Every day of National Astronomy Week 2025 we’ll be bringing the planets, nebulae and galaxies live to your screen! You’ll be able to view objects as they are in real time, courtesy of our network of amateur and professional astronomers around the UK and across Europe.
The telescopes we use have astro-cameras attached which can send out a live video stream, so you’ll see the planet just as if you were at the eyepiece yourself, often in colour. You can see an example of one we recorded back in 2020, during the last National Astronomy Week, here. There’ll be a commentary explaining exactly what your’re seeing and drawing attention to interesting features on the planet. We can also show you processed images, taken using the video stream, to enhance the view and bring out amazing detail.

There’ll also be views of what are known as deep-sky images – that’s objects outside our Solar System, such as star clusters, nebulae and even remote galaxies. In this case the objects are usually too dim for a live view, so instead we’ll stack images in real time so that they build up a picture over a few minutes, increasing in detail and colour all the time. We’ll be viewing the Orion Nebula – a birthplace of stars – the famous Andromeda Galaxy, and other fascinating objects.
The objects we view will be chosen each night by the observers, and there’ll be an expert host on hand to talk us through what we’re looking at.
When to view
Every night from 7 pm to 8 pm GMT (2 pm to 3 pm EST) each night from Saturday 1 February to Sunday 9 February 2025.
Look out for online astronomy talks scheduled immediately after the livestreams.
How to view
All the livestreaming will be on the NAW YouTube channel – that’s Youtube.com/nationalastronomy week. No need to book or to get another link – just go to the YouTube channel and we’ll be there. You can even access it on your smart TV by going to YouTube and searching on National Astronomy Week.