The Journal · Category
The objects themselves: the 88 constellations, the planets, the Messier and Caldwell catalogues, the IAU star names — and the sky cultures that read the very same stars a different way.
Featured · Atlas
At 2.5 million light-years, M31 is the most distant thing the unaided eye catches without strain. It spans three degrees, six full Moons laid end to end, climbs to 82 degrees above Paris, and the moonless window runs from 5 to 17 September. The exact star-hop, and what your own sky will let through.
September 8, 2026
Atlas
Three stars everyone points at in summer, and whose dimensions nobody ever gives. We measured them in the catalogue the app runs on: 23.85 degrees, 34.20 and 38.01. The Triangle is nowhere near equilateral, it covers one hundredth of the whole sky, and it holds two entire constellations.
August 19, 2026
Atlas
Tonight it rises at 22:44, and it will gain twenty minutes every week. More to the point, its rings are open again: edge-on and all but gone in March 2025, they now stand at 8.9 degrees. Here is the season's timetable up to the 4 October opposition, and what instrument it takes.
August 17, 2026