Although space missions were a feature of European AstroFest 2020, the conference included a range of topics. Among others we heard about our debt to massive stars, black holes, our explosive Sun, and the question “Who owns the Moon?”

Can't get to a mountaintop telescope, wait for a clear sky, or dim outdoor lightning? Not a concern for those attending European AstroFest 2020 at the end of January. “The Universe under One Roof” was back in Kensington, London, and there was plenty to see.

Quasars are the brightest and some of the most distant objects in the Universe. When we see them, we are looking into the past, to a time before our Solar System existed.

The Edinburgh Journal of Science had printed an amazing report in 1835, and The Sun newspaper in New York revealed it the American public. Sir John Herschel had built a great telescope in South Africa and with it discovered not only life on the Moon, but a civilization. (Or had he?)

We've had another year of exploration and discoveries, achievements and celestial delights, celebrations and farewells. Here are my choices of notable events in astronomy and space in 2019.

2019 was a year of historic firsts – it saw the first landing on the far side of the Moon, a flyby of the most distant Kuiper Belt object yet studied, the first known interstellar comet and an image of a black hole.

A mysterious purple arc across the sky, a shower of meteors, a rare transit, a Christmas comet – and more – complete the astro countdown to Christmas. Here are the days from mid-Advent to Christmas Eve on the Bellaonline Astronomy Forum.

Northern lights, space probes, astronomers, astronauts, stars, planets and other interesting things in space and astronomy. They're in the astro countdown to Christmas on the Bellaonline Astronomy Forum.

When New Horizons made its historic fly-by of Pluto in 2015, Pluto wasn't the only surprise. Pluto's moon Charon also turned out to be complex and interesting. This meant names were needed for Charon's surface features. Over a dozen have been approved, and exploration is the big theme.

Nicholas-Louis de Lacaille invented over a dozen constellations to fill gaps in the southern sky map. Instead of looking to classical mythology, he celebrated the instruments of the Enlightenment. Two small faint constellations represent extremes of visual aids – the telescope and the microscope.