CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - “When I was a kid, my cousin showed me Saturn from a telescope when I was young and that got me hooked.” Tom Weber, the President of the Cedar Amateur Astronomers recalled.

In 1781, French astronomer Charles Messier published a catalog of 103 objects in the heavens. He was primarily interested in comets, but kept finding fuzzy smudges that did not move against the ...

The article critiques the common recommendation of starting amateur astronomy with the Messier catalog, arguing that many Messier objects are low surface brightness and difficult for beginners to ...

Back in the late 18th and early 19th centuries — long before anyone had any real idea of all that lay out there among the stars — a French astronomer spent his nights scouring the sky for his prey.

The new moon will provide the dark skies skywatchers need to spot some stunning astronomical objects in the Messier catalog this week. The exact moment of August's new moon occurs at 5:39 a.m. EDT ...

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Messier 18 was discovered and catalogued in 1764 by Charles Messier — for whom the Messier Objects are named — during his search for comet-like objects. It lies within the Milky Way, approximately ...

This star-studded image shows us a portion of Messier 11, an open star cluster in the southern constellation of Scutum (the Shield). Messier 11 is also known as the Wild Duck Cluster, as its brightest ...

The first black hole ever photographed is no longer just a static ring of darkness. Astronomers have now traced a colossal ...