Binoculars

By Bob Berman

Published December 22, 2024 at 9:35 AM EST

1 of 1 — Andromeda Galaxy - nasa - SU 12-22.PNG

NASA, ESA and Z. Levay (STScI/AURA); PHAT Mosaic: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team and R. Gendler; Ground-based Background Image of M31 (c) 2008 R. Gendler

If someone you know has their head in the stars, here are some last minute gift ideas. Binoculars, which can provide mind-blowing images of the things like the Pleiades, star clusters, Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.

Related Content

Strange Universe With Bob Berman

The highest moon ever

Bob Berman

If you REALLY watch the moon — the way the Babylonians did 3,700 years ago — you'll notice that its path keeps changing. We're not talking about super-obvious lunar behavior like its rapid sky movement, or the nightly shift in where it rises and sets. Some years the moon's nightly motion can mimic the sun's daytime path across the sky. Other years the moon never quite ascends as high as the sun. But the most dramatic part of the cycle is the brief three-year period when the moon gets much higher than the sun.
Strange Universe With Bob Berman

The Big Bang

Bob Berman

Astronomers have long sought the origin of the universe, and hence ourselves as well. Using our best equipment, we observe that every galaxy cluster is rushing away from us, and from all others. For every extra one million light-years of distance, galaxy clusters recede 13 miles per second faster. When we retrace their paths we see that everything must have been in a single spot 13.8 billion years ago, which was right here. Clearly, the universe originated then and there. This week: The Big Bang!
Strange Universe With Bob Berman

The evening star

Bob Berman

Venus is now starting an extraordinary cycle. Also called the evening star, it’s not the least bit hard to find. It will spend the next nine months in the west after sunset, slowly growing higher and brighter.