International Dark Sky Week 2025: See these 10 night sky sights to celebrate
April 21 - 28 is International Dark Sky Week, a global celebration of the night sky during which like-minded organizations and people take action to raise awareness of an inevitable aspect of modern-day life: the rising scourge of light pollution.
Light pollution is a serious issue for night sky enthusiasts hoping to explore the cosmos from our vantage point on Earth, and is the primary reason why powerful observatories are built in remote locations, such as the Atacama Desert in Chile. Even so, a 2022 study from the Royal Astronomical Society showed that artificial light was polluting the skies over most observatories, while suggesting that immediate action would be needed to safeguard these scientific bastions.
But the loss of dark skies is felt far beyond its harmful effects on astronomy. "From the darkness needed for a restful night's sleep to the activities we enjoy beneath the stars, the night plays a crucial role in protecting healthy wildlife ecosystems, advancing science and exploration, preserving cultural knowledge, and much more," reads a post on the International Dark Sky website.
Astronomers measure the apparent brightness of a night sky object by its magnitude. The lower this value is, the brighter an associated object is in the night sky. Under good night sky viewing conditions the human eye is capable of picking out objects with a magnitude of around +6, which allows us to view over 9,000 stars without the need for telescopes or binoculars. However, under artificial city lights that limit drops to a magnitude of +3, which renders many deep sky objects and stars lost to sight.
To celebrate International Dark Sky Week 2025, we've put together a list of 10 night sky objects visible over the coming days that showcase the majesty of the post-sunset realm. The majority of viewing targets are easily accessible to newcomers using nothing but the naked eye and a dark sky, although some may benefit from the use of a stargazing smartphone app such as Stellarium, or Starry night.
However, some of the latter selections in our list would benefit from being viewed through a pair of binoculars, or a telescope, to bring out their true beauty. While the most impressive sights will be found under clear, unspoiled dark skies, many of the viewing targets can be observed in urban areas. Regardless of where you are, be sure to let your eyes adjust to the dark for at least 20 minutes to get the most out of your skywatching experience, and to use a red light when extra illumination is needed to save your night vision!
The seven bright stars that form the Big Dipper - also known as the Plough - are among the most famous stellar formations in the Northern Hemisphere. In reality, the stars of the Big Dipper are separated from one another by near unimaginable tracts of space, but from the seemingly unchanging perspective of Earth they come together to create a distinctive bowl and handle shape.
The Big Dipper is what is known as an asterism - the term given to a recognizable formation of stars that belongs to an even larger grouping of stellar bodies called a constellation. The Big Dipper's constellation Ursa major - the Great Bear - happens to be a circumpolar constellation, which means that it's always above the horizon in the northern hemisphere, particularly during spring, when it is particularly high overhead. If you're having difficulty spotting this bright asterism then why not turn to a stargazing app, many of which have free functionality and the best of which can be found in our handy guide!
The next object on our tour is the magnitude +2 star Polaris, which can be located with the help of the bright stars Merak and Dubhe, which form the outer edge of the Big Dipper's 'bowl'. Simply trace an imaginary line from the base of the bowl (Merak) out through Dubhe, and the next bright star that the line intersects will be Polaris!
Polaris is also known as the North Star, owing to the fact that it just so happens to be positioned extremely close to the north celestial pole, which is essentially an extension of Earth's geographic north pole, and around which the entire sky seems to rotate. As such, Polaris held a special significance to our ancestors, who used it to determine their latitude on Earth during long sea voyages.
However, the celestial north pole is slowly wandering away from Polaris as a result of a wobble in the rotation of Earth's axis. According to NASA a new North Star will be crowned in around 12,000 years in the bright star Vega.
Betelgeuse - or Alpha Orionis if you want to be fancy - is one of the largest stars visible in the Northern Hemisphere. According to NASA, the red supergiant is estimated to shine brighter than up to 14,000 suns. Despite being a mere 10 million years old, Betelgeuse is already nearing the end of its mighty existence, having already expended most of its hydrogen reserves needed to fuel the fusion reaction that prevents the gigantic stellar body from collapsing in on itself.
At any point in the next 100,0000 years Betelgeuse could run out of the last of its hydrogen, and end in a cataclysmic supernova explosion that would be visible on Earth, even during the day.
To find Betelgeuse in the April night sky, you need only look to the western sky soon after sunset, and locate the three bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka that line up horizontally to form an asterism known as Orion's belt. Then, trace a line up from Mintaka and slightly to the right, to find Betelgeuse.
Space agencies and private companies alike have their sights set on exploring the secrets of the Red Planet, with a view to one day putting human boots on its barren surface. During April, Mars is located relatively close to the bright stars Castor and Pollox, which can be found 40 degrees upwards from Betelgeuse in the direction of your local zenith, which is the patch of space directly above your head.
The width of your fist from your thumb to the outside of your hand equals around 10 degrees in the sky. With that in mind, all you need to do is stack four fists on top of Betelgeuse, and you will find Castor and Pollux waiting for you side by side. Mars can then be seen as a bright red point of light to the upper left of the two stars.
Less than 10 degrees to the upper left of Mars this week is the Beehive cluster, which appears as a fuzzy patch of light to the naked eye under clear dark skies, and something all the more spectacular with the aid of a pair of binoculars, or telescope. According to NASA, the Beehive cluster is home to around 1,000 stars that are loosely bound together by gravitational attraction.
The enormous stellar beehive is thought to be 600 - 700 million years old, and was initially mistaken as a nebula by the famed astronomer Galileo Galilei when he observed it in the early 1600s. A pair of good binoculars will reveal tens of stars clustered together in the Beehive, while a telescope could reveal hundreds more of the blue-white stellar bodies.
The eastern pre-dawn horizon in late April is a veritable planet bonanza, with Venus, Saturn, Mercury and Neptune all crowding in together into a relatively small patch of sky. The planets are best viewed in the hour preceding dawn, and will require a clear view of the horizon.
Venus, the brightest of the planetary quartet, will be visible roughly 10 degrees above the horizon, while Saturn will be visible to the lower right a short distance away. Mercury, the last of the easily visible planets, may also be visible almost directly on the horizon. Neptune will be visible through binoculars or a telescope below Venus and to the left of Saturn, forming a planetary triangle. As always, readers are reminded to exercise extreme caution when using a telescope or binoculars in close proximity to the rising sun.
Named for its aesthetic similarity to the iconic piece of headwear, the Sombrero galaxy (M 104) is one of the most iconic and easily recognizable cosmic objects discovered by astronomers to date. The galaxy is tilted almost edge-on to Earth, and features a bright active core and thick, shadowy dust lanes that span some 50,000 light years across.
With a magnitude of +8 the vast galaxy sits just outside of the perception range of the human eye. However, it can be spotted under dark skies using a pair of binoculars, which will reveal the vast structure of gas and stars as a small smudge of light. Through a larger telescope it is possible to gain greater levels of detail. Be sure to check out Space.com's guides for the best binocular and telescope deals to help you find the optics you need to see the Sombrero Galaxy and other deep sky wonders.
A good way to locate the Sombrero Galaxy is to pick out the magnitude 2.8 star Kraz near the southern horizon after dark, and then look upwards until you find the similarly bright star Porrima to the right of Spica. M 104 can be found roughly half way between the two.
Located 34,000 light-years from Earth, the globular cluster Messier 3 (M3) is known to contain over 500,000 stars. Despite its stelliferous nature, the deep sky object was initially mistaken for a nebula by its discoverer Charles Messier back in 1764, though this wrong would later be put right by William Herschel some 20 years later, when he resolved individual stars within the cluster.
As explained by NASA, the best way to find Messier 3 is to return to the Big Dipper asterism, and draw an imaginary line connecting the star at the very end of the handle, Alkaid, and Arcturus. Then, using a starfinding app, find the magnitude 2.84 star Cor Caroli. The globular cluster we seek is located a third of the way towards Cor Caroli.
Bode's galaxy is located some 11.6 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major, and is one of the brightest galaxies to be found in the night sky, with an apparent magnitude of +6.9. The cosmic structure was discovered in 1774 by German astronomer Johann Elert Bode, and later imaged by the Hubble telescope to magnificent effect.
One way to find Bode's galaxy is to locate Dubhe in the bowl of the Big Dipper, along with the magnitude +3.5 star Muscida. Find the halfway point between the two, and head in the direction of Polaris. This imaginary line will bring you close to our target, along with the dimmer galaxies M82, and NGC 3077.
As noted by NASA, it is possible to spot Bode's galaxy as a smudge of light in the spring sky with a pair of binoculars. However, a small telescope will be needed to resolve the galaxy's bright core, which is suspected to play host to a monstrous singularity 15 times the mass of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole.
Our final entry is the Andromeda galaxy, a vast spiral galaxy located some 2.5 million light years from Earth, which is destined to collide and merge with the Milky Way some 4.5 billion years from now to form an even larger elliptical galaxy.
During spring, the Andromeda galaxy is best viewed in the hours before dawn by looking to the north eastern horizon and finding the prominent star Mirach close to the horizon. The Andromeda galaxy will be located a little under 10 degrees above Mirach, visible as a fuzzy patch of light to the naked eye.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New study says the 'one-set rule' could help you build more muscle in the gym (while doing less) — here's how
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. If you're anything like me, gym motivation comes and goes, and sometimes, no matter what conversation you have with yourself, it just isn't happening. Well, I might have found a fix. From now on, whenever you're debating whether or not to do that workout or lift those barbells or dumbbells, think this: just one set. That's it, just one set. New research published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise has made a fascinating discovery, and it's that a single-set routine could save time and still build muscle, even when transitioning from higher-volume workouts. Here's everything you need to know about the 'one-set rule,' and why it works, according to researchers. What is the study? Researchers took 42 young men and women who were already resistance-trained, and assigned them to one of two groups: the first group trained to failure on all exercises, while the other worked at a submaximal effort, meaning they had roughly two reps 'in reserve' for the same exercises. All participants performed one set of nine different exercises focusing on all major muscle groups each session. They did this twice per week for eight weeks. Researchers then measured muscle thickness in the biceps and triceps brachii and quadriceps, and looked at muscular strength, power and endurance markers. What are the results? The results showed that both groups benefitted from 'appreciable gains in most of the assessed outcomes," and several measures of hypertrophy (muscle growth) favored the all-out effort group. However, increases in strength and local muscular endurance were similar between groups. The next time you head to the gym, you could perform just one set of each exercise twice per week and still benefit. The study concluded that single-set routines can be time-efficient and still promote modest muscular adaptations, although this was an assessment on trained individuals only. That said, even if participants had transitioned from higher-volume programs, it was still effective. What does it all mean? Training toward failure and prioritizing intensity rather than volume (high sets or reps) is where muscle adaptations can occur. Even just one set per exercise can help you build muscle and power, so long as you work with intensity close to failure. However, results didn't show the same for strength or local muscle endurance in this case. The next time you head to the gym, you could perform just one set of each exercise twice per week and still benefit. Training to failure in this case favored slightly better muscle growth, but both groups still benefited significantly overall, and strength outcomes were similar. Remember, the experiment targeted the whole body and main muscle groups, but by keeping it minimal, sessions were still short and time-efficient. Just think of intensity and ensure you're lifting toward failure rather than keeping reps in reserve. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button. More from Tom's Guide Forget running and swimming — study finds this sport adds 10 years to your life New study reveals cycling can reduce dementia risk by 88% Work out less and get better results — a new study says this is exactly how
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
This comet is traveling 100x faster than a bullet. NASA still managed to photograph it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The fastest-moving objects are often the most challenging subjects to photograph – which means NASA scientists had a challenge ahead of them when the ATLAS comet warning system flagged the fastest solar system visitor yet. The Hubble Space Telescope has managed to capture the sharpest ever photograph of the comet known as 3I/ATLAS as it travels at 130,000 miles per hour / 209,215 kph. The 3I/ATLAS, which was first spotted on July 1, has the fastest velocity of any solar system visitor to date, NASA says. The comet's 130,000 mph speed is nearly 100 times the speed of some bullets. The comet's speed suggests that 3I/ATLAS may have originated from a very distant, developing planetary system, which means the comet could be a space fossil with clues about the universe's history. The challenge, of course, was how to photograph something moving 100 times the speed of some bullets and still get a sharp enough photograph that scientists could infer some data from the image. NASA put the Hubble Space Telescope up to the task, using the orbiting telescope's onboard WFC3 charge-coupled camera. The researchers used a single gyroscope to allow the camera to follow the movement of the comet, creating a sharper, more detailed image. The stars in the background of the image are streaked because the camera was moving in order to follow the quick-moving comet, much like the panning technique blurs the background of photos taken following fast action on Earth. The resulting photograph is giving researchers a wealth of different information about the speedy solar system visitor. Researchers now estimate that the comet's nucleus is between 1,000 feet (320 m) and 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) in diameter. The photograph also shows the dust ejecting from the comet on the side that the sun is heating up. The comet's rate of dust loss indicates the comet may have originated 300 million miles from the sun, researchers estimate. 'No one knows where the comet came from,' said David Jewitt, the science team leader for the Hubble observations. 'It's like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second. You can't project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path.' The 3I/ATLAS comet was first discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) at the beginning of July 2025. While the comet isn't Earth-bound, its speed indicates the comet could be billions of years old. Researchers will continue to study the comet until it passes too close to the sun to observe sometime in September, though it's expected to be visible again on the other side of the sun around December. You may also like Take a look at the best cameras for astrophotography or the best lenses for astrophotography. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
10 bizarre 'dark voids' appear in the skies over uninhabited island near Antarctica — Earth from space
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. QUICK FACTS Where is it? Heard Island, Indian Ocean [-53.116414344, 73.51793263] What's in the photo? An unusual stream of von Kármán vortices trailing off a hidden peak Which satellite took the photo? Landsat 8 When was it taken? May 3, 2016 This striking satellite photo shows 10 swirling "dark voids" that appeared above an uninhabited volcanic island in the Indian Ocean. The black spots are the result of atmospheric cloud vortices, but are oddly pronounced and significantly contorted compared to most other examples of this phenomenon. The spinning voids are trailing off Heard Island — an uninhabited Australian territory in the southern Indian Ocean, around 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) north of Antarctica. The cloud-obscured landmass has a surface area of around 142 square miles (368 square kilometers). On average, the dark spots are around 8 miles (13 km) wide, decreasing slightly in size the further they have traveled, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. They are initially moving away from the island in a northeasterly direction (left to right). The spinning holes are the result of a phenomenon known as von Kármán vortices, which occur when a prevailing wind encounters a landmass, disturbing the airflow and creating "a double row of vortices which alternate their direction of rotation," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They are named for Theodore von Kármán, a Hungarian-American physicist, who was the first to describe this natural phenomenon. In this case, the vortices are being created by Mawson Peak, a 9,000-foot-tall (2,700 meters) active volcano sat at the heart of Heard Island. Related: See all the best images of Earth from space Normally, von Kármán vortices create long trails of swirling clouds that get caught up in the disrupted air flows. The cloud streams are normally perfectly straight, such as a series of parallel vortex streams that emerged side-by-side off the Atlantic coast of Africa in 2015 (see above). But in this case, the vortex stream appears to bend almost 90 degrees midway through the stream. This change in direction was most likely caused by a sporadic burst of the intense westerly winds that frequently blow across the area around Heard Island at speeds over 50 mph (80km/h), known as the "Furious Fifties," according to the Earth Observatory. In most examples of von Kármán vortices, the resulting cloud trails can be quite wispy, tracing out the subtle variations in the invisible air currents, such as examples observed over Mexico's Guadalupe Island in 2012 and above Svalbard's Bear Island in 2023. MORE EARTH FROM SPACE —Gravity waves spark pair of perfect cloud ripples above uninhabited islands —Mysterious, slow-spinning cloud 'cyclone' hugs the Iberian coast —Giant, near-perfect cloud ring appears in the middle of the Pacific Ocean However, in this photo, the wispy trails are replaced by a string of concentrated holes, or gaps, within the clouds. This is probably due to exceptionally thick cloud coverage, which can be disrupted only at the heart of each spinning section within the vortex stream. Mawson Peak is smaller than most of the peaks that regularly produce von Kármán vortices, making it slightly rarer for the cloud swirls to emerge there. However, Heard Island has produced more traditional vortex streams in the past, such as one showing in November 2015. Solve the daily Crossword
