AN October 2025

Welcome to our October issue of Astronomy Now. On behalf of my team, I want to say an enormous thank you to our readers for responding to the change of management in such an overwhelmingly positive way. You have boosted us and made us set our sights even higher for what we want to achieve.

The October 2025 issue of Astronomy Now takes a deep dive into the distant Universe and asks whether we have – rather unexpectedly – seen the first stars that the Universe ever made, or something ever weirder. You may have heard of the James Webb Space Telescope’s ‘little red dots’ and been amazed at the mystery of them. They hit the news about a year ago and then sort of faded from metaphorical view. Well, we have brought them back into sharp focus and this month we report on the very latest thinking about them: they could be gargantuan stars or a type of celestial object that we have never seen before (but you can bet your bottom dollar that black holes are involved!). Either way, it is absolutely mind blowing – and we’ve got the full story.

We’ve also got an exclusive interview with the UK Space Agency’s Chief Scientist about how the national will decide its astronomical priorities between now and 2035; a look at the intriguing mysteries of Venus that were first revealed 50 years ago this month with the first images from its surface; and a profile of a professional astronomer whose passion is to paint spacescapes. Our venerated consultant Allan Chapman recounts the 350-year history of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and we ask whether you should go to a star party (spoiler alert: the answer is yes but you need to read the magazine to find out why!).

We’ve added a new column, Ask an Astronomer, which answers your pressing questions about the Universe and we have all your favourite regulars. Add to that all you need to know about the night sky in October, spectacular reader images of the night sky, and our Equipment editor Steve Ringwood puts the K100 Mini Virtuoso telescope through its paces.

Let us share the wonder of the Universe with you!