted by glowing hydrogen gas at star-forming regions across the galaxy. The result is striking: crimson nebulae and intricate gas clouds emerge from within the Milky Way’s star fields, particularly around Sagittarius, Cygnus and Scorpius. Love it or loathe it, H-alpha images of the night sky are here to stay.

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• Astrophotography tools: the best camera, lenses and gear

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As much as I love chasing the northern lights, I haven’t yet attempted to see the southern lights. But NASA astronaut Jessica Meir arguably had one of the best views of the early June 2026 phenomenon, snapping swirling greens and reds 271 miles above the Indian Ocean aboard the International Space Station.

NASA shared the stunning photograph on June 16, but Meir captured the photo of the Australia Borealis on June 5 as the ISS passed south of Perth, Australia.

The photograph mixes both the arch of the lights with the curve of the Earth and swirling clouds. That means Meir and other ISS astronauts likely had one of the few viewing spots for the June 5 southern lights, as cloud cover will obstruct the views of the night sky phenomenon from Earth.

Meir took the photo with the Nikon Z9, which is one of the first mirrorless cameras ever to make the trek to space. As space cameras need to be thoroughly tested to withstand the rigours of space, using older DSLRs is more common – like aboard the recent Artemis II mission – but the Z9 is one of the first mirrorless cameras to be tested in space.

Meir took the shot through a window at the ISS – parts of the space station are visible at the top and bottom of the frame. A slow 1/4 shutter speed, bright f/1.8 aperture, and ISO8000 helped the camera gather enough light from the dark scene.

Meir is scheduled to remain at the ISS as the spacecraft commander through September 2026. Meir’s background is in studying life in the most extreme environments, from expeditions to study penguins in Antarctica while studying for her Ph.D. to her current role conducting biology experiments in space. Meir was also among the first all-female spacewalks alongside Christina Koch in 2019.

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Few people have seen the iconic Mt Vesuvius – famed for burying the Roman city of Pompeii in AD79 – and Mt Etna – an active stratovolcano on the island of Sicily – like French astronaut Sophie Adenot.

From aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where she’s currently 119 days into a 9-month stint, Adenot has perhaps the most awe-inspiring views of the iconic peaks, which, fortunately for us, she recently photographed and shared with the world.

On day 103 in space, during her 1,598th orbit of the Earth, the astronaut pressed the shutter of her Nikon Z9 while peering into the crater of the dormant Vesuvius, which, from space, appeared nothing more than a pimple. She captured Mt Etna less than a minute earlier, its snow-capped peak billowing smoke.

“From orbit, volcanoes are some of the most beautiful natural sights,” said Adenot in an ESA statement. “Etna caught me by surprise one morning as I opened the shutters. The whiteness of its slopes… and that elegant plume of smoke which is a gentle reminder that it’s only lightly, very lightly, asleep.”

Adenot was working with a Nikon Nikkor Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S telephoto lens, but snapped both images at a 560mm focal length, so she had switched in the in-built teleconverter to crop in that bit closer. All of the frame in both images is sharply in focus and that’s thanks to an f/14 aperture, with plenty of sunlight and an ISO 500 used for correct exposure.

This is Adenot’s first mission to space and she’s wasted no time in documenting the experience on camera.

Part of the ESA εpsilon mission which blasted off in the SpaceX Dragon capsule, she’s captured plenty of candid portraits of her teammates NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, along with scenes of her native France.

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I’ve long been awed by photographs of the night sky, but one of the latest images to stop me in my tracks isn’t a “photograph” at all. A radio telescope in Australia has built the largest magnetic map of the universe yet, a colorful image five times larger than all the previous radio mapping efforts combined.

The data comes from Australia’s national space agency CSIRO and the SKA Observatory, which recently used the ASKAP radio telescope to scan the skies and build the largest radio map of the universe yet.

The ASKAP telescope doesn’t collect photographs of the universe in the traditional optical sense, but collects radio waves naturally emitted by stars and galaxies. Light is still essential to the way that the technology works, however. CSIRO explains that light twists as it passes through magnetic fields.

The telescope, which is located in Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia, measured how twisted the light was, allowing the researchers to map where the magnetic fields are and note their strength.

The resulting magnetic map is the largest of its kind and will be used to help further understand the details of our universe. “For the first time, we can investigate fine details of the material between nearby stars, and study a huge number of distant galaxies,” said Dr. Alec Thompson, lead researcher and SKAO scientist.

The ASKAP telescope completed its first survey of the sky in 2020 – called Rapid ASKAP Continuum Surveys or RACS – which at the time broke records as both the fastest and largest radio sky survey.

Researchers said the latest map – dubbed the SPICE-RACS – was made possible not only by the ratio telescopes' wide field of view and dish rotation, but also the ability to process massive amounts of data.

ASKAP will continue to build maps of the sky as researchers dive into the large amount of data from the latest map.

“With the information we now have on magnetic fields throughout the Universe, we can study things like how magnetic fields affect the galactic-scale interaction of our own Milky Way and its neighbours, the Magellanic Clouds,” said SKAO Chief Scientist and research team member Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths. “We can even potentially find the answer to questions like when did magnetic fields first appeared in the Universe? We had once thought it would be impossible to answer these questions. I’m excited to say that is no longer the case.”

The data collected is available to researchers around the world.

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After six months of lost contact, NASA has officially declared the Mars orbiter MAVEN lost to deep space. On June 3, NASA announced that the MAVEN Mars spacecraft has come to an end.

NASA unexpectedly lost communication with the orbiting Mars spacecraft in December 2025. After evaluating potential recovery efforts, the space agency has now officially declared the spacecraft as unrecoverable.

While NASA’s loss of contact with the orbiter was unexpected, the MAVEN mission was originally only expected to last for one year after reaching Mars in 2014. However, the orbiter continued to supply researchers with data on Mars’ atmosphere for more than 11 years before an uncontrollable spin drained the orbiter's battery, ultimately causing a loss of signal that could not be recovered.

MAVEN did not have a traditional visible light camera on board. Instead, the spacecraft was equipped with an ultraviolet spectograph imager that not only helped researchers study the planet’s atmosphere, but also sent back unusually colored images of the red planet. Ultraviolet images are edited with different colored filters in order to create images that the human eye can easily interpret.

In honor of the MAVEN’s 11-year mission, these are some of the best images coming from that ultraviolet camera.

This photograph, captured in July 2022, captures the red planet's southern hemisphere and polar ice cap. MAVEN captured this ultraviolet image as Mars was closest to the sun.

The ultraviolet capture shows off not only the polar ice cap, but the large pink Argyre Basin – one of the deepest on the planet – and at the top left, the Valles Marineris canyons.

Ozone turns the northern section of the Red Planet purple in this shot from January 2023. The photo is the opposite of the one above, taken when Mars is the farthest from the sun and showing the northern hemisphere.

Credit: NASA/MAVEN/Goddard Space Flight Center/CU/LASP

NASA built this animation by combining ultraviolet images from MAVEN with a simulated view of Mars. Combined, the animation shows how Mars pulses and glows in the night, thanks to a chemical reaction creating nitric oxide, which NASA says is caused by downward winds.

This ultraviolet photo, taken less than two years into the MAVEN mission, shows several of Mars' iconic features. The slash across the middle is the two-thousand-mile Valles Marineris canyon, while the three yellow dots to the left are volcanoes. The purple at the bottom is caused by ozone absorbing ultraviolet light.

Mars orbiters can take selfies too. This image shows a small slice of the spacecraft with Mars in the background. The arm of the camera couldn't rotate enough to get the entire spacecraft in the image, but it did manage to capture a slight selfie to celebrate four years in orbit.

NASA says this image shows rapid clouds building across a two-day span in July of 2016. The yellow spot near the top left is Olympus Mons, which is the tallest volcano on Mars.

This photo may not look like the shots of the Aurora on Earth, but the purple shows waves of energy that show that Mars gets auroras, too. MAVEN took this shot from underneath Mars, looking up. The South Pole ice cap is the white patch on the bottom left. NASA explains that Mars' auroras are not like those on Earth – they sit close to the equator, so it would be like viewing the aurora from Florida.

This image may not look impressive enough to be wall art like some of MAVEN's other colorful shots, but it is both a significant scientific breakthrough and a technical imaging feat. The blue in the image shows hydrogen escaping from Mars' atmosphere.

NASA explains that the image is a composite of around 400,000 observations taken early in the MAVEN mission. MAVEN was able to take map this hydrogen loss that happens from the breakdown of water and Mars' low gravity continually over an entire Martian year.

Finally, it feels fitting to honor the end of the MAVEN mission with a photo from the very start. The spacecraft launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida in November 2013. MAVEN took about ten months to reach Mars' orbit.

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Four coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun are headed towards Earth – which means photographers could be in for an aurora light show overnight June 04 and 05.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has spotted four CMEs that could collide with Earth’s atmosphere, potentially creating an aurora that could be seen as far south as Illinois and Oregon, as well as in parts of the UK. Parts of Australia could potentially also see the southern lights.

The G3 solar storm warning could spark levels as high as KP 7 – which is considered an active aurora – overnight.

While the forecast is for not one but four CMEs headed towards Earth, the unusual nature makes the timing of the potential aurora’s arrival harder to pin down. Currently, the forecast calls for the highest levels of a potential KP7 at 7 PM EST on June 04. The prediction remains at a KP6 and higher for several hours before dropping to a more moderate KP4.

Because those four CMEs could interact and merge, however, NOAA warns that the storm could potentially fall as much as 8 hours earlier or as late as 8 hours later. NOAA’s 30-minute forecast tends to be the most accurate, so photographers and sky watchers may want to check the short-term forecast before heading out.

Auroras are notoriously difficult to predict, but the experts at NOAA have a “fair level of confidence” that the solar storm is headed towards Earth. Because there are four CMEs coming, the forecasters are confident about the higher-than-normal possibility of an aurora, but the timing of the solar storm comes with less confidence. A dark sky is a must – so if the unpredictable timing of the storm pushes the storm’s arrival into daylight hours, the aurora would not be visible.

The UK’s Met Office has similarly issued a G3 solar storm watch lasting from June 04 through Saturday, June 06.

Photographers in the northern US and Canada could be treated to a spectacular night sky if the forecast holds, with several US states within the potential sight range, including Oregon and Illinois, as well as more northern states like Michigan, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana.

In the UK, the Met Office notes a potential aurora could be spotted in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with a “slight chance” for northern England to spot the night sky phenomenon, potentially lasting into Friday.

The southern lights could also potentially be visible in New Zealand and Tasmania, according to Met forecasts.

Photographers and aurora chasers will need clear skies, as clouds can obscure even the strongest auroras.

Get Ready for An Aurora

Learn how to photograph the northern lights, find some tips on photographing the aurora, or learn what it takes to capture the aurora with a smartphone.

June 2026 brings a host of celestial targets for astrophotographers, from a rare gathering of bright planets at dusk to conjunctions starring a delicate crescent moon amid the shortest nights of the year. Early in the month, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury parade together low in the post-sunset twilight sky, while mid-month offers a brief but valuable dark-sky window before the June solstice ushers in lingering twilight in mid-northern latitudes. Here’s everything you need to know about astrophotography in June 2026:

Read: 10 must-shoot events for astrophotographers in 2026

June 9-11: Venus and Jupiter in conjunction

June begins with one of the most eye-catching planetary displays of the year. Look to the west-northwest about 30-45 minutes after sunset to see brilliant Venus and Jupiter drawing together in the fading light. Though Venus is highest above the horizon this year on June 5, it’s on June 9 that the two planets will be closest, separated by just over 1.5 degrees. They’ll appear as a striking double “star” low above the horizon, though — depending on location — it’s not until June 11 that Venus will shine right above Jupiter, creating arguably the most photogenic moment of the conjunction. Mercury will also be lurking beneath Venus and Jupiter, visible briefly low on the horizon. A short telephoto lens will help compress the scene and exaggerate the planets' closeness against a twilight landscape.

Read: The best cameras for astrophotography

June 8-19: Dark sky window

With the last quarter moon on 8 June, a valuable — if brief — dark-sky window opens for astrophotographers. In the nights that follow, the moon rises later and wanes toward new on 14/15 June, leaving the evening sky free of moonlight.

Even after the new moon, skies remain largely dark until around 19 June, when the waxing crescent begins to interfere. With nights rapidly shortening as the June solstice approaches, deep-sky imagers will have no time to waste, with classic summer objects including the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13) and the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius.

Read: The best star tracker camera mounts

Saturday, June 13: Crescent moon and the Pleiades

Early risers are rewarded with a delicate pre-dawn scene as a super-slim 5%-illuminated waning crescent moon rises in the east-northeast near the Pleiades open cluster (also called M45 and the Seven Sisters). Mars will sit just to the right of the pair. The fleeting sight of the moon and the Pleiades will be best captured using a telephoto lens before twilight brightens the sky.

Read: When to photograph the moon

June 17-18: Crescent moon meets planets and stars

A series of photogenic encounters unfolds in the western sky after sunset. On 17 June, a young 5%-illuminated waxing crescent Moon appears between Jupiter and Mercury, with Venus shining brightly above. However, the sky will be relatively bright. The astrophotography highlight comes after sunset on 18 June, when a now 12%-lit moon will shine very close to Venus and pass in front of across the Beehive Cluster (M44), an open cluster of 100+ stars.

Read: Astrophotography: How-to guides, tips and videos

June 29: Full Strawberry Moon rises

June’s full moon reaches its peak at 7:57 p.m. EDT, rising in the southeast at sunset. As always, the best time to photograph it is at moonrise, when it appears on the horizon looking larger than it is, and draped in orangey light due to Earth’s atmosphere. Foreground planning is key — use apps like PhotoPills and TPE (The Photographer's Ephemeris) to align the moon with buildings, landscapes or distant hills. A long lens (200–600mm) will exaggerate its size and create a more dramatic composition. An increasingly popular way to image the moon is with one of the best smart telescopes.

Read: How to photograph the full moon

Read more:

• Astrophotography tools: the best camera, lenses and gear

• The best lenses for astrophotography

• The best star tracker camera mounts

NASA is building a base on the Moon – and cameras will be an integral part of getting humans there safely.

On Tuesday, May 26, NASA announced a three-phase plan across the next decade to build a permanent base on the Moon. The plan is a massive $20 billion undertaking to build a base near the Moon’s south pole that eventually plans to send humans to the Moon at least every six months.

The announcement could be one of NASA’s most ambitious plans for the Moon yet – and some of the tech that’s making the planned Moon Base possible is an assortment of cameras and massive seven-foot wide drones.

The very first phase, Moon Base I, will deliver payloads to the moon from later this year. That includes the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies. While that name doesn’t roll off the tongue like, say, the NASA-modified Nikon Z9, the camera tech is key to planning safe future landings.

The Stereo Cameras aren’t a single camera but an array of cameras. These cameras are designed to record how the engine plume interacts with the lunar surface.

Understanding how the engine plume interacts with the surface on the Moon in microgravity is pivotal to a safe landing, as that high-speed exhaust could interact with the lunar surface and create flying debris that could damage the spacecraft during landing.

While cameras will undoubtedly also be part of the landers and rovers that will begin landing on the moon in later phases, putting a specialized camera on the first payload to the Moon before those rovers highlights the tech’s importance in studying the Moon from a distance in order to improve crewed spaceflights.

Four massive drones will study the lunar surface

NASA also shared updates on MoonFall, a plan to study the lunar surface ahead of the planned crewed Artemis III mission using a camera of a different sort: drones.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been developing the prototype drones and has decided to work with Firefly Aerospace on building the space drones. These drones are estimated to arrive on the Moon in 2028 and will use high-resolution cameras to photograph the Moon’s surface, including terrain that would be difficult for traditional wheeled rovers to access.

These drones are about seven feet wide (2.13 meters) and four feet (1.2 meters) tall and will house up to ten high-resolution cameras. The drones will be deployed mid-descent from a spacecraft, where the drones will then spend one lunar day – which is up to 14 Earth days – photographing the surface of the moon.

NASA says this camera system will provide more detailed maps of the lunar surface than current satellite technology can provide. The drones will also house other research equipment, including a neutron spectrometer to look for subsurface water and a spectrometer to measure radiation.

The four drones will perform multiple flights during their mission. Once the drones run out of fuel, they will come down to the lunar surface and won’t fly again – but they will remain operational and continue to communicate with Earth.

NASA has only announced the first three phases of the Moon base – but even this early on, it’s clear cameras will help researchers prepare for the Moon base ahead of the crewed landings. If the viral popularity of the photos from the recent Artemis II spaceflight is any indication, Earthlings could be in for a treasure trove of new Moon images.

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Take a look at the best cameras for astrophotography...with two feet planted firmly on Earth.

An ancient island rising from the middle of Botswana's vast salt pans became the stunning backdrop for this 16-exposure image of the Milky Way, above towering boabab trees, captured by award-winning astrophotographer Stefano Pellegrini.

But reaching the remote location was far from easy. After struggling to find the route through the desert landscape, Pellegrini nearly gave up on the journey altogether. Everything changed when he spotted two Jeeps crossing the salt pan in the distance, and he decided to follow them.

Three intense hours later, Pellegrini found himself across the vast white landscape. The resulting image, Botswana Baobabs by Night, has now been selected for Capture the Atlas' 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year collection, which highlights 25 of the world's most striking astrophotography images.

How 'Botswana Baobabs by Night' was captured

Gear: Nikon D850 astro-modified, Irix 15mm
Accessories: Innorel KT254C tripod, MSM Nomad star-tracker
Exposure: Sky: Stacking of 4 tracked at 2min, f/4, ISO 800

Pelligrini explains: "I spent ten days traveling through Botswana, living out of my car and moving through remote desert landscapes in complete isolation, focused entirely on photographing the night sky.

"This location became the highlight of the trip: a small, ancient island rising from the middle of a vast salt pan.

"The island itself was covered with baobab trees, scattered in small groups or standing alone, each one offering a striking subject under the night sky. Many were naturally positioned beneath the Milky Way core early in the night, while others lent themselves to different compositions, including star trails.

"This particular group stood out to me the most. Alone in the darkness, I took my time shaping the scene, using a torch to carefully light-paint the foreground.

"The final image is a blend of one exposure for the landscape, eleven for the light painting, and a stack of four tracked exposures for the sky, combined to balance detail and atmosphere."

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Capturing stunning images of the night sky and space starts with having the right gear. Check out our guides to the best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography.

Looking for competitions to enter? Here are 10 global photo contests now open for entries from May to December.

At first glance, one of NASA’s newest images looks like a crescent Moon – but look a little closer, and that crescent takes on a red tint. NASA recently shared a series of stunning images of Mars’ colorful surface, and it looks like space art worthy of a wall hanging.

The images come from Psyche, a spacecraft that’s headed towards an asteroid by the same name, as researchers believe that the space object could potentially be the early core of a planet. The Psyche spacecraft, which launched in 2023, won’t reach its destination until 2029, but on the way, it’s snapping stunning images of the Red Planet.

Mars is key to Psyche’s mission because the spacecraft is using the planet’s gravity to propel it further towards its destination. And when flying so close to Mars, why not snap a few photos?

The last photo that Psyche was able to take where the entirety of Mars still fit into one frame is a shot of the Red Planet in crescent form. NASA explains that the spacecraft approached at a high phase angle, leaving only a small part of the planet lit by the sun.

The image is a striking look at the planet, with the thin sliver of sunshine drawing the eye to the planet’s colorful surface. Psyche took the photo with the Imager A, and NASA researchers enhanced the colors using red, green, and blue data from filters.

While the smiling red planet is a striking image, that’s not the only stunning image coming from Psyche’s Mars flyby. NASA also shared a close-up of the planet’s Huygens Crater. The scientific shot looks a bit like abstract art, thanks to differences in the dust, sand, and bedrock creating dramatic colors.

Another photo that NASA also shared on May 19 looks almost like an image suffering from some long exposure blur – but the streaky appearance actually comes from wind reshaping impact craters. NASA says that the wind streaks in the image are actually about 30 miles / 50 kilometers long.

Psyche has also managed to snap the highest-resolution photo yet of the ice cap on Mars' south pole. According to NASA, this ice cap is about 430 miles / 700 kilometers. The Psyche was close enough to capture the cap at a scale of about .7 miles /1.14 km per pixel.

Psyche is now beyond Mars as it heads towards the asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter. NASA expects the spacecraft to arrive at its destination in August 2029.

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Bad weather nearly prevented the shot entirely – storms, snowfall, strong winds, and cloud cover repeatedly blocked access to the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, home to the Gran Telescopio Canarias.

But on one brief, clear night, award-winning photographer Uroš Fink captured a dramatic winter sky filled with Geminid meteors arcing above the observatory, beneath a glowing Milky Way. He recalls, "Above us, the sky opened into a field of stars, while a layer of clouds remained below."

The image title Geminid Symphony Over La Palma’s Guardian of the Sky was Fink's first successful capture of the Gum Nebula – a striking deep sky detail in the composition. Now, it is part of Capture the Atlas' 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year collection, which showcases 25 of the world's most striking astrophotography scenes.

'Geminid Symphony Over La Palma’s Guardian of the Sky'

For the first three nights, storms and road closures blocked access to the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. On the fourth day, the road finally reopened, allowing Fink to reach the site of the world's largest optical telescope.

After counting compositions and preparing for the night, clouds rolled in, putting the shoot at risk – again. "Around midnight, the first stars began to appear," says Fink, and quickly moved into position.

He describes the moment as unforgettable: "Witnessing such dark skies for the first time was remarkable, with the Milky Way appearing almost three-dimensional."

The final result is a 400MP panorama, created from a multi-camera workflow, combining meteor data and long-exposure frames.

The gear behind the shot

Shot info
Gear: Nikon Z6 IIa (2x), TTArtisan 11mm (x3), Sony 14mm, f/1.8 GM (x2), Sigma 20mm, f/1.4 DG DN, Sony 20mm, Sony 24mm

Accessories: Focus on Stars mask, Capture the Night filter by Dan Zafra, Astronomik H-alpha 12nm MaxFR, Megadap ETZ adapter, Viltrox E-Z adapter

Exposure: Sky: 13 panels, 4 frames per panel at 60sec, f/1.8, ISO 1600 (all frames shot with filter attached to lens), foreground: 8 panels at 90sec, f/1.8, ISO 1600, 14mm, H-alpha: Sigma 28-45mm, @35mm, 5 frames per panel at 240sec, f/1.8, ISO 1600, meteors: All meteors registered into panorama using Auriga Registar

Fink explains, "The final image is the result of an extensive post-processing workflow, combining meteor data registered using Auriga RegiStar from six cameras over five nights on La Palma. All RGB frames were captured using the Capture the Night Astro filter by Capture the Atlas. The final resolution reaches approximately 400 megapixels."

See the full 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year collection on Capture the Atlas' website.

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Capturing stunning images of the night sky and space starts with having the right gear. Check out our guides to the best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography.

Looking for competitions to enter? Here are 10 global photo contests now open for entries from May to December.

Few photos make me stop and ponder as much as those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. And the latest of these, published by NASA, shows a majestic spiral galaxy that the space agency describes as “glittering with star clusters” and humongous clouds of cosmic gas.

NGC 3137 is a spiral galaxy which, in cosmic terms, is located down the road from Earth, just 53 million light-years away in the constellation of Antlia (the Air Pump). NASA says that the latest image, crafted from observations across six different color bands, reveals the nearby galaxy in “fantastic detail.”

The center of the galaxy is home to an enormous black hole some 60 million times more massive than our Sun, says NASA, and this is encircled by a network of fine, dusty clouds. However, what caught astronomers’ eye were the dense clusters of bright blue stars and glowing red gas clouds “peppering” the galaxy, and which NASA says “signal the presence of hot, young stars still encased in their birth nebulae.”

NGC 3137 is especially interesting to astronomers because it travels through space within a group of galaxies thought to be similar to the Local Group, the galaxy group that contains the Milky Way. Similar to the Local Group, the NGC 3175 group contains two large spiral galaxies: NGC 3137 and NGC 3175, which Hubble has also observed.

NASA says that NGC 3137 is highly inclined from our point of view, giving a “unique perspective on its loose, feathery spiral structure.” Combined with its close proximity to Earth, this makes the galaxy an ideal target for astronomers studying the cycle of stellar birth and death, as well as for shedding light on a galactic system similar to our own.

Hubble's new image is just one of the ways the telescope, which has been in orbit since 1999 is still impressing today.

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Photography student sends film into space – and ends up capturing the very essence of the universe

When the Orion capsule of the Artemis II mission splashed down into the Pacific Ocean last month following a 10-day gallivant around the Moon, it didn’t just bring the four astronauts aboard home safely, it also brought back the thousands of images they took during the journey.

Artemis II not only marked the first human-crewed flight bound for the Moon in more than 50 years, but it set records in taking humanity farther away from Earth than ever before—surpassing 406,778 km (252,760 miles) to exceed the Apollo 13 record—and making the astronauts the first people to ever see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes.

It’s no wonder that the crew—NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—along with the automated onboard cameras, snapped over 10,000 shots in the lunar flyby alone, and now, incredibly, NASA has begun sharing these with the public.

NASA shared images during and after the mission on Flickr and the NASA Media Library, but the largest collection that I've seen so far comes from the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth website, which currently hosts 12,217 images taken during the mission, including candid portraits of the Orion occupants and awe-inspiring scenes of the Moon's crater-filled landscape and our planet from afar.

However, accessing the images feels a bit hidden. Try this permalink to the Artemis II gallery. If that doesn't work – the images are large, so loading can take some time – use the search page, scroll down to "Search Using Other Methods" and then type in the mission name "ART002-E" to find Artmis II images.

We knew that there would be a ton of images to marvel at following the mission, as NASA gave us a glimpse of some 10,000 captured during the livestream of the Artemis II Moon flyby alone.

However, Scientific American suggests that there may be some 18,000 more images to be added to the existing collection, given that the image codes run from ART002-E-168 to ART002-E-30001. Just a heads-up, the platform is slow, so you’ll have to be patient to view these amazing photos.

Looking at such a large collection includes shots with blur and exposure errors, so besides being an inspirational look at our Moon, the stars, and Earth, it should make photographers feel better about coming home from a shoot with some imperfect shots – because that's human and normal.

The album includes a number of stunning images beyond what NASA released during the mission's early days. Here are a few favorites from the impressive collection.

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Capture the Atlas has revealed its 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year collection, showcasing 25 of the most striking astrophotography images from around the world.

One standout image by Daniel Viñé Garcia was captured in one of Argentina's most remote regions. Titled My Perfect Night, it shows a vast salt flat stretching beneath a brilliant Milky Way.

"Turquoise waters, in absolute silence, reflecting a sky so pure and clear that it was hard to believe it was real," Garcia recalls. Let's take a look at the story behind the still and Garcia's choice of gear. See the full 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year collection on Capture the Atlas' website.

The extraordinary Milky Way photo

The image was captured in Catamarca, deep within the Argentine Puna – a high-altitude plateau between 3,500 and 4,000 meters above sea level.

Reaching the location required traveling across rough dirt tracks far from any light pollution. Its isolation and altitude create near-perfect conditions for astrophotography.

Photographing the Milky Way in the southern hemisphere, Garcia explains, "What made this place particularly compelling was its rarity. I had never seen photographs of this salt flat before, and its untouched character and minimalist landscape immediately stood out."

Garcia adds, "In this moment, the galactic center sits to the left side of the arch, while the Gum Nebula appears on the right, creating a natural visual balance across the sky."

The gear behind the shot

Shot info
Gear: Sony A7 III Astro-modified, Samyang 8mm f/2.8m fisheye (for foreground), Viltrox 16mm f/1.8 *(for sky)
Accesories: MSM Nomad star-tracker, Sunwayfoto T3240CK tripod
Exposure: Sky: 8 x (10 x 30sec), f/1.8, ISO 1250, 16mm, foreground: 4 x 60sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 8mm

A lightweight, easy-to-use kit has accompanied Garcia every night.

He explains, "To capture this breathtaking sky, I used the Nomad tracker from Move Shoot Move throughout, along with its wedge, laser and phone mount, which allowed me to align it precisely beneath the southern sky."

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The Artemis II launch has rocketed space photography into the fore and I for one cannot get enough of it. So much so that while browsing the internet for more interstellar goodness, I happened upon an older NASA news post from August of last year reporting on the discovery of a new moon orbiting Uranus. But what I found most interesting was how it was discovered and it has everything to do with photography.

You see, a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to make the discovery by capturing 10 40-minute exposures using the telescope’s primary near-infrared camera, NIRCam. The video (above) shows each of the ten images, all captured during a six-hour period from February 2, 2025 between 01:05 and 06:54 UT.

According to the video’s description, each image is “a composite of three different treatments of the data,” as it wouldn’t be possible to see the planetary atmosphere, rings and moons in a single treatment. The new moon, S/2025 U1 is highlighted by a circle in each image, which is helpful as it’s incredibly faint. As such, you can clearly see it orbiting a portion of the planet.

This is a great example of just how far imaging has come. Even NASA’s Voyager 2 couldn’t detect this moon when it cruised past Uranus in 1986. To date, it’s the only space craft to have ever explored the ice giant. If you’re keen on astrophotography, you’ll know that there’s a full moon tonight and plenty more exciting celestial opportunities for astrophotography in May 2026.

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A backyard astrophotographer discovered a new galaxy with a 2MP camera. A 14-year-old unearthed a supernova by combing through space survey images. A backyard astronomer discovered 17 comets – including two with an old DSLR.

Nothing quite illustrates the power of a camera – new or old – like astrophotography.

Last month, I watched in amazement as Artemis II sent back the first human-photographed images of space taken outside Earth’s orbit in decades. As a photographer, the images were an eloquent reminder of the power of the camera.

I can’t orbit the moon, but I can get a glimpse of the experience with a camera. That’s how powerful and impactful the camera is.

But cameras don’t even need to be the latest flagship models to be powerful. Artemis II used a decade-old DLSR, an old GoPro, and a modern mirrorless Nikon Z9 that I could buy and use in my own backyard if I wanted to.

The Artemis II images had me wondering, what else have cameras helped discover, even without ever leaving Earth’s atmosphere? Giuseppe Donatiello, an amateur astronomer, discovered five new galaxies – using a 2MP CCD camera sensor with a homemade telescope.

Terry Lovejoy is a backyard astronomer who has now discovered 17 comets. His first two? Those were discovered photographing the night sky with the Canon 300D, a 6.3MP entry-level DSLR introduced back in 2003.

It’s not just the camera, but images that have led to a number of discoveries about our universe. Caroline Moore was just 14 when she discovered a new supernova – making her the youngest person to do so. She discovered the surprisingly dim supernova using images from the Puckett Observatory Supernova Search before locating it with her astrophotographer father’s backyard telescope.

The camera isn’t just a tool for exploring space. The camera is an equalizer, allowing anyone to explore the final frontier with two feet placed firmly in their own backyard.

Standing in my backyard with a camera directed up towards the sky makes me feel both small and powerful at once. There’s something about the night sky that eases the tension in my shoulders and makes the stress of the day seem inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

I can’t name much beyond the Big Dipper and Polaris, but I can stand in awe of the universe just the same. As my favorite science fiction alien, Rocky from Hail Mary, would say, photographing the stars makes me feel “Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!” (An excellent movie, which, by the way, featured stunning images from astrophotographer Rod Prazeres.)

National Space Day celebrates achievements in space exploration and encourages the next generation of explorers. After watching the Artemis II mission from afar, I can’t help but think that the camera is still an integral tool for space discovery, both in microgravity and with two feet firmly planted in a dark backyard.

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A film photographer has done what no other in history has by capturing images of the very fabric of the universe.

Tom Liggett, a photography student at Arts University Bournemouth (AUB), sent blank negative film, sealed in a plastic bag, to a dizzying height of 121,000 ft (36.5 km) using a helium balloon.

Up in the stratosphere, at an altitude three times higher than commercial airlines cruise, cosmic rays burned themselves into the emulsion of Liggett’s film, revealing ethereal patterns not visible to the human eye.

Speaking to the BBC, Liggett said: “We’ve kind of deduced it to be UVC (short-wavelength, high-intensity) radiation, the radiation that exists above the ozone layer, because obviously there’s no filter up there.”

“Then cosmic radiation and muons from black holes, like billions of light-years away," he added.

Liggett spent two months testing different photographic emulsions under varying levels of radiation—including hospital X-rays—to determine which would hold up best in space.

By keeping the negatives sealed in a lightproof ‘dark bag’, Tom ensures that the resulting marks on the film were the direct result of UVC rays, muons, and high-energy particles physically striking the emulsion. The outcome is a series of haunting, celestial abstracts forged from black holes and solar radiation.

He then approached the US-based marketing agency Filmed In Space, which sends clients' products to the upper reaches of the stratosphere with an onboard camera to record promotional materials.

After traveling to the launch site in New York, Liggett watched as, on May 02 2025, the weather balloon carrying his film began its journey to 121,000 ft. High above Earth, the balloon traveled a further 417,000 ft laterally before popping and returning to the surface, with Liggett recovering it using a tracking device.

Speaking to the BBC about the images he later developed in the lab at AUB, Liggett said, “I actually think it’s a more accurate representation of space than a photograph is,” adding that: “It’s capturing the actual molecular formula of space.”

Liggett later changed the name of Project X to Helios I, submitting the cosmic prints as his second-year university final project.

And according to an Instagram post earlier this year, he’s already sent film to space twice more, with the results of projects Helios II and Helios III to be published later this year, although Liggett hasn’t specified when.

“Going into this, all I wanted was a speck of dust or something,” says Liggett. “Even if it was a completely blank image with a tiny alteration in the film, I would have been happy. But to get these celestial abstract results, which are forged from black holes and the sun's radiation... I was very shocked, but really happy. I’ve turned a dream into a reality and it feels surreal!”

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Hubble captures images of an “ethereal” spiral galaxy located 380 million light-years from Earth.

May 2026 is set to bring a host of celestial targets for astrophotographers, from a beautiful full Flower Moon rising to the Eta Aquariid meteor shower. In their wake comes the last best dark-sky window of spring for mid-northern latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, as June’s solstice threatens prolonged twilight.

However, in the dying embers of May comes an unexpected visitor — a second full moon, a so-called Blue Moon, making this month the perfect time to practice a full moonshot. Here’s everything you need to know about astrophotography in May:

Read: 10 must-shoot events for astrophotographers in 2026

Friday, 1 May: Full ‘Flower Moon’ rises

May begins and ends with a full moon. First comes the full Flower Moon, at its most photogenic at moonrise where you are. Although a full moon lacks shadows on its surface — making it less interesting for close-up lunar imaging — it excels as a landscape subject. When low on the horizon, Earth’s atmosphere scatters shorter wavelengths of light, turning the moon a deep orange. Think composition, using apps like PhotoPills and TPE (The Photographer's Ephemeris) to align the moon with foreground subjects such as buildings, coastlines or hills. A telephoto lens (200–600mm) will exaggerate the moon’s size relative to the foreground.

Read: How to photograph the full moon

May 5-6: Eta Aquarid meteor shower

It runs from April 19 through May 28, but May 5-6 is when to try for the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. The shower’s peak night, it should see about 10 to 20 “shooting stars” per hour, which makes this one less for standing and staring at and more for capturing on camera.

The best way to shoot a meteor shower is always to automate the process. With a wide-angle lens and a tripod, frame the southeast night sky and take test frames, making sure the stars are sharp by zooming in on your viewfinder. Then use a low f-number (such as f/2.8), an ISO of between 800 and 3200, and an exposure of about 20-30 seconds. Use an intervalometer (a separate device or a built-in feature on your camera) and take the same image again and again for multiple hours.

Will you catch a meteor? You’ll only know when you go through your images afterward. Even if you don’t, the frames you’ve shot can be used to make a star trail image.

Read: Astrophotography: How-to guides, tips and videos

May 9 - 20: Dark sky window

With the rise of a last-quarter moon on 9 May, a valuable dark-sky window opens for astrophotographers. In the week to come, the moon will rise after midnight and shrink as it does, posing no problem for evening and, ultimately, late-night astrophotography. Even after the new moon on 16 May, the nights will be predominantly dark until around 20 May when the waxing crescent moon’s brightness begins to bleach the night sky. For those at mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are now noticeably shorter, making this dark-sky window particularly valuable to deep-sky astrophotographers — and a great chance to image the realm of the galaxies beneath the constellation Leo and the rising arc of the Milky Way before dawn.

Read: The best cameras for astrophotography

May 18: Crescent moon and Venus

A two-day-old crescent Moon sits just a few degrees from brilliant Venus in the western sky after sunset — one of the most photogenic pairings of the month.

This is classic “nightscape astrophotography”: a bright foreground sky event framed within a terrestrial scene. The crescent moon will display Earthshine — sunlight reflected from Earth onto the moon’s dark side — giving it a ghostly glow. Wide-angle lenses naturally capture Earthshine well, but shooting in RAW will give you flexibility to balance the bright crescent with the dimmer surroundings.

Read: When to photograph the moon

May 30: Full ‘Blue Moon’ rises

How often are there two full moons in the same month? About every 2.5 years, yet the “once in a blue moon” event is enough of a novelty to get the media talking about the full moon. Expect headlines like “rare blue moon lights up night sky,” despite it being no different from any other. There are actually two definitions of a blue moon; May’s is a monthly blue moon — defined as the second full moon in a calendar month — which occasionally must occur because the moon orbits Earth every 29.5 days. When photographing the blue moon, avoid the temptation to tweak color settings to make it look blue — that way lies a credibility leak. If you want to get quick images of the moon, a smart telescope is the way to go.

Astrophotography shot of the month: The Milky Way returns

Between the last quarter Moon and new Moon, May offers one of your final chances before summer for truly dark skies in the Northern Hemisphere — but you’ll need to be in the middle of the night. The Milky Way’s core begins to climb into the southeast around 2:00 a.m. local time in the Northern Hemisphere (depending on latitude) — a soft, luminous band stretching across the sky.

Use a wide-angle lens (14-24mm), a fast aperture (f/2-f/2.8), ISO 1600–3200 and exposures of 10-20 seconds. A star tracker will allow much longer exposures and finer detail, revealing dust lanes and star clouds within.

Read more:

• Astrophotography tools: the best camera, lenses and gear

• The best lenses for astrophotography

• The best star tracker camera mounts

You wouldn’t think a resin heat shield would make for a particularly photogenic image, but Orion’s partially-submerged heat shield is the exception. There’s an ethereal beauty to the photograph (above), which US Navy divers took of the component’s underside, shortly after the Artemis II mission’s successful splashdown, off the coast of San Diego on April 10, 2026.

The image, released by NASA, isn’t just an important documentation of humanity’s farthest voyage from Earth, it’s vital in assessing the heat shield’s performance for future missions. The disc of Avcoat was all that separated the four astronauts from a blazing 3,000 degrees during re-entry, as the spacecraft hurtled towards earth at 35x the speed of sound.

The heat shield was one of Orion’s most talked-about components, given that the heat shield present in 2022’s uncrewed Artemis I mission sustained more damage than was expected. According to a CNN report, some experts had raised the alarm over the heat shield’s suitability. Thankfully, it looks like NASA’s investigations into the cause of the problem have paid dividends, with the space agency stating that both the imagery of the component shortly after splashdown and subsequent inspections revealed “significantly reduced” charring.

With NASA reporting that it’s “on Track for Future Missions,” we could see humans back on the lunar surface as early as 2028. The third Artemis mission is currently set to launch in 2027, but the BBC recently reported that Artemis III will not land on the Moon as previously thought.

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If you’ve been following NASA’s historic mission around the Moon, you’ll know that photography has played a huge role. Did you know that NASA chose an old DSLR as its primary Artemis II camera? The Artemis II mission isn’t just science. Viral images from the Moon mission are proof of the power of a photograph. And if you’re interested in the night sky, take a look at the best telescopes for astrophotography.

If you’re going to use a $16,000 lens, it might as well be to film a milestone moment in human history. And according to DP Review, that’s exactly what photographer and videographer Jared Sanders (@hyprlyte) did when he captured a jaw-dropping video of the Artemis II launch on April 1, 2026, the spacecraft that propelled four astronauts farther away from Earth than any human being has ever travelled before.

Jared is an avid photographer of rocket launches, who previously photographed the Artemis I’s night launch, where he got to capture a full-moon rise behind the rocket and even set up a remote camera. For the Artemis II launch, his setup was a little different. In a YouTube video, before the launch, he covered all of the camera kit he was going to use, including the Nikon ZR, Fujifilm GFX 100 II, and Red Komodo X. But on the day, his plans changed slightly.

According to DP Review, Nikon had a tent at the launch site, where it was handing out gear for creators to borrow. Jared was handed the Nikon Z 600mm f/4 TC VR S, a lens that retails for $16,199.95 / £14,999.00 / AU$27,049. Unsurprisingly, Jared took the opportunity and decided to pair the lens with his Nikon ZR to capture what I think is one of the coolest perspectives of the Artemis II launch.

The video starts with slow-motion footage of the rocket launching in front of a crowd of onlookers, with a person in the foreground fist-bumping the air with excitement. We then get a cropped image of the rocket climbing through the composition before its fiery boosters dominate the frame. The content creator revealed on Instagram that the footage was graded with filmic color-grading software Dehancer.

If you’re wondering why Nikon was at the launch, the ‘Big N’ has a long and fruitful history with NASA. And indeed, the Artemis II crew took Nikon cameras along for the ride in Orion, including an old Nikon DSLR as its primary camera.

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If you want to view the images from the NASA telescope designed to replace the longstanding Hubble Telescope at full resolution, you’d better start stocking up on 4K TVs. Images from the 300MP Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope are so large that viewing one image at full resolution would take more than 500,000 4K TVs.

NASA has now finished building, assembling, and testing the new Roman telescope, which means the new tech could launch several months earlier than the original May 2027 target date. NASA now projects that the telescope could launch as early as September 2026.

NASA announced that the testing for the telescope was completed earlier this week. Now, NASA needs to get the telescope, which at 42 feet high, is the largest ever built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, from where it was built, north of Washington DC, to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the telescope will launch on a SpaceX rocket.

The Roman has big shoes to fill, as the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, has led to a number of discoveries and is still in operation, despite being originally predicted to only have a 15-year lifespan.

But, where the Hubble has two 2,048x4096 pixel sensors on the Wide Field Camera, Roman has 18 square 4K sensors. That resolution boost is designed to see more of the sky. NASA says the Roman will capture a patch of sky that’s 100 times larger than the Hubble’s field of view. That, mixed with faster processing, means that NASA expects the Roman telescope to do in about a year what would have taken Hubble 2,000 years.

Roman can also see more infrared light than Hubble, which could potentially help researchers detect fainter stars and systems. NASA says the Roman is expected to create one of the deepest views into our galaxy, leading to the study of stars numbering in the “hundreds of millions.”

While Roman is expected to lead to many firsts once launched, the assembly is already breaking records. To celebrate the largest ever telescope built at Goddard, NASA allowed a drone into the clean room for the first time to help capture a sense of how large the Roman really is.

The Roman Telescope – named after NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy and first female executive, Nancy Grace Roman – could launch as early as September 2026.

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Mesmerizing 4K video shows the Earth rotating, beneath some incredible views of the night sky. The five-minute video from Night Lights Films is a compilation of night skies captured from different locations. But what makes the timelapse footage so unusual is that a star tracker has been used to track the sky. So, instead of the Earth appearing fixed and the sky appearing to move, the sky is fixed and the Earth moves.

This is, of course, due to the planet’s rotation as it orbits the sun. But to us humans, standing on a rock, hurtling through space, the night sky appears to move around the Earth. As Night Light Films puts it: “That’s probably why it took so long for humanity to accept that the Sun was at the center of the solar system and not the Earth!”

What is a timelapse?

A timelapse is a series of photographs, captured at regular intervals, that can be combined to form a video that appears to speed up the passage of time. You can buy dedicated timelapse cameras, but most creators use existing mirrorless cameras or DSLR cameras. The video was posted in 2019, but at that time, Night Light Films divulged the kit that is used to capture its stunning timelapse footage.

The Sony A7S, Sony A7R III, and a modified (presumably for astro) Canon EOS 6D were the cameras used. While the Vixen Polarie Star Tracker Mount was used to track the sky and convey the Earth’s rotation. As for the photo-editing software used, it included Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, along with the Timelapse+ STUDIO plug-in, and Final Cut Pro.

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A photo taken in 1968 by astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 sparked the first-ever Earth Day. As I watched the Artemis II send back iconic photos of the blue planet more than 50 years later, I couldn’t help but think of the role that photography is playing in sparking both awe and respect for our planet.

The camera allows humans who never leave the Earth's atmosphere to view our planet in its entirety – and the impact has not been small. The iconic Earthrise from 1968 inspired the first Earth Day in 1970. Two years later, Apollo 17 astronauts would take what’s widely known as the first ever clear color photo of Earth in its entirety to be taken by a human, an infamous photo known as the Blue Marble.

Inspired by the role photographs have played in space history, I dove through the NASA archives to find the most iconic photographs of Earth, both modern and historic.

The Earth and Moon in matching crescents

This 1977 image was one of the earliest photos taken by an unmanned spacecraft to show both the Earth and Moon in crescent shapes. NASA says the Voyager 1 was around 7.25 million miles away when it captured this image.

The Black Marble

The Blue Marble photograph is iconic – but this image captured by the Suomi NPP satellite in 2012 showcases the planet in darkness.

Looking at the Earth in the dark can offer insight into light pollution, while the absence of city lights makes remote locations more prominent. NASA says that the satellite used the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, which detects multiple types of light and then can filter specific ones out – this shot has auroras, moonlight, fires, and other stray sources filtered out to show manmade light.

One of the most detailed photos of Earth

When NASA shared this image in 2012, they described it as “one of the more detailed images of the Earth yet created.” But where does that added detail come from?

The photo is actually a montage built from both visible light and infrared images taken by the Suomi NPP satellite. The combination of those light ranges creates a strikingly detailed portrait of Earth.

The Earth with two auroras

The iconic Blue Marble photo, taken in 1977, captured the sunny side of Earth. But one of the first images sent back from the Artemis II crew was a full view of the Earth at night. The view shows auroras at both poles, while the blue tint on the bottom right is actually reflected moonlight. Because this is from the night side of Earth, the photographer had to use a 1/4 second shutter speed and ISO 51200 on the Nikon D5 in order to get the exposure light enough to also see the details of the clouds, oceans, and continents.

A sunrise from space

The International Space Station sees 16 sunrises each day thanks to its orbit speed. This image from 2014 by the Expedition Crew shows the sun lighting up the blue curve of the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Aurora Australis captured on 35mm film

This shot of the Aurora Australis – or southern lights – was captured on 35mm film in 1992. The crew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour described this view as one of the more spectacular sights of the aurora during the eight-day mission.

The circle of an aurora from space

On Earth, I’m always in awe of the way the aurora curves across the night sky. But this image from 2005 shows the full ring of the Aurora Australis. The image was created by overlaying an ultraviolet image over a Blue Marble image, with both images taken by satellites.

The Earth and Moon from Galileo

Captured by the Galileo spacecraft in 1998, this image is a composite made from two separate images that highlight imaging space tech from the 1990s.

This is what the Earth would look like from a telescope on Mars

Many humans have directed their telescopes and astrophotography kits towards Mars, but if the roles were reversed, this is what the Earth and Moon would look like from the red planet, according to NASA. This image was captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment HiRISE camera taken in 2007.

…and this is what the Earth looks like from 114 Million miles away

This 2010 photograph creates a sense of just how small Earth is compared to the rest of space. NASA says the two bright spots in the bottom left corner are the Earth and Moon from 114 million miles away.

…and 3.7 billion miles away

But perhaps the most iconic tiny dot Earth photo is the Pale Blue Dot from 1990, taken by NASA’s Voyager. Earth is just a tiny spec – only about one pixel – inside a stray sun ray.

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The launch of the Artemis II could be seen from as far as around 150 miles (240 km) away, but the landing for the historic moon mission was a view that few managed to witness. But, a new video shared by NASA is showing how photographers managed to capture the historic event around 40-50 miles off the coast of San Diego: out the open door of a helicopter.

This week, NASA shared a behind-the-scenes video, captured by photographer Josh Valcarcel, of how a team of photographers captured the splashdown. The video has already gained more than 100,000 likes in a day.

The footage shows the photographers gearing up, boarding a helicopter, and taking off from a ship. Hovering over the Pacific Ocean, the crew opened the helicopter door to shoot out the window with the Nikon Z9 and Z 800mm f/6.3 VR lens.

Several NASA photographers were able to witness the splashdown, with official images from NASA carrying several photo credits, including Bill Ingalls, James Blair, and Valcarcel. Valcarcel was also the photographer behind the official crew portrait of the four astronauts in 2023.

Like the astronauts on board the Orion space capsule, the photos’ metadata indicates that the decade-old Nikon D5 with an 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens was also responsible for some of the images of the landing, along with the Z9 mirrorless camera.

The four astronauts – NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glove, and Christina Koch with Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen – splashed down safely on April 10, completing a nearly ten-day mission that orbited along the far side of the moon.

The Artemis II mission included several historic firsts, sending humans on the farthest space journey yet. The mission has already led to a number of iconic photographs, from the Earth with an aurora at both poles, the Earth rising over the lunar surface, and a total solar eclipse seen from space.

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It’s almost 36 years since the Hubble Space Telescope was launched and NASA continues to blow minds with the unbelievable and often iconic images captured by the device.

The latest of these to be shared by the space agency is of IC 486, a barred spiral galaxy that sits at the edge of the constellation Gemini (the Twins), roughly 380 million light-years from Earth, far beyond any distance the human mind can imagine.

To try to put this into context, it would take a spaceship travelling at the speed of light close to 5 million human lifetimes to reach the galaxy.

NASA has classified IC 486 as a barred spiral galaxy due to the central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms stem. Within the centre of the bar lies IC 486’s active galactic nucleus (AGN), which emits a glowing white light NASA has described as “ethereal”.

As if IC 486 wasn’t already mind-boggling enough, powering its AGN is a supermassive black hole more than 100 million times the mass of our Sun.

An accretion disk – a swirling mass of cosmic gas and dust – revolves around the black hole and generates, what NASA describes as “intense radiation”, including X-rays, responsible for the “ethereal” light that outshines the rest of the galaxy.

This latest Hubble image was pieced together using data from two separate observations that survey nearby galaxies to record high-quality images of their central black holes and the stars near their cores.

NASA combined Hubble’s imaging capabilities with the survey data to create “detailed comparisons” of how stars, gas, dust, and black holes interact in galaxy centers.

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I was really excited when I heard that OM System had produced an Astro version of its OM-3 camera. Mirrorless and DSLR cameras modified for astrophotography have been released regularly by Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon and Olympus in the past ten years. But few of them stay on sale for long. Released as special editions, they disappear almost as soon as they appear - a bit like a twinkling star!

The OM System OM-3 Astro has particular interest as the OM-3 already has a few features that make it an appealing option for astrophotography, such as its Starry Star AF system. But the appeal of the special addition is the modified sensor that is optimized to see the red Hydrogen Alpha (Hα) part of the spectrum, which is crucial for the best photos of nebulae and dying stars.

Historically, this kind of narrowband imaging has not been for the faint-hearted. Previously, obtaining an astro camera meant you modified a camera's sensor (in a similar way to an infrared conversion), to reveal the hydrogen alpha emission. But this came at the expense of rendering your camera warranty void and even run the risk of ruining the camera. A dedicated, out-of-the-box astro camera avoids these worries - so it is great to see this new OM System option.

It is worth pointing out that even with the OM-3 Astro, you are still going to need a star tracker. A budget option that I have tested and recommend is the MoveShootMove Nomad. A star tracker aligned to the celestial pole and coupled with dark skies, will reveal this nebulosity as glowing regions of deep red, crimson light. Areas of emitting hydrogen alpha gas (656nm) are formed by energized ultraviolet radiation, creating ionization of surrounding gas clouds. Although not directly visible to the unaided eye, the OM-3 Astro's converted sensor reveals another layer to the universe behind the lens of an astro image.

The camera comes out the box with a modified Infrared Cut Filter. Custom presets are selected by using the presets: CL 1 & 2 for different visual effects. CL 1 preferable for Ha emission; CL 2 for starry nightscapes.

For the short time, DCW had the use of the OM-3 Astro camera, I was ongly able to test for a handful of nights with far from ideal conditions. With the waxing gibbous moon (and the unpredictably of the British weather). But once the moon had set, I had approximately 30-minutes to trial and error the camera to capture the galactic core over the dark skies of The Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

With a $2,499/£1,899 price tag, this option is a more affordable option compared to astro-camera options that have been released before. It is important to note that it does not have a full frame sensor, using a Micro Four Thirds sensor which around a quarter of the size

The camera is weather-sealed. It is reassuring to know if imaging for prolonged periods of time, condensation will not affect image performance internally or within more rugged environments. A lens heater however, is highly recommended for unexpected environmental conditions that may result in condensation on the lens (such as the CooWoo Lens Heater or the one from MoveShootMove).

I recommend a good quality lens when using this camera – one with greater light gathering and glass – such as the M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO lens – notot only to reduce coma and vignetting, but to result in an overall sharper image and greater light gathering in a short space of time. My tests, unfortunately, were made using the less-than-ideal M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8. Shooting wide has the benefit of capturing a greater coverage of sky for more dynamic, wide-angle/fisheye perspectives of the night sky. The camera can also be used with telephoto lenses for images of galaxies and nebulae to reveal the Hydrogen-Alpha emission.

Starry Sky AF (incorporated into the OM-3 Astro) applies a special algorithm to focus on stars, even for smaller, dimmer pinpoint sources of light. This is a great consideration for those who may be less familiar with astro focusing and processes in low-light environments. Although this AF option as good, my personal preference is to manually focus stars on the stars for greater manual control. But equally good to know the technology is there for ease.

The 3-inch rear LED monitor is optimized for low-light environments and makes focusing stars way easier. Boosting the signal in low-light environments is easier to focus on stars without affecting both optical and imaging performance, offering another option to obtain focus over manual focus or the use of a Bahnitov mask. The ergonomics of the LED monitor allow for an articulated screen to flip and swivel at various angles – this is ideal for astrophotography when composing images at more complicated angles to align terrestrial and celestial subject matters.

Built into the camera is a specialized “stacking-based shooting” mode. This feature enables utilisation, alignment and stacking of 12 images in-camera (without need for a star tracker at shorter exposure) to produce a rendered 50mp image output. This process increases Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) for a cleaner result with noise minimised. A great consideration for Astrophotographers developing their skillset, but also allows photographers to obtain their rushes for more manual control in post.

When taking images just shy of an hour, battery levels of the OM-3's BLX-1 rbattery emained at 95% allowing for good imaging time of a single charge. Over its life span, a single charge is typically rated to last 590 shots per charge whilst operating the LCD monitor. A final consideration is the incorporated USB-C connection port, which allows for an external power bank to be attached and operate for longer durations outdoors.

As an addition, the OI Share app (available for both iOS and Android) offers an option to take images wirelessly operating your smartphone using internal WiFi connection. This setup is ideal for a single shot and can be done for multiple images but requires constant activation of the camera shutter, which is not so ideal when imaging for greater periods of time. A remote shutter release cable therefore is highly advised to take greater control if utilising longer exposures or shooting for prolonged periods of time.

I hope to be able to borrow a OM System OM-3 Astro again in the near future for a longer test in better conditions. But my initial thoughts that this is a great option for getting avid photographers immersed in the world of narrowband imaging, with the sensor modification already applied out of the box. It is a stylish retro-designed mirrorless camera too - and is very well priced compared to other astro cameras. The OM-3 Astro costs around $900 more than the normal OM-3 in the US, and £200 more in the UK.

The crew list for the Artemis II includes a commander, pilot, and two mission specialists – but while “photographer” may not be one of the titles, photography was very much part of the first human mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. Artemis II photographs are the intersection of science and art, serving as both a tool for observations and iconic works of art at the same time.

During the livestream of the flyby around the dark side of the Moon, the Artemis II crew estimated they had taken around 10,000 photos of the Moon. NASA says that the Orion has 32 cameras on board – eliminating the cameras that are fixed in place, the crew has 17 photo-taking devices to work with. That includes the main camera, a Nikon D5 DSLR, along with a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera, GoPros, and the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

As a photographer who loves to dabble in photographing the stars and the northern lights, I’ve been watching the photos sent back from Orion with fascination. Hearing the crew had 10,000 photos feels rather like coming home from photographing a wedding and realizing how many photos I have to go through. And the gear on board? It includes a 10-year-old DSLR and a nearly 12-year-old GoPro as well as a newer mirrorless and smartphone – so I feel less bad that the camera in my bag is one generation old.

NASA has gradually been releasing some of the Artemis II photos, but many more will likely arrive after the crew’s expected splashdown Friday evening, estimated for just after 8 PM ET on April 10.

As a photographer, I think these are the best photos coming back from the Artemis II mission so far.

Earthset

This photograph of the Earth "setting" over the lunar surface is one that I was hoping to see among the Artemis II photos because it recreates an iconic 1968 photo from Apollo 8. That historic space photo is credited with inspiring Earth Day and uniting a divided planet amid the Vietnam War with its awestruck view of our planet.

Keeper of the Night Sky

I love this photo because it shows both the side of the Moon that we can see from Earth and the side that's only visible with space travel. The dark patches at the top are created from ancient lava, NASA says. Those dark patches are the near side of the Moon that we can see from Earth (Ironic that the "dark side" of the Moon is actually lighter). Underneath that large dark patch is part of the side of the Moon that's not visible from Earth. That large crater is called the Orientale basin.

Artemis II in Eclipse

On Earth, the totality phase of a solar eclipse usually lasts for only a few minutes, but Artemis II astronauts experienced nearly an hour of totality, allowing for iconic photos like this one. Scientists are actually still debating whether the halo around the Moon is the sun's corona, zodiacal light, or a mix of both – but as a photographer, I love how the Moon is softly lit just enough to see a few craters, but you can still see the stars in the distance.

Shadows at the Edge of Lunar Day

Photography is all about light – and this Moon close-up is the perfect example of how much difference light can make. The harsh, directional light adds depth and drama to this close-up, but the light also helps the Artemis II astronauts observe the Moon's topography in more detail.

Starstruck

The Earth's atmosphere (and light pollution) interferes with how many stars we can see from Earth. This photo, taken on Orion on April 7, shows a dazzling view of the Milky Way. One of the Artemis II astronauts snapped this photo with the Nikon Z9 and a 35mm lens.

An Orion selfie

Okay, so this photo is far from perfect – it's overexposed and hazy. But look closer, and you can see the astronauts looking out the windows of Orion! I'll forgive the exposure errors for that, after all, this was taken with an 11-year-old GoPro Hero4 Black mounted outside Orion.

Solar Eclipse of the Heart

That's not to say that an 11-year-old GoPro can't take great pictures. This photo, taken during the eclipse that the astronauts experienced, is phenomenal. It shows both the Orion and the Moon and even manages to catch a few stars. Not bad low-light image quality coming from an older action camera.

The lines between night and day

These two images, one of the Earth and one of the Moon, show what the split between night and day looks like from space. I love how similar these two photos are, despite having entirely different subjects.

A Room With A View

While the photos coming from Artemis II are impressive, what's most unique is that these photos are coming from human hands, not unmanned space probes. This photo out the window of the Orion is a reminder that the Artemis II is a very human space experience.

A selfie with Earth

NASA only recently approved smartphones for space. This photo of Mission Specialist Christina Koch was shot on an iPhone 17 Pro Max with the front camera. This photo captures the awe of a human leaving Earth, all from a camera that feels very appropriate for our generation.

Hello, World

Look closely at this one, and you can see both the northern and southern lights in one shot! I think this a pretty amazing view of Earth, which the Artemis II captured early in the mission.

Epic infrared shots of the launch

I love seeing all the different perspectives of the launch from so many cameras – but NASA's infrared images have an otherworldly feel that's entirely appropriate for the subject. Infrared cameras work with infrared rather than visible light, so these shots reveal details that the visible light shots did not. The photo of the rocket boosters separating from the core stage has a lot more detail visible than the similar shots taken with more traditional cameras.

A long exposure launch

The Space Launch System carrying Orion went from 0 to 17,000 mph in just eight minutes. This photograph is a three-minute exposure, so it shows the path of the spacecraft across the sky.

A launch close-up

I look at shots like this and I have to wonder...were any cameras melted in the making of this shot? Hopefully, this was a remote camera with a long lens that was unharmed during the launch, but either way, this close-up of lift-off is rather epic.

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A new study using satellites to observe Earth’s light pollution has revealed a devastating statistic for astrophotographers and skygazers: Light pollution has increased by 16 percent in less than ten years. However, the new study also has hints of hope that recent policies to reduce light pollution are actually helping.

The data comes from an international study published this week in the journal Nature. Researchers used daily satellite photos of Earth and, using NASA algorithms designed to filter out factors like moonlight and the aurora, measured changes in light pollution between 2014 and 2022.

The study found that, during that time period, light pollution increased by 16 percent. While the study has implications ranging from sleep patterns to astronomy, the study hints that astrophotographers have more light pollution to fight with in order to capture a clean view of the night sky.

However, the research isn’t all bad news. The date range allowed the study’s authors to note changes in light pollution patterns. While many of these coincided with wars and natural disasters like hurricanes that took out power grids, the researchers noted that there is a “huge area of dimming” in Europe that suggests that policies put in place to help reduce light pollution are having an impact.

In France, the effect of new policies dimmed the light pollution in the region by 33 percent, the researchers noted. However, the study noted that the US is still largely increasing in light pollution.

"We found that the Earth is not gradually brightening, it is flickering," Zhe Zhu, an associate professor of remote sensing at the University of Connecticut, told Space.com. "The brightening is mostly driven by developing countries like India, China and parts of Africa. But we also see the areas of dimming increasing every year. Some of that is due to sudden events like wars and natural disasters, but we also see a huge area of dimming in Europe, where they put policies in place. The U.S. is still mostly increasing."

Light pollution plays a key role in how many stars astrophotographers are able to photograph. Getting away from city lights is one of the most commonly offered astrophotography tips, as cameras are better able to pick up on the lights of distant stars without interference from artificial lights on Earth.

While getting away from city lights is one solution for astrophotographers, the increasing number of satellites in the sky is creating light pollution even in remote areas. (Ironically, the study was conducted using imagery from satellites.)

While the statistic that light pollution has increased by 16 percent in less than ten years is concerning, the study’s look at regions with new light pollution policies in place suggests that some of the increasing amount of artificial light on Earth can be negated.

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NASA has enough technology to send humans around the moon – but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Artemis II is outfitted with the latest camera technology. Among the 32 cameras aboard, at least one of them is a GoPro Hero4 Black, which launched in October 2014.

The insight comes from the metadata attached to the photos the Artemis II crew have sent back to Earth, which shows that the photos showing part of the Orion spacecraft were captured on a GoPro Hero4 Black. To put things in perspective, the Hero4 is from back when GoPros needed extra housing to actually be waterproof and topped out at 4K 30fps and 12MP stills.

The Hero4 isn’t the only older camera that the Artemis II is using. The crew’s main camera is a Nikon D5, a decade-old DSLR, though a mirrorless Z9 and the iPhone 17 Pro Max are also responsible for some of the Artemis II images. Orion is outfitted with 32 cameras, NASA says.

Getting a camera approved for space isn’t as simple as going to an electronics store. The cameras aboard the Artemis II spaceflight need to be able to withstand the rigours of space, including microgravity and increased radiation. Temperature swings and radiation can damage electronics, and the last place you want to experience a camera failure is on a history-making space mission.

Cameras mounted on the outside of the Orion need to withstand even more, as the friction as the Orion re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere will create excessive heat. According to GoPro, four specially modified GoPros are mounted outside the Orion on the solar array wings. Besides beaming back images that show the spacecraft with the moon and Earth in the distance, the cameras are also used for the crew to visually inspect the exterior of the spacecraft.

When GoPro shared that four cameras were mounted outside Orion and that several were also inside as part of a National Geographic project documenting the daily life during the mission, the company hadn’t shared which GoPros made it aboard. Now, thanks to the metadata attached to images, we know that at least one of those GoPros is an older Hero4 Black.

The older DSLRs and GoPros are likely on board because the cameras have already been proven in space on previous space excursions to the International Space Station. While a more modern Nikon Z9 managed to make it aboard the mission last minute, Nikon has been working with NASA on a modified Z9 since 2024, originally aiming to use the camera with Artemis III – though it’s unclear if the Z9 aboard the Artemis II is a modified one.

I can remember just a few years ago telling someone that I still had the Hero4, and how baffled they were that I still had such an “old” camera. I’ve since updated to the Hero12 Black. But NASA’s use of older cameras serves as a reminder that getting great images doesn’t require updating every time a new model comes out. That should make photographers who have older gear in their bags feel a lot less pressure to upgrade.

While it’s undoubtedly important that the crew has a full-frame camera with a wide dynamic range, excellent low-light performance, and a 400mm zoom to closely inspect the dark side of the moon, an older rugged GoPro is still sending back rather epic-looking images from the mission.

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Traveling around the dark side of the moon means experiencing a solar eclipse not visible from Earth – and that’s the view that four astronauts were treated to on Monday, April 6, during the historic Artemis II spaceflight. Now, the crew has begun sharing some of those images, including photographs that show what a solar eclipse looks like from space.

The crew aboard the Orion space capsule experienced about 54 minutes of totality along the Artemis II flightpath around the dark side of the moon. That left far more time to take photos of the eclipse than the typical few minutes of totality during the solar eclipses that can be viewed from Earth. Now, NASA has begun sharing photos of what those four astronauts saw out of Orion’s windows.

This image, shot by the Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera with a 35mm lens, shows a wide view of the eclipse, showing the sun’s corona creating a halo around the moon. Covering up the sun also makes the stars pop in the image – which are often too faint to see when imaging the moon, NASA says.

On the left side of the moon, there’s enough light to see some details of the craters on the Moon’s surface. NASA explains this light is actually sunlight reflected off the Earth, hitting the moon, showing glimpses of the near side of the moon that can be seen from Earth.

Getting in a little closer, this shot taken with the Nikon D5 and 80-400mm lens – the same camera-lens combo that just recreated the iconic 1968 Earthrise photo with a 2026 Earthset image – shows not just the eclipse, but Jupiter in the distance. Like in the shot from the Z9, reflected light from Earth offers some slight illumination to the Moon’s surface details.

Finally, NASA also shared a shot of the sun beginning to peek around the Moon as the crew’s 54 minutes of totality began to close.

Just like on Earth, the humans aboard Orion wore protective eclipse glasses to safely view the eclipse. And, in a true reflection of modern times, the crew took a selfie in those glasses with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

While Artemis II may have a lot of high-end tech, these glasses are the same cardboard glasses NASA made for viewing the 2023 eclipse on Earth. NASA says that this was the first time eclipse glasses have been used to view a solar eclipse from space, adding another first in the long list of historic Aretmis II accomplishments, including the furthest humans have ever traveled into space.

The astronauts were only able to view a solar eclipse by traveling to the dark side of the moon – the next time humans will be able to see a solar eclipse from Earth is on August 12, 2026, when parts of Europe, including sections of Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Portugal and Spain, will be in the path of totality. It’s the first time a total solar eclipse will be visible from mainland Europe since 1999.

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Love the shots coming from Artemis II? Don't miss the viral photo of Earth or the new but iconic Earthset photograph.

Aretmis II astronauts have managed to recreate one of the most iconic space photos in history, as the crew aboard Orion beams back images from the historic lunar flyby. “Earthset” is a photograph taken out one of the Orion spacecraft windows that shows a “crescent” Earth setting over a darkened lunar surface.

The photograph, captured with a Nikon D5 DSLR and a 80-400mm lens, recreates one of the most iconic space images in history, mirroring the 1968 “Earthrise” photo taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders with a Hasselblad film camera and 250mm lens.

While the original 1968 photo was of the Earth rising over the moon, the Artemis II images captures the Earth “setting” over the surface of the moon. In the image, the sun lights up only a portion of the Earth, giving our home planet the shape of a crescent Moon, while the dark side of the moon fills the foreground.

Recreating the iconic 1968 photograph was on the Artemis II crew’s planned to-do list, and despite being farther from the moon than Apollo 8 – setting a record for the furthest humans have ever traveled into space – the new photograph mirrors the original.

Differences in the Artemis II paths and the moon phases means the Moon isn’t lit in the 2026 photo like it is in the 1968 image. Despite this, and the image only being a few hours old, I fully expect the new Earthset photograph to be just as historic as the original.

While the photograph was taken in orbit, the 400mm zoom lens makes the viewer feel as if they are standing on the moon and looking back on Earth. The 1968 photograph was taken during the Vietnam War and is thought to have helped spark a worldwide environmental movement, leading to the creation of Earth Day.

The photograph was captured on April 6 at 6:41 PM EDT through one of Orion’s windows. The lit portion of the Earth shows swirling clouds over Australia and Oceania, NASA notes. On the surface of the moon, the Ohm crater is visible. The photo was shared on Flickr – and NASA hasn’t yet noted which of the four astronauts on board took the photo.

The image was captured with a Nikon D5 – a DSLR that’s now ten years old – and an 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens. That’s a far cry from the medium format film Hasselblad 500 EL that captured the original image, demonstrating the technology shift over the last 58 years.

One of the things that speaks to the changes in technology is how detailed the surface of the moon is in the modern 2026 photograph. In the original photo, the portion of the moon in the foreground was lit, but the Artemis II shot depicts a dark portion of the moon. Despite that, there are still plenty of details in the shadowy moon, without overexposing the Earth in the distance.

The image speaks to the dynamic range – the range of light a camera can capture without overexposing the brightest portions or underexposing the shadows – of modern cameras, despite being taken with a decade old DSLR.

The Artemis II flight has 32 cameras on board – and 17 of those are handheld devices, including Nikon D5 DSLRs, a Nikon Z9, GoPros and the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Much like many modern photographers, the astronauts appear to be taing images with both the high-end interchangeable lens cameras and the smartphones, as Commander Reid Weismann shared a photo he took on the iPhone during a livestream.

Along with the new but iconic Earthset photograph, the crew aboard the Orion has also shared detailed close-ups of the lunar surface from the path along the dark side of the moon. The crew will likely have an even larger wealth of photographs to share after the scheduled splashdown on Friday, April 10.

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The astronauts aboard the Artemis II have the opportunity to try to recreate one of the most iconic space photos of all time – but despite having an arsenal of camera tech on board, recreating the iconic “Earthrise” photo likely won’t be easy, despite the tech differences between 2026 and 1968.

NASA says that Orion has 32 cameras aboard the Artemis II historic flight set to orbit the far side of the moon today, March 6, before returning to Earth. Eliminating the cameras that are mounted on the spacecraft itself, and the four astronauts aboard have 17 handheld photo-taking devices at their disposal, including Nikon D5 DSLRs, a Nikon Z9 mirrorless camera, GoPros, and smartphones.

The camera tech that the Artmis II crew has access to is a far cry from the Hasselblad film camera and 250mm lens that Lunar Module Pilot Bill Anders used to capture the iconic Earthrise photo in 1968. The advancement in camera tech would make it seem like Artemis II pilots have a better chance of capturing a 2026 Earthrise on camera, but while the astronauts have a camera advantage, flight logistics will make recreating the photo a challenge.

When astronauts took the Earthrise photo in 1968, it was a spur-of-the-moment shot that happened after Anders spotted the Earth coming up as the crew made their way around the far side of the moon. Anders had to swap cameras because he had black-and-white film loaded, but was able to take what’s now an iconic image of the Earth “rising” over the surface of the moon.

But Apollo 8 orbited the moon ten times. The Artemis II has only one chance to recreate the image, as Orion is only circling the back side of the moon once. If you count both “earthrise” and “earthset,” the astronauts will have two chances to recreate a similar photo towards the beginning and the end of their time on the far side of the moon.

The crew will only have a few minutes to catch a similar view of the moon and Earth together, and the four-person crew has to get the shot while working in microgravity in a space that’s only about the size of two minivans.

Artemis II will also be farther from the moon than Apollo 8 – the Artemis II flight path is up to 100 times higher than the 60 miles from the lunar surface that resulted in the original image. Thankfully, the astronauts have an 80-400mm telephoto lens aboard, which may help cover some of that distance, as the original image was taken with a 250mm telephoto lens. The difference between a medium format film camera and full-frame D5 and Z9 cameras will also help the lens crop in closer.

Another key difference? The far side of the moon may only be partially lit as the Orion space capsule travels on the far side of the moon, which means the surface of the moon in a recreated photo will likely look different than the well-lit surface in the 1968 image.

The original Earthrise image isn’t just iconic because of the view of the Earth rising over the moon – it also helped unify a planet that was divided during the Vietnam War. The world is watching Artemis II in similar political tension – another iconic photo could serve as a visual reminder of our fragile planet that crosses language barriers.

Whether or not Artemis II manages to take a similar shot, the crew has already been sending back iconic images from the historic spaceflight, including a shot of Earth that shows both the northern and southern lights at once and some of the first smartphone space photos, as personal smartphones were only recently approved for space flight.

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The crew aboard Orion on the Artemis II spaceflight has already begun sending back images of Earth – and it didn’t take long for the images to find viral traction on social media. But, view the image on a tiny social media screen, and you may miss the best part.

The photo of Earth taken on April 2 by Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman shows a stunning glimpse of the blue planet with swirling clouds. But, look closer, and you can spot a line of green light at both of the Earth’s poles.

That’s right, that viral shot of Earth shows both the northern lights and the southern lights all in a single photograph! As someone who has spent a lot of time chasing the aurora, I’m geeking out over how cool it is that the astronauts managed to see both the northern and southern lights at once.

That’s not the only space phenomenon in the photo either. There’s a strip of zodiacal light on the bottom right of our home planet, which NASA explains is from the Earth eclipsing the sun from Orion’s view.

The four astronauts aboard – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – are also spending part of Friday practicing their photo-taking skills in preparation for the roughly six hours that they’ll be viewing the moon’s surface on Monday, April 6.

The crew has already practiced with the Artemis II cameras – which include the Nikon D5 and a mirrorless Z9 – but observing the moon’s surface will be done in microgravity in a space that’s only about as large as two minivans put together, NASA explains. The crew will be prepping to photograph the moon with 80-400mm and 14-24mm lenses.

NASA estimates the crew – who are now the first astronauts to leave Earth’s orbit since 1972 – will see about 20 percent of the surface of the far side of the moon, the side that we can’t see earthside, on Monday.

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NASA has done something many people do: strapped on a GoPro when about to do something really cool.

More than 50 years have passed since humans have traveled to the moon for the sake of science – but beyond the space tech itself, the cameras the astronauts are using aboard Artemis II are wildly different than the Hasselblads that were abandoned on the lunar surface in 1969.

Between the GoPros and smartphones to the DSLRs and mirrorless cameras aboard the first manned mission towards the moon in over 50 years, the list of cameras aboard Artemis II reads nearly like a dossier on modern camera categories. It begs the question, could Artemis II be the most photographed human spaceflight in history?

There are at least 28 cameras aboard – and strapped to the outside – of the Orion for the Artemis II mission. That list includes cameras mounted to the spacecraft’s exterior and interior, as well as handheld cameras that the four astronauts aboard will use. (The unmanned Artemis I used 24 cameras.)

NASA astronauts trained with the Nikon D5. While it may seem strange to pack a ten-year-old DSLR on such a high-tech space flight, the D5 has already been used in space, so researchers were confident that the D5 could withstand the higher radiation and zero gravity of the space flight.

NASA astronauts did manage to get a more modern camera aboard ahead of the April 1 launch: A mirrorless Nikon Z9. While the Z9 doesn’t have the space history of the D5, Nikon says the Z9 is being prepped to be used aboard the Artemis III mission as well.

GoPro says that multiple action cameras are part of the Artemis II mission. That includes modified GoPros strapped to the outside of the Orion on the solar array wings, where they’ll record images of the spacecraft, Earth, and Moon. How’s that for a durability test?

The astronauts will also be using GoPros to record daily life aboard the mission, which will be used for a National Geographic project called Return to the Moon. National Geographic helped train the astronauts on using the POV cameras, so the four humans aboard will not only be filling their NASA roles but also acting as filmmakers during the duration of the approximately 10-day space flight.

Earlier this year, NASA approved the use of personal smartphones in space – marking Artemis II one of the first missions where astronauts also brought smartphones.

It’s unclear yet if the 28+ cameras aboard the Orion for the Artemis II mission are a space record – but I suspect by the completion, the mission could be one of the most documented human moon missions in history. After all, the last time humans orbited the moon in 1972, astronauts were still using film.

The archives for all of the Apollo missions combined contain around 8,400 images. I wonder how many images and videos the four astronauts aboard the Artemis II will take?

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April 2026 is a month of dramatic contrasts for astrophotographers. It begins with a glowing full Pink Moon rising beside one of spring’s brightest stars and transitions into one of the best dark-sky windows of the year for imaging distant galaxies. Along the way, there’s a potentially bright sungrazing comet, delicate pre-dawn crescent moon conjunctions with Mercury and Mars, the return of the Lyrid meteor shower and striking evening pairings featuring Venus, Jupiter and the Pleiades. Here’s everything you need to know about astrophotography in April 2026:

Read: 10 must-shoot events for astrophotographers in 2026

Wednesday, April 1: Full ‘Pink Moon’ rises

April begins with a full Pink Moon, officially full at 10:11 p.m. EDT (02:11 UTC). However, for photographers, the magic moment is moonrise, which across much of Europe and North America occurs close to sunset. That timing allows you to capture the moon low in the east, glowing orange through thicker layers of atmosphere.

A 300-600mm lens will get you a great close-up, but consider waiting 24 hours to see a slightly waning full moon after dark on Thursday, 2 April, appearing very close to bright blue-white star Spica. The pairing is tight enough for a 200–400mm lens to frame both in a single composition. Plan carefully using a moonrise calculator and scout a foreground subject aligned with the eastern horizon for maximum impact.

Read: How to photograph the full moon

Monday, April 6: Comet MAPS

Comet MAPS (C/2026 A1), a Kreutz sungrazer, first discovered in January, reaches perihelion on 4 April at just 487,000 miles from the Sun’s surface — super-close!

Such comets are unpredictable, disintegrating or flaring dramatically when least expected. If it survives, look low in the west after sunset from mid-northern latitudes. Twilight will be bright, so bring binoculars and attempt wide-field twilight imaging (ISO 800-1600, 2-5 second exposures on a tripod). A clear, unobstructed horizon — and some luck — is essential.

Read: The best star tracker camera mounts

April 10-20: Dark sky window

Tonight sees the last quarter moon rise, which means no moonlight until midnight, with a late-rising, shrinking moon assured for the next week. Even after the new moon on 17 April, the nights will be predominantly dark until early May.

Deep-sky astrophotographers will have been waiting for April. For those at mid-latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the nights are now getting shorter, but they’re rich with galaxies, including Leo Triplet (M65, M66, NGC 3628), the Sombrero Galaxy (M104), the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), Bode's Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82).

Read: The best cameras for astrophotography

April 13-15: Crescent moon with Mercury and Mars

The sight of a crescent moon waning as it gets closer to its new phase is always a treat for early risers, and this month it comes with a slice of planetary action. Use a 100–300mm lens and arrive early to compose before twilight intensifies:

Read: When to photograph the moon

April 18: Venus & crescent moon

Venus is back — and it’s going to dominate as the “Evening Star” all summer. Tonight, a 4%-lit waxing crescent moon appears alongside it, though the window is short — about 30–40 minutes after sunset. The two will be separated by about four degrees, which is ideal for wide-field astro-landscape shots. Venus, shining near magnitude -3.9, will dominate the scene while Earthshine softly outlines the lunar disk. Use a tripod and bracket exposures to preserve both twilight colors and lunar detail.

Read: Astrophotography: How-to guides, tips and videos

April 19: Crescent moon, Venus &  Pleiades

The 9%-lit waxing crescent moon again sits above Venus, with the sparkling Pleiades open cluster of stars between them. This is likely your final good evening view of the Pleiades (also called the Seven Sisters and M45) before they disappear into the glare of the sun. Southern Hemisphere observers may also begin to notice early meteors from the Eta Aquariids, which become active tonight.

Astrophotography shot of the month: Lyrid meteor shower

Active from April 16-25, the Lyrids — the first major meteor shower since January — typically produce 15-20 meteors per hour under dark skies during its peak night, which this year runs overnight from Tuesday, 21 April, through Wednesday, 22 April.

A 27%-lit waxing crescent moon sets relatively early on Tuesday evening, leaving dark conditions after midnight. The radiant lies near Vega and climbs high in the northeast after midnight, making this a good year for Lyrids. The best way to catch a Lyrid or two is to employ the tried-and-tested “lucky imaging” method: face a wide-angle lens (14–24mm) generally east or northeast, focus, use ISO 800–1600 and, crucially, 20-30 second exposures on the continuous shooting mode. Then hit go and do some stargazing … or go inside. Your work is done! All you need to do now is wait a few hours, then check your SD cards for meteors.

Read more:

• Astrophotography tools: the best camera, lenses and gear

• The best lenses for astrophotography

• The best star tracker camera mounts

Northern light photography typically involves slow shutter speeds, while sports photography generally warrants a fast shutter speed – naturally, the two genres don't usually mix well. But the final photographs from one skydiver’s mission to jump in all 50 US states were set against Alaska’s northern lights – and the photographers managed to make a seemingly impossible shoot look rather epic.

Red Bull Air Force Athlete Jeff Provenzano had a goal to sky jump in all 50 US states. The last state to cross off the list? Alaska. Red Bull is calling the resulting images from the March 23 jump a "world first" of wingsuiting against the northern lights.

Fellow Red Bull Air Force Athletes Jon Devore, Mike Brewer, and Amy Chemlecki jumped in the wingsuit dive alongside Provenzano. Brewer served as the aerial videographer while Chemlicki coordinated the crew in the air with the crew on the ground. Photographers Michael Clark and Kien Quan, along with videographer Collin Harrington, documented the jump from the ground.

Both the jump itself and capturing the images involved several technical challenges. First, the photographer skydiving, Brewer, would be taking photos while moving up to 120MPH in the dark. Temperatures at the highest altitudes would dip the wind chill to around -40 degrees F (which also happens to be -40 degrees in C too).

On the ground, Clark was faced with the challenge of mixing the slow shutter typically required for low light and astrophotography with action photos.

The solution? Rear curtain sync, a technique that fires the shot at the end of the exposure rather than the beginning, turns the sky-divers into streaks of light across the sky, giving echoes of the northern lights in the background.

Brewer said that there’s not really an infrastructure in place for photographing skydivers in the dark, as normal free-fall shoots are during the day. “We’re shooting long exposure photography in action sports. You never do that. Normally, you’d be shooting at 1/500th or 1/2000th of a second shutter speed, and here, we're doing a one-second exposure. Trying to hold my head still with a framing that I wasn’t really sure about while going 100MPH was a big challenge, and I didn’t know how it was going to be.”

Brewer added that the shoot was actually the first time he’s even seen the northern lights. “The first time that I saw them was basically while we were flying wingsuits through them. To see those photos on the back of the screen and realize that we nailed this super complicated, very low probability picture on the first try. That really speaks to the professionalism of this team and everyone’s ability to flex and solve problems.”

It’s not the first time Provenzano has been photographed skydiving through a celestial phenomenon – Clark also captured images of Provenzano against a “ring of fire” solar eclipse in 2023.

Clark said he wasn’t sure if the shoot was even possible. “I love these assignments where we have no idea if we can pull it off, but somehow we seem to always come through on these things…It’s always a blast. There’s always some problem solving…but the images are such a surprise.”

“No one dreamed about wingsuits looking like they’re on fire under the Aurora Borealis,” Clark said. “That was just ice cream on the cheesecake, this is just insane.”

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New tech often dominates the headlines, but a recent photo series shared by NASA is only possible because of the tech’s age. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has re-shot a photo of the colorful Crab Nebula 25 years later, creating a series of images that illustrate how rapidly the night sky can change.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been in orbit since 1999, making it the oldest space telescope still in service. That longevity allows the telescope to make direct comparisons over time.

In 1999, Hubble photographed the Crab Nebula, a remnant of a supernova that humans first took note of in 1054 as a star that was so bright it was temporarily visible during the day.

But, the Hubble photographed the Crab Nebula again in 2024, and the newly released comparison images are giving scientists insights into how the nebula has changed over time. “Hubble is the only telescope with the combination of longevity and resolution capable of capturing these detailed changes,” NASA wrote.

Comparing the two images shows how the Crab Nebula has expanded outward – at a rate of 3.4 million miles per hour. But, to scientists, changes in color speak to changes in temperature and the composition of the gases

“We tend to think of the sky as being unchanging, immutable,” said William Blair, an astronomer with Johns Hopkins University and the study’s lead author. “However, with the longevity of the Hubble Space Telescope, even an object like the Crab Nebula is revealed to be in motion, still expanding from the explosion nearly a millennium ago."

Video credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, William Blair (JHU) / Video: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

While the Hubble Space Telescope is now 35 years old, the telescope's cameras have been updated over the years by astronauts, the last one being the Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed in 2009. That means the comparison images are also giving researchers a reminder of how the tech and camera resolution have changed from the 1999 photograph to the one shot in 2024.

That’s pretty good considering NASA originally expected the Hubble to have a 15-year lifespan! Researchers are continuing to study the data, including comparing the images to the infrared light images of the same nebula shot with the James Webb Space Telescope.

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I’ve always found a fascination with the night sky – there’s something incredibly calming about standing under the stars with a camera. But the growing number of satellites in orbit is creating light pollution even in remote areas, creating a major challenge for astrophotographers.

Alan Dyer captured this photograph last summer to illustrate how many satellites cross the night sky in a 30-minute time span. The image is a composite, which means that the photographer left his camera shooting for about 30 minutes and blended all the light trails together, so unlike a typical astrophotography shot that’s only a few seconds long, Dyer’s photo represents 30 minutes of the night sky.

While this photo is from 2025, it captured my attention because last week, StarLink launched its 10,000th satellite. Proposed AI data centers based in space and a satellite system to project sunlight to solar power centers could make the night sky even more crowded, making the image even more relevant.

One of the astrophotography tips that I’ve always found most helpful is to find a more remote location away from city lights. I can photograph far more stars, even occasionally the Milky Way band, when I’m camping out in a remote location.

But the growing number of satellites in the night sky is creating light pollution even in the few places far enough away from city lights on the ground. Satellites create streaks of artificial light across the night sky. They’re often confused for shooting stars, but satellites are usually white or bluish-white, while meteors tend to be more colorful.

In a 2025 survey of more than 200 astrophotographers, 90 percent of them reported a moderate or higher impact from satellites. Photographers reported spending an extra 27 minutes on image editing to remove the impact of satellites on the image, or an average of 16 discarded photos from every night sky session.

The survey predicted that 25,000 satellites would be the “breaking point” when astrophotography would be irreparably harmed. As of January 2025, an estimated 15,000 satellites are in orbit.

The data is disheartening for someone who finds peace photographing the night sky. But, one thing I’m taking away from Dyer’s photograph? The time you photograph the night sky matters, particularly for satellites. Low-orbit satellites are most visible for a few hours after sunset and before sunrise, as the satellites are still reflecting sunlight during this time.

Avoiding that time frame can help avoid some of the impact of satellites. Near the summer solstice and at higher latitudes, however, satellites are visible in the night sky much longer.

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Light pollution is caused by the bright glow of artificial lights from towns and cities. It can be a problem for photographers taking pictures at night, adding a yellow color cast, haze, and reducing sharpness and contrast in your low-light shots, whether it's cityscapes, landscapes, or astro work.

The best light pollution filters, such as Hoya’s Starscape light pollution filter, are designed to cut out specific wavelengths of light caused by artificial sodium and mercury-vapor lights – common in cities – with Hoya claiming the filter improves contrast and colors in night sky shots. I took it out after dark to test drive it and see how it performs.

Hoya Starscape Light Pollution Cut filter: Specifications

Hoya Starscape Light Pollution Cut filter: Price

The Hoya Starscape is available in a wide range of filter thread sizes. There are with nine options in all, starting at 49mm and reaching up to 82mm. At the smaller end, the 49mm option costs around $50 / £30, so it’s quite a good budget option for kit lenses or 50mm f/1.8 ‘nifty-fifties’, which also usually have a smaller filter thread.

However, the price goes up dramatically, with the 82mm version I used on my Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM costing $170 / £120. By comparison, the K&F Concept Natural Light filter costs $80 / £66 for the 82mm version, and has better features, too.

The Hoya Starscape is a little scant on features, and this is reflected in the low price point of its entry-level, smaller-thread options. It is pretty much an outlier as the only light pollution filter I have tested not to have any special coatings for water, oil, and scratch-resistance (competing filters from Rollei, K&F, Cokin, and Irix all do).

The Hoya Starscape has a fairly subtle light pollution effect. It may, therefore, be a good choice for those who aren’t quite as confident when it comes to editing, as the color cast created by the filter is really quite minimal and easy to fix.

Hoya Starscape Light Pollution Cut filter: Design & Handling

The filter frame is made from aluminum, and the 82mm version weighs 32g. The outer edge of the filter rim is smooth, though the very front is knurled to provide a little grip when screwing it onto or removing it from a lens. It doesn’t offer as much grip as the knurled outer rim of the Irix Edge Light Pollution Edge filter.

Hoya claims it has a ‘low profile’ frame, though it sticks out by 4mm when attached to the front filter thread of a lens, which is more than the 3mm frames I have tested, and could cause more vignetting when stacked with other circular filters. On the plus side, this extra depth enables a lens cap to be clipped on more easily.

In addition to being available as a circular filter, it can also be purchased as a 100x100mm square filter for slot-in filter holders, allowing multiple filters to be stacked together with ease.

The glass is optically colored rather than dyed, which is a good thing, but there is only a single anti-reflective coating on each side of the filter. I’ve become accustomed to even budget filters having multiple coatings to help with things like oil, water, and scratch resistance, so I found it disappointing to see this filter offering so little on the coatings side.

A bit of a nitpick here, but the filter also produced an audible squeak when screwing it into my lens’s front filter thread, which wasn’t ideal when trying to keep a low profile shooting at night. It must be something to do with the metal or coating on the threads that Hoya uses, as it also happened with a Hoya R72 infrared filter I also tested. I've reviewed lots of filters and haven't experienced this with any other filters; perhaps this will lessen over time as the filter gets used more often.

Hoya Starscape Light Pollution Cut filter: Performance

Hoya claims that competing filters may attempt to reduce light pollution with coatings, which can produce a poor color shift, especially when used with wide-angle lenses. Hoya’s Starscape filters, by contrast, reduce light pollution by using the glass formula itself, and the company says that as a result, there is no color shift.

Indeed, the color shift was very minimal in my testing, which is partly due to the filter only having quite a subtle purple tint; other light pollution filters I have tested appear to have a much stronger effect. So, while the Starscape's effect was quite subtle, its colors were better than those of other filters straight out of the gate. It didn’t require as much processing to get the colors looking right when editing the Raw files, so this filter could be a good option for those less savvy with editing.

I also noticed that very fine details in my images were softer with the filter in place, though I really had to zoom in to see this difference.

Areas where the Hoya Starscape didn’t fare quite so well included its coatings, of which there is just one for anti-reflectance. There are no bells and whistles here, and the filter was a bit of an outlier as the only astro filter I have tested with no oil or water-resistant coatings, which made it more difficult to clean, and water didn’t fall off when shaken. But I suppose this reflects its budget-friendly price point.

Another minor issue is that the filter frame is quite thick, protruding by 4mm when mounted – compared to some other screw-in filters I have tried that only protrude by 3mm. This isn’t a huge problem, but it does mean you need to be a little more careful to avoid vignetting when shooting with ultra-wide-angle lenses or stacking filters.

Hoya Starscape Light Pollution Cut filter: Verdict

The Hoya Starscape is a bare-bones light pollution filter with few bells and whistles, no special oil, water, or scratch-resistant coatings, nor an ultra-thin frame, but it gets the job done, is budget-friendly, and comes in a wide range of filter thread options to suit most lenses that take a screw-in filter on the front.

Its light pollution cut isn’t as strong as the other filters I reviewed from the likes of Cokin, Rollei, K&F Concept, and Irix; however, it does a good job of combating the yellow glare from street lamps, and its files are easier to manage, with only a subtle purple color cast to deal with.

Alternatives

Astrophotographers, grab your gear – a strong solar flare has increased the odds for catching the northern lights this week.

The sun let off a flare on Monday that experts expect could bring storms as powerful as a G2. For those in the US, that means potential aurora sightings in more than a dozen states, as far south as Illinois, if current conditions persist.

The UK's MET Office has also now issued a geomagnetic storm watch, with a potential for a visible aurora "as far south as parts of northern England."

While conditions were originally expected to bring a possible solar storm overnight on March 17 and 18, an updated forecast now shows continued odds for March 19 and 20.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts conditions could peak around a G2, KP6 storm around 8 PM ET on March 19 (which is around 1 AM GMT March 20). Conditions remain at a potential G2 for a few hours before dropping to a potential G1.

Levels could potentially exceed a KP6, G2 storm again on March 20, around 11 PM ET (3 AM GMT on March 21). Conditions are expected to remain favorable through the night.

Predicting the aurora is never a sure thing – NOAA’s 30-minute forecast tends to be more accurate than the three-day predictions, so photographers may want to check conditions again before heading out.

March tends to be a favorable month for spotting the aurora, as the equinox tends to allow for more interaction between solar wind and Earth's magnetic field.

Along with strong solar activity, photographers will also need clear skies to capture the northern lights. A cloudless sky is best, though skywatchers may be able to find a lucky break with partially cloudy conditions.

Locations away from light pollution also have higher odds. The moon is in the New Moon phase, which should also help conditions, as light from a full moon can make the lights harder to spot.

Photographers have a bit working in their favor, however, as the aurora is often easier for a camera to spot than the human eye. I’ve photographed several minor solar storms that popped up on my camera, but I couldn’t quite make them out with my eyes.

To prep for photographing the aurora, have a tripod ready and the camera batteries fully charged – especially in March, as cold weather can drain batteries faster.

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March 2026 will contain great riches for astrophotographers, with the undoubted highlight — at least for those in western North America, Australia, New Zealand and Eastern Asia — being a total lunar eclipse.

Everyone will see the crescent moon glide gracefully past both Jupiter and the Pleiades, while those in the Northern Hemisphere will get great seasonal views of constellations (including Orion, Taurus, Canis Major, and Auriga) and deep-sky objects (such as Orion Nebula, Crab Nebula, M36, M37 and M38) before they begin to depart the post-sunset sky until September. March is also when the northern lights can be at their most intense.

Read: When to photograph the moon

Tuesday, March 3: A full Worm Moon and a total lunar eclipse

For astrophotographers in western North America, the early hours of Tuesday, 3 March, promise to be among the most exciting of the year. The last total lunar eclipse until New Year’s Eve in 2028 will see the moon’s surface turn a copper-reddish color during a 58-minute-long totality visible on the entire night-side of Earth (though Europe misses out entirely, and eastern North America sees only the penumbral and partial phases).

The picturesque totality — the effect of thousands of sunsets projected onto the lunar surface — can be imaged using a DSLR or mirrorless camera, together with a 300mm telephoto lens on a tripod (though 600mm is better).

Plan your shot using apps and websites such as Photo Ephemeris, PhotoPills and Planit Pro if you want to align the eclipsed moon with a foreground feature. Here are the times for totality across North America, though the preceding partial phases are worth watching an hour before:

Read: How to photograph a lunar eclipse

March 11 - 22: Dark sky window opens

The moon reaches its last quarter phase tonight, rising around midnight. It makes the next seven nights — through the new moon on 18 March — perfect for dark skies and deep-sky astrophotography, with no bright moonlight until around 22 March.

Read: Astrophotography: How-to guides, tips and videos

Friday, 20 March: Vernal equinox

Today is the vernal equinox, when the sun is above the equator somewhere on Earth. A global event, it occurs at 09:46 a.m. EST in North America. Equinox means equal hours of day and night (qui is Latin for equal, nox for night) across the globe, and the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

It may not seem like a celestial occasion for astrophotography, but the sunrise and sunset on the equinox have been meaningful events for humans for many thousands of years. For those willing to travel, there are several events to capture on the vernal equinox:

Read: 10 must-shoot events for astrophotographers in 2026

Friday, March 20: crescent moon and Venus

Look west tonight for the lovely sight of a super-slender 4%-illuminated waxing crescent moon just above a bright Venus. Now coming into its own, Venus will become a popular post-sunset object in the months ahead. Here, it will be seen only by those with a low horizon — and the moon will take some finding.

Read: The best star tracker camera mounts

March 22-23: Pleiades and a crescent moon

Tonight is a great opportunity to find an 18%-illuminated waxing crescent moon shining just below the Pleiades or “Seven Sisters,” an open star cluster also known as M45. The two can be found in the southwestern sky for a few hours after sunset.

Your camera should detect Earthshine, a faint glow visible on the moon's dark limb — sunlight reflected by Earth onto the moon. Come back the following evening for a 25%-illuminated waxing crescent moon just above the Pleiades, though Earthshine may be harder to spot as the moon brightens.

Read: The best cameras for astrophotography

March 25-26: Jupiter and the first quarter moon

Visible in the south just after sunset will be the first-quarter moon beside bright planet Jupiter, a two-night conjunction best photographed with a tripod, a mirrorless or DSLR camera and a 300mm lens.

Read more:

• Astrophotography tools: the best camera, lenses and gear

• The best lenses for astrophotography

• The best star tracker camera mounts

• The best light pollution filters

The Hubble Space Telescope may be more than 30 years old, but the orbiting telescope continues to outdo its old self. Case in point: the Hubble Space Telescope just captured its sharpest view yet of the Egg Nebula, a dying star located about 1,000 light-years away.

NASA shared the photo this week, showing the star surrounded by a freshly ejected cloud of stardust that is both artistic and scientific.

The Egg Nebula gets its name from the central star – which resembles a yolk – and its cloud of surrounding dust that looks like egg white. The star is highlighted both by rings of dust and two beams of light, creating an X shape.

While that light and dust creates an artistic shape, the image is also giving researchers clues to what’s happening to the pre-planetary nebula. The shape of the dust, NASA explains, hints at gravity from a hidden companion star (or perhaps stars plural) that are buried in the dust.

The Egg Nebula is not just in the pre-planetary stage – a transitional stage of gas and dust formed from a dying star – but is also the first, closest, and youngest of its kind. While the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed the Egg Nebula before, the latest photo uses data from a 2012 image from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera to get an even clearer image.

“The symmetrical patterns captured by Hubble are too orderly to result from a violent explosion like a supernova,” NASA writes. “Instead, the arcs, lobes, and central dust cloud likely stem from a coordinated series of poorly understood sputtering events in the carbon-enriched core of the dying star.

“Aged stars like these forged and released the dust that eventually seeded future star systems, such as our own solar system, which coalesced into Earth and other rocky planets 4.5 billion years ago.”

The latest image, captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, shows both science and art in its structure.

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Browse the best cameras for astrophotography or the best astrophotography lenses.

Astrophotography pushes both camera gear and technique to the limit. From battling light pollution to mastering long exposures and working with specialist equipment, making the sky's beauty visible takes patience, precision, and the right tools.

If you're interested in astrophotography, chances are you've already come across the work of Josh Dury. The award-winning astrophotographer is known for his mesmerising night sky images – and he's also the best-selling author of 52 Assignments Night Photography – a practical guide for mastering low-light and after-dark shooting.

Ahead of his upcoming talk at The Photography & Video Show 2026, Dury offered a look inside his kitbag – revealing the camera, lenses, and astro photography gear he trusts to bring his creative vision to life.

From specialist equipment to the techniques that make deep-sky detail possible, here's what powers one of the UK's leading night sky photographers.

Josh Dury's Talk

Sustainable approaches for astrophotography
Tuesday March 17 2026 – 10:30 - 11:00 – Behind the Lens Theatre

As astrophotography grows in popularity and more of us turn our cameras to the skies, there is a growing demand and pressure for our 'dark-sky' places.

Astro expert Josh will uncover the inherent challenges of capturing the night skies, and discuss how photographers can promote positive stewardship at popular locations, limit light pollution, and protect nocturnal species.

Also looking at how we can identify new images and avoid repeated content when pitching to potential clients, Josh will contemplate the present and future of astrophotography, while encouraging us all to expand our horizons.

Find more information on The Photography & Video Show website

Pro Gear + techniques

Dury's astro setup

1. Camera
My preferred camera of choice is the Sony A7s III – it's best suited to low-light environments and a powerhouse.

With increased Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), images taken in low light environments appear cleaner and more defined with minimal image artefacts and noise (*dependent on value that is selected).

2. Lens
Sigma 14mm F/1.4 DG DN boasts f/1.4 capability at 14mm, is not only a wide-angle lens, the light gathering capability is staggering.

With greater light entering the camera to the sensor, exposures that were typically being achieved with a f/2.8 lens by comparison take half the time, even seconds to utilise.

3. Specialist tool: Sky-watcher Star Adventurer
For utilising long exposures, the Skywatcher Star Adventurer is a fantastic star tracker to use. It requires more components to operate, but the tracking – when set up correctly – allows for lengthy exposures.

A sleek, stylish design coupled with a heavier payload makes for a user-friendly interface when dealing with more complex photographic techniques.

The Starman's favorite technique

It's a difficult one to answer, as I like to experiment with multiple methods.

One that catches my attention is long exposure; revealing celestial attractions in the night-sky that are not visible to the human eye.

Opening up the interesting question is what else is there for us to see amongst the stars?

• The Photography & Video Show 2026: everything you need to know
• Get 20% off tickets of your tickets with our exclusive money-saving code!

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February is set to be a spectacular month for astrophotographers in the Northern Hemisphere. Long, cold winter nights favor deep sky imaging, Jupiter dominates the evening sky, and a mid-month new moon opens an important dark-sky window. Add the return of Venus as an Evening Star, Mercury’s strongest evening apparition of the year, a central solar eclipse, delicate crescent moons and subtle zodiacal light, and February offers a balanced mix of planetary, deep-sky and wide-field nightscape opportunities. Here’s everything you need to know about astrophotography in February 2026.

Read: 10 must-shoot events for astrophotographers in 2026

Sunday, February 1: A full Snow Moon

February begins with a full moon. It rises in the east around sunset while in the constellation Leo, with its brightest star, Regulus, close by. Always prioritize the time of moonrise for your location — when the moon is low, Earth’s atmosphere adds warm color and apparent size, especially when framed against distant buildings, hills or trees. Plan your shot using apps and websites such as Photo Ephemeris, PhotoPills and Planit Pro to align the moon with a foreground feature.

A telephoto lens in the 150–600mm zoom range works well for tight perspectives, while wider lenses can capture the moon rising into a landscape. Start with exposures around 1/125 sec, f/8, ISO 100, then bracket to protect highlights. Switch to manual focus and use live view at maximum magnification to ensure the lunar surface is razor sharp — softness is a common mistake with the full moon.

Read: How to photograph the full moon

Monday, February 2: Occultation of Regulus by the moon

One night after it's full, the Snow Moon will appear to occult (block) bright star Regulus — but only as seen from parts of North America and northwest Africa. It may not seem much of a photographic opportunity, but ingress (when the star first starts to disappear) and egress (when the star reappears) offer rare chances to image a bright star right next to the limb of the moon.

From the northeast U.S. and eastern Canada, the action occurs between 8:40 and 10:05 p.m. EST, according to In-The-Sky.org, though from any one place, the event will last about an hour. Europe and western North America will see a very close conjunction of the moon and Regulus — a special sight in itself.

Read: The best cameras for astrophotography

Sunday, February 8 : Venus, Mercury and Saturn in conjunction

Venus returns to the post-sunset night sky this month as a low “Evening Star” in the west-southwest, briefly joined by Mercury and Saturn. These compact groupings are ideal for twilight astrophotography — but demand great timing and clear horizons. Shoot 30-60 minutes after sunset using a tripod and a 35-85mm lens. Balance the bright planets against the fading sky by bracketing exposures, manually focusing on Venus.

Read: Astrophotography tools: the best camera, lenses and gear

February 13-17: Dark sky window and zodiacal light

As the moon wanes toward its new phase on February 17, the month's prime astrophotography window opens. These nights are perfect for imaging deep-sky showpieces, including the Orion Nebula (M42), Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33), Pleiades (M45), Crab Nebula (M1), the three open clusters in Auriga (M36, M37, M38) and the Hyades — among many others.

These moon-free evenings also offer one of the year’s best chances to capture the zodiacal light — a faint, triangular glow rising from the western horizon along the plane of the solar system. Choose a very dark site with minimal light pollution and a clear western horizon, and be ready about an hour after sunset. Use a wide lens, exposures of 15-30 seconds, and ISO 1600-3200 for clean images.

Read: The best star tracker camera mounts

The new moon on Tuesday, February 17 — and the evenings in its wake — are filled with opportunities for creative twilight astrophotography. It begins with the new moon, which signifies the beginning of the Lunar New Year (also called Chinese New Year), with 2026 being the “Year of the Horse.” There’s no specific astro-shot to be had, though the constellation Pegasus, “The Winged Horse,” is in the western night sky as it gets dark.

The same day hosts an annular solar eclipse, when 96% of the sun will be blocked by a distant moon, though the resulting “ring of fire” will only be seen in Antarctica. A partial solar eclipse will be viewed from southern South Africa and southern South America.

The following evening, on Wednesday, 18 February, the sighting of a 2%-lit waxing crescent moon in the west just after sunset will trigger the beginning of Ramadan, the Islamic religion’s fasting month. The slim crescent will have Mercury above and Venus below.

On Thursday, 19 February, a 7%-lit waxing crescent moon will shine close to Saturn, with Mercury and Venus below. It’s a fabulous chance to image inner planet Mercury — most likely seen as a reddish point of light low on the horizon — which actually reaches its highest above the horizon post-sunset on Friday, February 20.

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Astrophotography: How-to guides, tips and videos

Astrophotography tools: the best camera, lenses and gear