CONTENTS

= on the cover C

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I T E R

J U P

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N A S A /J P LC A LT E C H/S E T I I N S T I T U T E

:

E U R O PA

,

R A E

L A R R Y N

:

PA G E

I S

T H

T I .

F E LT Ó

& P É T E R

T H

T Ó

B E N C E

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I M A G E

C O V E R

E S A /

,

E S A

,

I O

T O S T U D

@ T H E S H E D _ P H O

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J H A

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E S A /H U B B L E & N A S A /S

,

N A S A /J P LC A LT E C H E

:

C L I P P E R

,

I S T O C K /G E T T Y

I E P R O/

S C

& E S A

S O H O/ N A S A

I T Y ) ,

I V E R S

U N

I F F

( C A R D

E S S O N

W

.

I S T ) R

( A C R

C O X

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( U C L ) N

B A R L O W

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E B B/ N A S A /C S A /M

W

Features

26 Astronomy photographer

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of the year 2024

Feast your eyes as we reveal this year’s stunning winning images

34 Europa Clipper: searching

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for life at Jupiter’s icy moon

Read about the new frontier in the hunt for life: Europa’s buried ocean

40 Particle physics 101

Dark matter, the mysterious stuff holding the Universe together

60 Maggie’s top 10 JWST images

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The Sky at Night presenter picks her incredible Webb favourites

66 Crash scene investigator

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Hera, the mission to help stop asteroids before they hit us

Regulars 6 Eye on the sky 10 Bulletin 14 Cutting edge 16 Inside The Sky at Night 19 Interactive 23 Field of view 24 Subscribe to BBC Sky

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at Night Magazine 72 Explainer 74 Skills for stargazers: How to

use setting circles 98 Q&A: a lunar cave explorer

Astrophotography 76 Capture 78 Processing 80 Gallery

4 BBC Sk y at Night Magazine October 2024

26

Reviews 86 Altair Starwave Ascent

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70ED bundle 90 ZWO AM5N harmonic drive

mount and TC40 tripod 95 Gear 96 Books

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16 -PAGE CENTRE PULLOUT

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The Sky Guide 44 Highlights 46 The big three 48 The planets 50 October’s all-sky chart 52 Moonwatch 53 Comets and asteroids 53 Star of the month 54 Binocular tour 55 The Sky Guide challenge 56 Deep-sky tour 58 October at a glance