2026 Guide to the Night Sky: A month-by-month guide to exploring the skies above North America

Radmila Topalovic is an astronomy programs officer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. She holds a PhD in space dust.

Dr. Dominic Ford is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge UK, where he works on the European Space Agency’s PLATO mission. He previously led the development of data-analysis software for spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way at Lund Observatory, Sweden. He has worked on many science communication and amateur astronomy projects. He founded the website In-The-Sky.org, an online guide to what is visible in the night sky, which can be tailored to your exact location on Earth. He previously managed the British Astronomical Association’s website and built an online image archive which now holds over 80,000 images of the night sky. In 2022, Dominic was awarded the British Astronomical Association’s Horace Dall Medal for the development of software for amateur astronomers.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the World, making it the official starting point for each new day and year. It is also home to London’s only planetarium, the Harrison timekeepers and the UK’s largest refracting telescope. It runs the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.