Astronomy for Change Celebrates the 2026 Summer Solstice with Two Jewels of the Summer Sky

Imaged with Insight Observatory's Remote Telescope Network

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As the 2026 Summer Solstice arrived on June 21 at 4:24 AM EDT, marking the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, Thomas Madigan from Astronomy for Change took the occasion to turn his attention to two of the most stunning deep-sky objects the summer sky has to offer — and he did it using Insight Observatory's world-class remote telescope network.

In a feature article published on the Astronomy for Change website, Dr. Daly explores the science behind the Summer Solstice — explaining how the Earth's 23.5-degree axial tilt, not its distance from the Sun, is responsible for the seasonal changes we experience — before guiding readers toward the southern summer sky and two spectacular globular clusters now well-placed for observation.

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Two Globular Clusters, Two Hemispheres, One Network
Leveraging Insight Observatory's remotely accessible 0.40-meter (16″) Ritchey-Chrétien Deep-Space Reflectors, Dr. Daly captured 16-minute exposures of both targets from opposite sides of the world:

Messier 22 imaged by Thomas Madigan on Insight Observatory's affiliate remote telescope, AFIL-19, located in Pie Town, New Mexico, USA.

Messier 22 in Sagittarius was imaged using Insight Observatory's instrument at Pie Town, New Mexico, USA. Located approximately 10,000 light-years from Earth, M22 is one of the brightest and most richly populated globular clusters in the night sky, harboring between 100,000 and 300,000 ancient stars.

Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram of Messier 22, based on image data from the Insight Observatory and created by Thomas Madigan.

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Messier 4 imaged by Thomas Madigan on Insight Observatory's affiliate remote telescope, AFIL-40, located in the Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile.

Messier 4 in Scorpio was captured with Insight Observatory's telescope in the Rio Hurtado Valley, Chile. At just under 7,000 light-years distant, M4 is one of the closest globular clusters to Earth. This proximity makes it appear notably larger in the field of view, even though its stellar population is comparable to M22. It can be found just west of Antares, the brilliant red giant heart of the scorpion.

Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram of Messier 4, based on image data from the Insight Observatory and created by Thomas Madigan.

Both clusters are currently well-placed in the southern sky through June and July and are accessible to backyard observers with a good pair of binoculars — a point Mr. Madigan enthusiastically emphasizes in his article.

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Science Beyond the Image
What makes this collaboration particularly noteworthy is what Mr. Madigan plans to do with the data next. In an upcoming follow-up post, he will release full-resolution images of both M22 and M4 alongside Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams generated using PixInsight's HR Plotter — a third-party add-on tool that produces scientifically valuable stellar classification diagrams directly from imaging data. The HR diagram, one of the most fundamental tools in stellar astrophysics, reveals a cluster's age, stellar composition, and evolutionary history — elevating these images from purely aesthetic works to scientifically meaningful datasets.

This kind of work is precisely the mission that drives the partnership between Astronomy for Change and Insight Observatory: combining the accessibility of remote telescope technology with rigorous scientific methodology and public education.

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About the Partnership
Insight Observatory's remotely accessible telescope network spans five continents, giving educators, researchers, and enthusiasts worldwide access to professional-grade instrumentation from their homes or classrooms. The collaboration with Astronomy for Change reflects a shared commitment to advancing public engagement with astronomy and making deep-sky observation accessible to all.

To read Mr. Madigan's full Summer Solstice 2026 article and view the complete imagery, visit: 🔗 https://astronomyforchange.org/summer-solstice-2026-and-two-favorite-celestial-jewels-of-the-summer-sky/

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What's In the Sky - July 2018

Get ready for summer stargazing! With the weather warming up, July is a great time of year to enjoy relaxing evenings under starry skies with your telescope or astronomy binoculars. Here are a few of Orion's top picks for July stargazing:

Mars Up Close!

In late July, the red planet Mars will appear bigger and brighter in the sky than it has since 2003! So bright, in fact, that it will outshine even giant Jupiter from early July through early September, grabbing third-place bragging rights for brightness after the Moon and Venus.

Mars - August 2003 Opposition - Image by Muir Evenden.

Mars reaches opposition on July 27th, which is when the Earth passes directly between Mars and the Sun. Since Mars will be directly opposite the Sun in the sky as seen from Earth, the red planet will rise at sunset and set at sunrise, providing a welcome opportunity for great views through a telescope. And Mars’ closest approach occurs four days later, on July 31st, when its apparent diameter will max out at 24.3 arcseconds. That’s HUGE by Mars standards and is less than one second of arc smaller than in 2003 - which was a nearly 60,000-year record! Indeed, Mars will exceed 24 arcseconds for the period between July 23rd and August 9th. So get out your telescope and a high-power eyepiece and have a look while the looking is good!

You can easily enhance your views of Mars with our exclusive, custom-designed Orion Mars Observation Filter to eke out details of subtle Martian landscape features.

Mercury will reach the greatest eastern elongation

Just after the Sun sets on July 12th, the tiny planet Mercury will reach its greatest eastern elongation. Since Mercury will be at its highest point in the evening sky, it's a great opportunity to observe the tiny planet. It won't be high in the sky for long, though, so look above the western horizon after sunset to catch the elusive planet.

New Moon

July 13th is the darkest night of the month and therefore the best time to observe the fainter objects like galaxies and star clusters. Grab your gear and enjoy!

M13 - Great Globular Cluster in Hercules - Imaged by Summer, Owen, Greg, 
Sam, and Rosa from the Plymouth Community Intermediate School.

Hercules is almost directly overhead and Scorpius

With the constellation Hercules almost directly overhead and Scorpius to the south, there's plenty to see in July skies as summer continues. Check out globular star clusters M13 and M92 in Hercules, and explore Scorpius to find numerous deep-sky objects including open clusters M6 and M7, and globular clusters M4 and M80.

Late July Meteors

July winds down with the Delta Aquarids meteor shower. For the best chance to see meteors, look towards Aquarius after midnight on July 28th into the early morning hours of July 29th. The Delta Aquarids is an average shower that can produce up to 20 meteors per hour. Unfortunately, a bright, nearly full Moon will overpower all but the brightest meteors of this year’s showers.

The Summer Milky Way

From a dark sky location in mid-July, the glorious Summer Milky Way shines as a band of light that stretches from the southern horizon to nearly overhead. As the night progresses, the Milky Way will arch across the entire sky. From a dark observing site, scan the Milky Way with 50mm or larger binoculars or a wide-angle telescope to explore some of the hundreds of open star clusters, emission nebulae, and planetary nebulae that lurk among the star clouds.

July Challenge Object - Hercules Galaxy Cluster

About half a billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Hercules, not far from the star Beta Hercules in the southwest corner of the "keystone" asterism, lies the "Hercules Galaxy Cluster." This association is a group of 200-300 distant galaxies, the brightest of which is NGC 6050 at about 10th magnitude and can be seen with an 8" reflector under very dark skies with good seeing conditions. A larger aperture, 14"-16" telescope will begin to show about a half-dozen or more galaxies in one field of view. How many can you see in your telescope?

All objects described above can easily be seen with the suggested equipment from a dark sky site, a viewing location some distance away from city lights where light pollution and bright moonlight do not overpower the stars.

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Featured Deep-Sky Object - NGC 6334 The Cat's Paw Nebula

The night sky offers many wonderful deep-sky objects to observe and image. As the staff of Insight Observatory started compiling a small catalog of deep-sky wonders for demonstration purposes to present to a local public school district, they figured it would be essential to include some of the less-known deep-sky objects as well as the more popular ones. Browsing through the night skies at Siding Spring, Australia via the planetarium software, Stellarium, we came across NGC 6334, also known as the "Cat's Paw Nebula" in the constellation Scorpius. 

NGC 6334 - "Cat's Paw Nebula" - Imaged by Insight Observatory.

The image was acquired remotely from our offices in Massachusetts at a remote telescope network Insight Observatory utilizes located in Siding Spring, Australia. The 10-minute exposure was taken using a Takahashi Sky90 (90 mm) telescope with an SBIG Wide-Field Color CCD camera attached. The image was then processed with PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop.

NGC 6334 (also known as the Bear Claw Nebula and Gum 64, besides the Cat's Paw Nebula) is what's known as an emission nebula and star-forming region located in the constellation Scorpius. The nebula was discovered by astronomer John Herschel in 1837, who observed it from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. The nebula is about 50 light-years across and covers an area in the sky slightly larger than the full Moon. The emission nebula lies at an approximate distance of 5,500 light-years from Earth. It is one of the nearest H II regions to the solar system. The large glowing cloud earned the nickname "Cat’s Paw" because it resembles a huge paw print of a cat. The nebula is a perfect example of an active stellar nursery (similar to M42, the "Great Orion Nebula). A study conducted by researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and released in 2013 suggests that the Cat’s Paw Nebula may be undergoing a stellar “baby boom,” a period of rapid star formation.

Stellarium Planetarium Software

NGC 6334 is a realm of extremes. The object contains about 200,000 suns' worth of material that is coalescing to form new stars, some with up to 30 to 40 times as much mass as our Sun. It harbors tens of thousands of newly formed stars, more than 2,000 of which are very young and still trapped inside their dusty cocoons. Most of these stars are forming in clusters where the stars are spaced up to a thousand times closer than the stars in the Sun's neighborhood.

In the future, NGC 6334 will resemble multiple Pleiades star clusters, each filled with up to several thousand stars. Unfortunately, it won't look as impressive as the Pleiades (Messier 45) to Earthbound telescopes because it is more than ten times farther away, at a distance of 5,500 light-years, and its location in the galactic plane obscures the region behind a lot of dust.

Sources: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Constellation Guide, Wikipedia

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