Sometimes I make observing much harder than it has to be. A couple years ago I upgraded to an 8-inch Dobsonian, and now I feel that if I’m going to take the time to observe, that automatically means I am lugging my large telescope out into the dark. Or, more accurately, I’m having my husband do it for me. On nights that I try to be more self sufficient, I go back to the 4.5-inch reflector, which is lighter and easy to carry outside on my own except for the fact that the tripod base sometimes gets tangled in my doorway. It doesn’t help that as soon as my cat Perseus hears the door open I…
Astronomy
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Most Topular Stories
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Venus and the Pleiades in Binoculars
Astronomy Today3 Apr 2012 | 8:09 am -
Big Picture Science: Antivaxxers (and updates)
Bad Astronomy15 May 2012 | 12:15 pmI do a roughly monthly segment with astronomer Seth Shostak on Big Picture Science, a radio show/podcast done by The SETI Institute. This month, Seth and I talked about the American Airlines dustup when they were planning to run an interview with reality-impaired antivaxxer Meryl Dorey. This story is a great victory for reality, and I’ve already written about the back story. Never forget: this antivax issue is more than important: it is literally life and death. Because of lowering vaccine rates, pertussis outbreaks are so prevalent health officials in the state of Washington have… -
User: renomac
Site Root15 May 2012 | 10:43 pm -
Northern Lights Shine On
Astronomy Today24 Apr 2012 | 7:46 pmWith the Sun more active over the past few months, aurora reports are picking up. There were so many “warnings” for bad solar weather for a while that I thought for certain I’d be able to spot the Northern Lights from my house without much difficulty. But every time I saw a notice of strong or storm levels from the Twitter user I follow (@Aurora_Alerts), it was daylight or cloudy. Like the boy who cried wolf or those annoying car alarms triggered by accident, I had become almost immune to the rumour that an aurora could be lighting up my sky. Last night I logged onto Twitter and saw… -
Talking About Big
Tom's Astronomy Blog15 May 2012 | 3:29 pmGreetings! I bet you thought you were finally rid of me. I appreciate all the emails, but really guys, I didn’t slip and break my neck (again). Nor was I abducted by space aliens (huh – I wish). I am perfectly fine; however, if I find the doofus who wished I would live in interesting times, we’re going to talk. Fair warning. Today I want to revisit a giant with you. No, not Jupiter… although that’s extremely interesting. I’m talking true size. Today I’m talking about VY Canis Majoris. Doesn't this just give you chills? This is the…
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Site Root
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User: renomac
15 May 2012 | 10:43 pm -
User: dougperez
15 May 2012 | 9:20 pm -
Forum Post: RE: Advice on Galaxies
15 May 2012 | 8:32 pmOh... FYI Most galaxies have rather low surface brightness because they are rather large in area compared to things like globular clusteres, etc. . So while listed in catalogs and on charts as (ex.) Magnitude 9.0 you will find them to be more like looking at something of a magnitude 12.0. That is where that 14" light bucket of yours will really start to show why you bought it. -
Forum Post: RE: Issues AFTER May 14-15 site maintenance
15 May 2012 | 8:27 pmHelp! Where is the "Edit Post" button? I'm an incredibly poor typist and rely heavily on this feature so that my poor typing skills don't prtray me as a completely illiterate moron! -
Forum Post: RE: What If???
15 May 2012 | 8:22 pm[quote user="Donaquarius"] Does any one have an opinion about dark matter and dark energy and dark flow. I don't because we just don't seem to have any idea of what they are. Solving that mystery might go a long way in solving what caused the universe, is there more than one, etc. I can't say I have a solid opinion on the subject either. There are simply too many conflicting opinions by professional astrophysicists. But I can say that the "cause" of the universe won't be found/ Science does a wonderful job of determining…
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Bad Astronomy
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Big Picture Science: Antivaxxers (and updates)
15 May 2012 | 12:15 pmI do a roughly monthly segment with astronomer Seth Shostak on Big Picture Science, a radio show/podcast done by The SETI Institute. This month, Seth and I talked about the American Airlines dustup when they were planning to run an interview with reality-impaired antivaxxer Meryl Dorey. This story is a great victory for reality, and I’ve already written about the back story. Never forget: this antivax issue is more than important: it is literally life and death. Because of lowering vaccine rates, pertussis outbreaks are so prevalent health officials in the state of Washington have… -
Help find Hubble’s Hidden Treasures
15 May 2012 | 10:00 amI worked with Hubble Space Telescope data for about ten years, and one of the most amazing things about that was seeing the images fresh off the mirror. Knowing that no human on Earth had ever seen that particular object that sharply was a thrill. Not every Hubble observation gets turned into a gorgeous image, though. A lot of them don’t need to be for scientific publications, for one thing, and for another not every observation is of a targeted object for a specific purpose. Because of that, there are probably hundreds and hundreds of amazing objects — galaxies, nebulae, star… -
If the Mayans were right, it was probably about Internet comments
15 May 2012 | 7:55 amA little while back, I was at Utah State University to give a public talk about the threat from asteroid impacts and what we can do to stop them (PLUG ALERT: if you want me to come talk at your venue, my agent would love to hear from you). While I was there I was interviewed by Utah Public Radio, and that interview is online. I was also chatted up by the local TV station, KSL. I think it went OK, and they put it online as well: [You may have to refresh this page to get the video to load.] While I rather wish I had stated succinctly that even the basis of the "Mayan 2012 doomsday"… -
WANT Part XIII: Moon throw
14 May 2012 | 2:00 pmWhen I’m getting the mid-afternoon drowsies, and looking for a comfortable, warm, cozy place to take a nap, what could possibly be better than… the impact crater-scarred surface of the Moon? This may be the greatest blanket throw in the history of blankets. Who wouldn’t want to cuddle up in a little regolith? And ZOMFSM and it comes with matching pillows! And there’s a floor cushion! Supermoon, indeed. Tip o’ the spacesuit visor to Design for Mankind via Jeri Ryan on Pinterest. Related Posts: - WANT Part XII: Earth Globe Fire Pit - WANT Part XI: To boldly slice -… -
Psychedelic space station stars and cities
14 May 2012 | 12:01 pmThe view from the International Space Station is always pretty cool, but when an astronaut points the camera at the Earth’s horizon and takes a series of short exposures, adding them together gives a view right out of Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s: [Click to psilocybinate.] Whoa, man! Astronaut Don Petit took the pictures to make this composite. Basically, it’s a series of eighteen 30-second exposures added together so the motion of the ISS around the Earth makes the stars trail, the cities blur, and your mind expand, dude. The brown and green glow over the horizon is the…
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Astronomy Today
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Northern Lights Shine On
24 Apr 2012 | 7:46 pmWith the Sun more active over the past few months, aurora reports are picking up. There were so many “warnings” for bad solar weather for a while that I thought for certain I’d be able to spot the Northern Lights from my house without much difficulty. But every time I saw a notice of strong or storm levels from the Twitter user I follow (@Aurora_Alerts), it was daylight or cloudy. Like the boy who cried wolf or those annoying car alarms triggered by accident, I had become almost immune to the rumour that an aurora could be lighting up my sky. Last night I logged onto Twitter and saw… -
Venus and the Pleiades in Binoculars
3 Apr 2012 | 8:09 amSometimes I make observing much harder than it has to be. A couple years ago I upgraded to an 8-inch Dobsonian, and now I feel that if I’m going to take the time to observe, that automatically means I am lugging my large telescope out into the dark. Or, more accurately, I’m having my husband do it for me. On nights that I try to be more self sufficient, I go back to the 4.5-inch reflector, which is lighter and easy to carry outside on my own except for the fact that the tripod base sometimes gets tangled in my doorway. It doesn’t help that as soon as my cat Perseus hears the door open I… -
Blue skies smiling at me
25 Mar 2012 | 3:47 pmWinter is a decidedly cloudy season where I live. I check my calendar and planetarium software and write about all kinds of great observing opportunities in winter, but in reality I don’t get to see an awful lot of them myself. The clouds steal much of the winter evenings, and on those evenings when it is clear, it is generally downright cold. Venus went visiting the solar system in the beginning of the year, stopping by Neptune in January (cloudy) and Uranus in February (cloudy). But in March when Venus and Jupiter made their fair pairing, the skies were ready. I captured a decent photo of… -
Comet Garradd flyby of globular cluster M71
30 Aug 2011 | 2:27 pmBrian McGaffney sent in this great image of Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd’s flyby of M71. It was taken from his own Nutwood Observatory in Ontario, Canada on August 26th at 11pm (EDT). Brian used a 14 inch astrograph (a telescope specifically for use in astrophotography) and an Apogee U16M CCD camera. -
Countdown to the close of an era
8 Jul 2011 | 2:15 pm“We’re not ending the journey today … We’re completing a chapter of a journey that will never end … Let’s light this fire one more time” – comments uttered by Commander Ferguson just before the final launch of Shuttle Atlantis. The launch was delayed at the 31 second mark due to last minute verification that the launch pad support equipment had been completely retracted adding suspense to a hurried and limited launch schedule. Atlantis will deliver a year’s supply of necessary items to the ISS as equipment will be transported by the…
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Tom's Astronomy Blog
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Talking About Big
15 May 2012 | 3:29 pmGreetings! I bet you thought you were finally rid of me. I appreciate all the emails, but really guys, I didn’t slip and break my neck (again). Nor was I abducted by space aliens (huh – I wish). I am perfectly fine; however, if I find the doofus who wished I would live in interesting times, we’re going to talk. Fair warning. Today I want to revisit a giant with you. No, not Jupiter… although that’s extremely interesting. I’m talking true size. Today I’m talking about VY Canis Majoris. Doesn't this just give you chills? This is the… -
Rough Terrain
14 May 2012 | 12:05 pmA very close in image of the terrain on Enceladus. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Cassini took this image of some rough terrain on the Saturn moon Enceladus. I think the mission managers might be a little crazy (in a good way), this picture was taken from just 115 miles / 185 km from the surface of Enceladus. Oh the camera was about 8.8 AU from us – that’s about 818 million miles / 1.3 billion km! 1 AU is 92,955,807 miles / 149,597,871 km. I’m not sure as this is a raw image so there isn’t description from JPL, but it appears the gash in the… -
Solar Storm Power
13 May 2012 | 11:11 amClick here to view the embedded video. Source -
Food for Thought
12 May 2012 | 11:51 amClick here to view the embedded video. At the vet with the dog so no riddle, sorry. I liked the video, something a little different. Video -
Juno Tests the JunoCam
11 May 2012 | 1:58 pmThe Big Dipper from the JunoCam. Click for larger. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS and it looks like the camera is working nicely. From JPL In England it is known as the “Plough,” in Germany the “Great Cart,” and in Malaysia the “Seven Ploughs.” Since humanity first turned its eyes skyward, the seven northern hemisphere stars that compose the “Big Dipper” have been a welcome and familiar introduction to the heavens. “I can recall as a kid making an imaginary line from the two stars that make up the right side of the Big…
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Universe Today
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Is Earth Alive? Scientists Seek Sulfur For An Answer
15 May 2012 | 11:04 pmImage of Earth taken by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft in 2009Researchers at the University of Maryland have discovered a way to identify and track sulfuric compounds in Earth’s marine environment, opening a path to either refute or support a decades-old hypothesis that our planet can be compared to a singular, self-regulating, living organism — a.k.a. the Gaia theory.(...)Read the rest of Is Earth Alive? Scientists Seek Sulfur For An Answer (550 words)© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: alive, biology, Climate Change, compounds, Earth,… -
Space Exploration By Robot Swarm
15 May 2012 | 1:02 pm"Hopper" rover/spacecraft concept by Stanford University's Marco PavoneWith all there’s yet to learn about our solar system from the many smaller worlds that reside within it — asteroids, protoplanets and small moons — one researcher from Stanford University is suggesting we unleash a swarm of rover/spacecraft hybrids that can explore en masse.(...)Read the rest of Space Exploration By Robot Swarm (246 words)© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Post tags: Exploration, JPL, Marco Pavone, NASA, NIAC, robot, Solar System, spacecraft,… -
Rocket Man Elton John Sings Greetings to the ISS
15 May 2012 | 11:12 amSir Elton John sent a special message to the ‘rocket men’ on board the International Space Station by singing his classic song “Rocket Man.” The video was recorded on April 17, 40 years to the day after his single Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time) was released around the world.Sir Elton also added this greeting: (...)Read the rest of Rocket Man Elton John Sings Greetings to the ISS (217 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: Elton John, Space Flight, Space Station Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh -
Crowdsourcing the Hunt for Potentially Dangerous Asteroids
15 May 2012 | 10:22 amFaulkes Telescope, Hawaii. Credit: ESAWhat’s the best way to look for potentially hazardous asteroids? Get as many eyes on the sky as you can. That’s the impetus behind a new partnership between the European Space Agency and the Faulkes Telescope Project, which will encourage amateur astronomers to look for asteroids, as well as providing educational opportunities that will allow students to discover potentially dangerous space rocks, too. (...)Read the rest of Crowdsourcing the Hunt for Potentially Dangerous Asteroids (508 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | One… -
Expedition 31 Blasts Off!
14 May 2012 | 11:11 pmLaunch of the Soyuz TMA-04M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on May 15, 2012 (NASA/Bill Ingalls)After a six-week delay, the crew of Expedition 31 successfully launched aboard a Soyuz TMA-04M rocket on Tuesday, May 15 at 0301 GMT (11:01 p.m. EDT May 14) from Russia’s historic Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in the steppes of Kazakhstan.The rocket will deliver NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin to the International Space Station. After a two-day journey, their Soyuz capsule will dock with the ISS at 11:38 p.m. CDT on Wednesday.(...)Read the…
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Astroblog
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Carnival of Space #249 is Here.
15 May 2012 | 7:24 amCarnival of Space #249 is now up at Riding With Robots. There's Saturn, the Transit of Venus, asteroid mining (of course) alternatives to Dark Matter, Light Pollution, astronaut actors and much, much more. Ride on over and have a read. -
The Sky This Week - Thursday May 17 to Thursday May 24
15 May 2012 | 7:02 amThe New Moon is Monday May 21. The transit of Venus is three weeks away. Venus is visible very low in the western evening sky close to the star Elnath. On the 22nd and 23rd the thin crescent Moon is close to Venus. Jupiter is lost in the twilight. Mars is in the eastern evening sky, close to the bright Star Regulus. Saturn is visible near the star Spica. Mercury is visible in the morning sky. On the 19th Mercury is not far from the cresent Moon.Evening sky looking North as seen from Adelaide at 8:00 pm local time on Saturday May 19 showing Mars, Regulus, Saturn and Spica and comet… -
ASCSA: The Big Snapshot of Australian Science Engagement Monday May 14
13 May 2012 | 7:59 amHow are we engaging people with science in Australia, and how do we do it better? Come to this Science Communicators social where your voice can help shape the future of science communication in Australia. A National survey on science engagement is being funded by the Australian Government's Inspiring Australia Strategy, the aim of which is to gather information about the who, what, where, when, why and how we communicate science in this Country.The Australian Science Communicators, Bridge8 and Econnect are creating a high definition picture of Australian science engagement. This evening… -
Venus, Friday 11 May 2012
11 May 2012 | 9:25 amVenus glimmers above the horizon just before a wall of cloud engulfs it. Click to embiggen.The rain has just stopped as I write this, but the weather has been messing up my astronomy for days. There's always STEREO, but EldestOne has used up all our bandwidth in one week, so downloading is painfully slow.Still what glimpses of the sky I do get are very nice, worth the wait. -
Sunspot 1467 via Binoculars
11 May 2012 | 8:58 amTo the left is an image of the Sun and Sunspot 1467, the Sunspot group that has been blasting out M class flares for the past few days made with safe solar projection. On the right is the binocular lashup I made to take it. The Pizza box sun screen is required to keep the projected image in a reasonably dark spot. The image was projected onto a piece of paper stuck to a handy pillar on the verandah. It was quite clear to the eye, but getting the camera to focus on it was not so successful.
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Hogg's Research
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gravitational telescopes
11 May 2012 | 7:43 pmKen Wong (Arizona) came through and we talked about using the SDSS photometrically selected luminous red galaxies to identify lines of sight along which there might be large gravitational magnification, to use as fixed, cosmological telescopes. The default plan is to essentially count LRGs on lines of sight; indeed early tests suggest that will be very successful. Jeremy Tinker (NYU) had some great suggestions, not the least of which was this: The most massive clusters actually have a low fraction of their masses in stars, so you should look not for galaxies, but for collections of galaxies… -
galaxy profiles
10 May 2012 | 5:05 pmI worked a bit on my (very technical) paper on galaxy profiles. I greatly improved my code and its output, worked on the text and citations, and made use of the exceedingly useful information in Ciotti & Bertin (1999). One issue that I am avoiding relates to the Sersic profiles: I have mixture-of-Gaussian expansions for several kinds of profiles, but I have fit them all independently. Should I also try to find continuous transformations of the Gaussian amplitudes and variances as a function of Sersic index? -
mini-LSST
9 May 2012 | 8:13 pmAt lunch Kilian Walsh (NYU), Foreman-Mackey, and I discussed construction of a mini-LSST pipeline that would work on all the data ever submitted to Astrometry.net. To start, we are going to try to extract information from a small set of images overlapping a small patch of sky. But the long-term plan is to get Astrometry.net to be basing its work not on the USNO-B1.0 catalog but rather it's own catalog built from its own submitted data. Each incoming image will be calibrated with the current best information, and then used to adjust that information (based on discrepancies). And, of course, we… -
writing day
8 May 2012 | 5:49 pmTuesday is my disappear-and-work day, so I disappeared and worked on my writing projects, including the Atlas, our lucky-imaging replacement paper, and one of the side papers for the Tractor. I also did a little math related to Brewer's sampling ideas of yesterday. -
magnetic field, catalog sampling
7 May 2012 | 10:59 pmAt brown-bag today, Ronnie Jansson (NYU) gave a very nice talk about his work with Farrar (NYU) on the Milky Way magnetic field. They have made a multi-component model that obeys Maxwell's Equations (yes, that's a good thing) but also is maximum-likelihood against a set of rotation-measure and stokes Q and U data. They find an X-shaped field for the Milky Way viewed in projection by an external observer. This prediction is pretty hard to test directly (!) but it is consistent with observations of other nearby spirals. The biggest limitation of their work is the understanding of the Galactic…
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Astronomy Cmarchesin
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SN 2010jl: A Supernova Cocoon Breakthrough
15 May 2012 | 2:34 pmSN 2010jlCredit X-ray: NASA/CXC/Royal Military College of Canada/P.Chandra et al); Optical: NASA/STScIJPEG (317.2 kb) Tiff (9.3 MB) More ImagesDownload Desktop High-Quality PrintsView on the Sky (WWT) Observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have provided the first X-ray evidence of a supernova shock wave breaking through a cocoon of gas surrounding the star that exploded. This discovery may help astronomers understand why some supernovas are much more powerful than others.On November 3, 2010, a supernova was discovered in the galaxy UGC 5189A, located about 160 million light years… -
Edge-on Beauty
14 May 2012 | 10:22 amNGC 891Credit:ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Nick RoseVisible in the constellation of Andromeda, NGC 891 is located approximately 30 million light-years away from Earth. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope turned its powerful wide field Advanced Camera for Surveys towards this spiral galaxy and took this close-up of its northern half. The galaxy's central bulge is just out of the image on the bottom left.The galaxy, spanning some 100 000 light-years, is seen exactly edge-on, and reveals its thick plane of dust and interstellar gas. While initially thought to look like our own Milky Way… -
IBEX Reveals a Missing Boundary At the Edge Of the Solar System
12 May 2012 | 4:00 amIBEX studies the outer reaches of the solar system by observing neutral atoms that cross or bounce off of its boundaries. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. Download videoFor the last few decades, space scientists have generally accepted that the bubble of gas and magnetic fields generated by the sun – known as the heliosphere – moves through space, creating three distinct boundary layers that culminate in an outermost bow shock. This shock is similar to the sonic boom created ahead of a supersonic jet. Earth itself certainly has one of these bow shocks on the sunward side of its… -
NASA Dawn Mission Reveals Secrets of Large Asteroid
11 May 2012 | 4:03 amThis image, made from data obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the mineral distribution in the southern hemisphere of the giant asteroid Vesta. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/INAF/MPS/DLR/IDA. Full image and caption Image galleryThis image, made from data obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the mineral distribution in the southern hemisphere of the giant asteroid Vesta. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/INAF/MPS/DLR/IDA . Virtual flight videoTouring cratersThis image shows three slices of a class of meteorites that fell to Earth that NASA's Dawn mission has confirmed as… -
Cygnus-X: the cool swan glowing in flight
10 May 2012 | 11:31 amThis new view of the Cygnus-X star-formation region by Herschel highlights chaotic networks of dust and gas that point to sites of massive star formation.The image combines data acquired with the PACS instrument at 70 micron (corresponding to the blue channel) and 160 micron (corresponding to the green channel) and with the SPIRE instrument at 250 micron (corresponding to the red channel). The observations were made on 24 May 2010 and 18 December 2010. North is to the lower-right and east to the upper-right.Credits: ESA/PACS/SPIRE/Martin Hennemann & Frédérique Motte, Laboratoire AIM…
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The Urban Astronomer
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KFOG Broadcast - May 9, 2012
9 May 2012 | 9:53 amI always enjoy visiting the Morning Show at KFOG to talk astronomy. Listen in to our fun discussion about the Super Full Moon, the Ring of Fire Eclipse, and Lunar Gravity! Click here to listen. -
Ring of Fire Eclipse 2012 in Northern California
1 May 2012 | 2:01 amIt's May, and that means it is almost time for the Moon to cast its shadow on the Earth and create a wonderful spectacle in the afternoon sky. On Sunday May 20th, we will experience a very significant Solar Eclipse, a very rare and exciting "Ring of Fire," also known as an Annular Eclipse.The afternoon of Sunday 20th, much of the western United States will see a very deep partial eclipse of the Sun. But in a special path across Northern California and several western states, we will witness the Moon fully enclosed within the disk of the Sun, creating a beautiful "Ring of Fire" effect. This… -
Planet and Star Pairs Line the Sky
29 Apr 2012 | 12:30 pmThis April, as the weather has improved and I've been conducting star parties, I've found myself focusing on some striking pairs of planets and stars that punctuate the night sky this spring. The pairs are all located in the Zodiac, the band across the sky that houses the well-known 12 signs, and also the planets and the Moon. The pairs of planets and stars are easy to find, and when you find them, you get a big picture of the band of the Zodiac, with the planets in our Solar System superimposed upon that band.Shortly after sunset, it is quite easy to find Mars, shining a bright orange color… -
Lyrid Meteor Shower 2012
21 Apr 2012 | 11:44 amMeteor Showers occur throughout the year, and a bright Moon can wash out the view, so when we have ideal conditions for a shower, it's a good idea to take a few minutes and try to see it. Tonight, the Lyrid Meteor Shower reaches its peak, and we will have no moonlight to interfere.The Lyrids are named after the tiny constellation Lyra, and although it is a small constellation it features the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, Vega. The constellation is the 'radiant' of the meteor shower, meaning that the meteors appear to emanate from this area of the night sky. Lyra rises before midnight… -
Get Involved: Mt. Tam Lectures, Globe at Night
18 Apr 2012 | 1:45 amPart of the joy of astronomy is to gaze up in the heavens and enjoy the spectacle of looking into the vastness of space. And for many, another part of the joy of astronomy is learning about space science. I like to highlight opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area for both of these perspectives, and one of my favorite places to both learn about space and also enjoy gazing into the heavens is on Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, where the public is invited to take part in monthly lectures by leading astronomers, and immediately afterwards, enjoy the heavens through telescopes provided by our…
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The Imaging Source Astronomy Cameras Blog
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Sun in H-Alpha May 13th, 2012
15 May 2012 | 5:00 pmMy rig setup was a Lunt LS60T-Ha telescope and the new TIS DMK 51AU02.AS in prime focus. I can capture a full disc with the 500mm Lunt in a single AVI file. Steffen Benter -
Recent Image of Extreme Solar Activity
14 May 2012 | 5:00 pmOn May 12th, 2012 members of our astronomical association gathered to share their experiences about astrophotography topics. Before others arrived, I managed to capture some images using the observatory's 200/2470 D&G refractor and the excellent DMK 41AU02.AS camera, with a Herschel wedge and Baader Continuum filter. The sky was a bit hazy but the image was very steady, I was suprised to see the small details. Péter Molnár, Budapest, Hungary from Polaris Observatory -
AR 11476 Giant Sunspot
13 May 2012 | 5:00 pmOn May 10th, 2012 students at Hopewell Middle School in a suburb of Atlanta, GA witnessed and imaged the largest sunspot anyone has seen in years in Active Region 11476. We were able to capture this highly detailed image of the Umbra, Penumbra, granulation and surrounding "pores" or newly forming spots as they broiled with magnetic activity. The spot is now aimed squarely at Earth as spaceweather forecasters around the world try to determine what may happen next. We used an Explore Scientific 127mm APO refractor and a Lunt Solar Wedge with a DMK 41AU02.AS camera to image the region. Stephen… -
The Moon
8 May 2012 | 5:00 pmThe moon on April 28th, 2012. A mosaic of 3 images. Telescope of AT6RC, NEQ6pro SynScan, DМK 41AF02.AS camera. Jriy Kvartin, Ukraine, Lugansk. -
Winner of DMK 21AU618.AS Announced
6 May 2012 | 5:00 pmThis morning, we selected at random a winner to our competition: Winning Answer We asked: What is the maximum exposure time of the DMK 21AU618.AS? The correct answer is: 60 minutes And the Winner Is... Congratulations go to: Jordi Cornelles (Spain) We will contact Jordi Cornelles today and dispatch his prize, a monochrome DMK 21AU618.AS astronomy camera to him, as soon as possible. The winning answer was submitted on May 3, 2012 1:27:08 PM. Please note that the country is an estimate, based on the winner's IP address. Thank you to all who participated!
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sci.astro Google Group
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EINSTEINIANA: TWO CRUCIAL QUESTIONS
16 May 2012 | 1:32 amQUESTION 1: The frequency of light (as measured by the observer) varies with the speed of the observer. Does this mean that the speed of light (as measured by the observer) also varies with the speed of the observer, in violation of Einstein's special relativity? Clues: [link] -
Re: Understanding Einstein's simple derivation of the Lorentz Transformation
15 May 2012 | 11:26 pmFord was wrong -- and I have translated Einstein from German to English & back, again; I am the greatest Dingleberry! -
Re: Understanding Einstein's simple derivation of the Lorentz Transformation
15 May 2012 | 11:23 pm"fuck Liebniz" is not an argument; just try to convince a working engineer of your "disproof," or rather, of your hairball scheme with the falling balls. -
Re: Understanding Einstein's simple derivation of the Lorentz Transformation
15 May 2012 | 11:20 pmthat was just a "toy problem" (or gedanken experiment), but your neinstein science is unable to make any prediction, whatever, as far as *anyone* can see (but, I am hte only one, who is even looking). -
Re: help explain curvature of the universe
15 May 2012 | 11:10 pm"We must always remember that our ordinary physical laws, as they are usually expressed, do not hold true when carried to an extent which permits the error to be measured, because they do not follow a straight line reaching to infinity, but a curve of finite radii. In a timeless universe, this curve would be represented by a circle, but
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uk.sci.astronomy Google Group
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Cheap 2012 Nike Shoes Jordan Shoes wholesale www.BuyGoodGoods.com
7 May 2012 | 11:25 amOur site: [link] Buy Good Goods PayPal Payment Discount Cheap Free Shipping Wholesale Nike Shoes Air Jordan shoes,Ugg Boots,D&G Shoes,Gucci Shoes,Dsquared2 Shoes,Prada shoes,Shox NZ R4 shoes,Aidias shoes,Puma shoes,Timberland boots,Converse shoes,Vans shoes,jerseys,clothes,Moncler down Jacket,t- -
Re: Sky at Night: Who best to take over from Patrick Moore
6 May 2012 | 5:10 pmActually I think that proposal would rather re-invigorate the post of AR -
Re: Sky at Night: Who best to take over from Patrick Moore
3 May 2012 | 2:30 amdoes by a Format probably like BBC Click, also lost in the nether regions of scheduling. Just a regular in-camera link-person but moving around various planetaria/observatories as backgrounds, rather than the nightclubs of Click. And a cluster of reporter/interviewers for sub-topics. Click is probably cheap programming but I rate the intro piece of video up -
Re: Sky at Night: Who best to take over from Patrick Moore
2 May 2012 | 3:38 pmIn uk.sci.astronomy message <87e6a637-6fc4-4502-983d-f4ef7 83694f4@h9g200 0yqe.googlegroups.com>, Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:08:28, James Harris <james.harri...@gmail.com> posted: The job should become an /ex officio/ duty jointly of the Astronomer Royal and the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, with power to delegate up -
Patrick Moore in the "Radio Times", plus BBC4 astronomy evening
1 May 2012 | 8:07 amThe current issue of "Radio Times" (dated 5-11 May 2012) includes an interview with Patrick Moore. Furthermore, on Thursday 10th May, BBC4 seems to be holding an (unofficial) astronomy evening: 1930: "The Sky at Night" (30 mins). This month's extended edition. 2000: "The Sky at Night" (60 mins). The hour-long 700th edition from
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Big Picture Science
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That's So Random!
14 May 2012 | 2:00 amENCORE Random is as random does… makes sense doesn’t even that anyway in tune hear to randomness how lives rules. Brain chaos the drives, restoration role of help insight ecology may into randomness the, numbers sense of make statistics can’t why we or, ants not seem of erratic behavior why the may but is. Guests: Leonard Mlodinow – Theoretical physicist and author of The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (Vintage) Jon Chase – Biologist and director of the Tyson Research center at Washington University in St. Louis Lori Marino – Evolutionary… -
Skeptic Check: Forget with the Program
7 May 2012 | 2:00 amJust remember this: memory is like Swiss cheese. Even our recollection of dramatic events that seem to sear their images directly onto our brain turn out to be riddled with errors. Discover the reliability of these emotional “flashbulb” memories. Also, a judge questions the utility of eyewitness testimony in court. And, don’t blame Google for destroying your powers of recall! Socrates thought the same thing about the written word. Plus, Brains on Vacation! Guests: Phil Plait – Keeper of Discover Magazine’s badastronomy blog Craig Stark – Neurobiologist, Director… -
Group Think
30 Apr 2012 | 2:00 amIf two is company and three a crowd, what’s the ideal number to write a play or invent a new operating system? Some say you need groups to be creative. Others disagree: breakthroughs come only in solitude. Hear both sides, and find out why you always have company even when alone: meet the “parliament of selves” that drive your brain’s decision-making. Plus, how ideas of societies lead them to thrive or fall, and why educated conservatives have lost trust in science. Guests: Susan Cain – Author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking Keith… -
Early Adapters
23 Apr 2012 | 2:00 amENCORE The times are a’changing – rising temperatures, growing population, and new technology coming at us faster than a greased cheetah. So how will humans respond? Find out about future farming in the city – your vegetables might be grown in downtown, hi-rise greenhouses. Also, a population expert tells us how our planet can cope with billions more people, and the man who invented the term ‘cyberspace’ describes what the future might hold for the techno-savvy. Darwinian evolution takes a long time to accommodate to new environments. But Homo sapiens can beat that rap by wielding… -
Humans Need Not Apply
16 Apr 2012 | 2:00 amENCORE You are one-of-a-kind, unique, indispensible… oh, wait, never mind! It seems that computer over there can do what you do … faster and with greater accuracy. Yes, it’s silicon vs. carbon as intelligent, interactive machines out-perform humans in tasks beyond data-crunching. We’re not only building our successors, we’re developing emotional relationships with them. Find out why humans are hard-wired to be attached to androids. Also, the handful of areas where humans still rule… as pilots, doctors and journalists. Scratch that! Journalism is automated too – tune in for a…
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StarDate Online
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Going Solar
16 May 2012 | 12:00 amWHEELWRIGHT: My name is Brian Wheelright, I am a PhD student in optical sciences at the University of Arizona, and I work at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. And what we’re looking at today is part of our solar lab, where were trying to get solar energy to be cheap and competitive with fossil fuels. For three decades, the Steward mirror lab has been making some of the world’s largest telescope mirrors. Early this year, for example, it was working on four mirrors that, if turned on edge, would each be taller than a two-story building. It’s an enterprise that requires a lot of time,… -
Star Stream
15 May 2012 | 12:00 amA streamer of stars outlines the body of the small galaxy NGC 2366 in this new image from Hubble Space Telescope. The bright blue blob (shown in false color) at upper right is a stellar nursery inside the galaxy. The galaxy is about 10 million light-years away in the northern constellation Camelopardalis, the giraffe. Although the galaxy is small, it has given birth to many stars in the last few million years, including the hot, bright, blue stars that are visible in this image. Several other galaxies are visible in the background, including the yellow spiral at top center. [NASA/ESA] Text… -
Making Mirrors
15 May 2012 | 12:00 amBRASS: We build mirrors 8.4 meters or 6.5, and our first step is to put down silicon carbide floor plates. Beneath Arizona Stadium in Tucson, four giant slabs of glass are taking shape — the mirrors of future telescopes. Placed on edge, each mirror is taller than a two-story building, and its surface is as roomy as a small apartment. Yet each is relatively thin and lightweight. The mirrors are produced by the Steward Mirror Laboratory at the University of Arizona. They’re the largest single-glass telescope mirrors yet built. They start with 20 tons of raw glass that’s melted inside a… -
Giant Magellan Telescope
14 May 2012 | 12:00 amThe last two decades have been a Golden Age for astronomy. A score of giant new telescopes has started scanning the skies, helping astronomers answer some old questions, and ask a lot more new ones. With these instruments, astronomers have studied dark matter and dark energy; discovered or confirmed hundreds of planets in other star systems; and even watched the weather on the outer planets of our own solar system. Yet an even brighter age may be ahead, as astronomers prepare the next generation of giant telescopes. One of the biggest is GMT — the Giant Magellan Telescope. It’s being… -
Primordial Clouds
13 May 2012 | 12:00 amThe Big Bang forged only three elements — hydrogen, helium, and a little bit of lithium — the lightest and simplest elements of all. Stars formed from these elements, and converted some of them into heavier elements, such as carbon, oxygen, and iron. Astronomers have searched in vain for a star or gas cloud made solely of the three elements from the Big Bang — they all contain at least a small amount of heavier material. But they recently discovered two gas clouds that seem to be primordial — they contain no detectable heavy elements at all. One cloud is in Leo, the lion, while the…
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About.com Space / Astronomy
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The War on Science
9 May 2012 | 9:56 pmEverything is a war these days: Actual wars in various regions of the world, the war on drugs and even wars on various social issues. But there is another war going on, one that doesn't get nearly as much press: The war on science....Read Full Post -
What is the Higgs Boson?
26 Apr 2012 | 12:05 pmUnless you live under a rock, you are undoubtedly aware of the work being carried out at the Large Hadron Collider. There, researchers are attempting to find a particle known as the Higgs Boson....Read Full Post -
Shuttle Arrives at Smithsonian
19 Apr 2012 | 4:13 pmThe Space Shuttle Discovery was shown off at the Smithsonian earlier today. NASA has posted a photo gallery of the preparation, journey and ceremony; it's worth checking out. Here in Indianapolis, Indiana, we may not have gotten the coveted Discovery, but we recently acquired a shuttle of our own. Pretty cool. Though, frankly, it's not as big as I thought it would be......Read Full Post -
Space Shuttle Discovery on its Way to D.C.
17 Apr 2012 | 2:45 amOne of the iconic machines of the 20th century is on its way to Washington D.C. to be displayed at the Smithsonian. The event, including the flight to Dulles, can be seen on NASA's website. They'll have video of the shuttle preparation and interviews about the program and the future of manned space flight. If you just want to catch the landing - which is really impressive as it involves being piggybacked on a modified 747 - tune in around 10:00 am EDT today. -
Giant Stars
9 Apr 2012 | 10:07 amOur Sun absolutely dwarfs the planets of our solar system, accounting for nearly 99.9% of the mass in our little corner of the cosmos. And while recent studies have found that our Sun is actually above average in size, it is, well, puny, compared to some of the behemoths out there in our galaxy....Read Full Post
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Remanzacco Observatory - Comets & Neo
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First images of Comet 67P close to its aphelion
10 May 2012 | 8:01 amIt's not often that amateurs can provide an important support to professional astronomers involved in an international space mission. At a recent comet conference for the forthcoming Rosetta mission, which will orbit comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in 2014, and place a lander on the surface, Faulkes Telescope Pro-Am Programme Manager Nick Howes had put forward a detailed plan for long term observations of the comet 67P, using the twin Faulkes 2m telescopes based in Hawaii and Siding Spring. The proposal challenge was picked up by Faulkes Telescope user Richard Miles, who managed to image… -
Unusual Minor Planet 2012 HD2
25 Apr 2012 | 7:48 amThe unusual minor planet 2012 HD2 was discovered on 2012, April 18 by J. V. Scotti with the 0.9-m f/3 reflector + CCD at Steward Observatory on Kitt Peak (see M.P.E.C. 2012-H32). according to the latest orbital solution available, this object moves along a comet-like orbit with an Inclination of 146.9 deg, Eccentricity = 0.96, Perihelion distance = 2.55 AU and Period = 668 years.We performed some follow-up measurements of this object, while it was still on the neocp, remotely from the Siding Spring-Faulkes Telescope South on 2012, Apr. 19.4, through a 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien +… -
Possible Nova in Sgr
22 Apr 2012 | 7:13 amFollowing the posting on the Central Bureau's Transient Object Confirmation Page about a possible Nova in Sgr (TOCP Designation: PNV J17452791-2305213) we performed some follow-up of this object remotely through 0.25-m f/3.4 reflector + CCD from MPC code H06 (Mayhill station, NM)On our images taken on April 22.4, 2012 we can confirm the presence of an optical counterpart with unfiltered CCD magnitude 9.1 at coordinates:R.A. = 17 45 28.02, Decl.= -23 05 23.2(equinox 2000.0; USNO-B1.0 catalogue reference stars).According to VIZIER there is a 16.21 R1-magnitude star at 0.237 arcseconds… -
Another Possible Nova in Cen
9 Apr 2012 | 7:59 amFollowing the posting on the Central Bureau's Transient Object Confirmation Page about a possible Nova in Cen (TOCP Designation: J14250600-5845360) we performed some follow-up of this object remotely through the 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD of "Faulkes Telescope South" (MPC Code - E10).On our images taken on April 09.5, 2012 we can confirm the presence of an optical counterpart with Bessell-R CCD magnitude 8.7 at coordinates:R.A. = 14 25 04.45, Decl.= -58 45 34.3(equinox 2000.0; UCAC-2 catalogue reference stars).According to VIZIER there is a 15.319 J-magnitude star at 2.6… -
Possible Nova in Ophiuchus
27 Mar 2012 | 8:39 amFollowing the posting on the Central Bureau's Transient Object Confirmation Page about a possible Nova in Oph (TOCP Designation: PNV J17260708-2551454) we performed some follow-up of this object remotely through the 0.10-m f/5 reflector + CCD from MPC code H06 (Mayhill station, NM) of iTelescope network.On our images taken on 2012, March 27.5 we can confirm the presence of an optical counterpart with unfiltered CCD magnitude 10.9 at coordinates:R.A. = 17 26 07.02, Decl.= -25 51 42.1(equinox 2000.0; USNO-B1.0 catalogue reference stars).Our confirmation image:While below you can see an…
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365 Days of Astronomy
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May 15th: Astronomy Word of the Week: Obliquity
15 May 2012 | 6:00 amDate: May 15, 2012 Title: Astronomy Word of the Week: Obliquity Podcaster: Dr. Christopher Crockett Organization: United States Naval Observatory Links: http://christophercrockett.com http://astrowow.wordpress.com/ Description: The tilt of our planet is about much more than the seasons. The astronomy word of the week is “obliquity”. Bio: Dr. Christopher Crockett is an astronomer at the United States Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. His research involves searching for planets around very young stars (“only” a few million years old). It is hoped that the results from… -
May 14th: Diamond Planet Finder Is A Star
14 May 2012 | 6:00 amDate: May 14, 2012 Title: Diamond Planet Finder Is A Star Podcaster: Michael Greenwell Links: http://michaelgreenwell.wordpress.com/ and http://exitstageright.wordpress.com/ Description: Last year, after making an enormously publicized discovery astronomer Matthew Bailes used his moment of fame to defend his scientific colleagues and to try to point us in the direction in which we need to be looking. I think he should be applauded for this and we would do well to listen to what he had to say. Bio: Michael Greenwell has worked, at various times, as a university tutor, a barman, a DJ (not a… -
May 13th: Encore: Exploring Space from Space
13 May 2012 | 10:04 amDate: May 13, 2012 Title: Encore: Exploring Space from Space Podcaster: Kenneth Renshaw Links: Solar System Ambassador Website: http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/profiles/Kenneth_Renshaw.htm Saturn Observation Campaign Website: http://soc.jpl.nasa.gov/members-state.cfm?state=AR This podcast originally aired on April 12th, 2009 http://365daysofastronomy.org/2009/04/12/april-12th-exploring-space-from-space/ Description: Kenneth Renshaw is a college music instructor, piano teacher/tuner/technician, church choir director/pianist, photographer and videographer from the small town of Piggott,… -
May 12th: Encore: Our Place in Space
12 May 2012 | 6:00 amDate: May 12, 2012 Title: Encore: Our Place in Space Podcaster: Pamela Gay Organization: Astronomy Cast, Star Stryder This podcast originally aired on May 18th, 2010 http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/05/18/may-18th-our-place-in-space/ Description: From the surface of the Earth, it is easy to feel safe, and in control because we have the knowledge to understand the universe. But we are small, and life is fragile in this vast universe, and there are more things in heaven and earth waiting to be discovered than are dreamt of in all our sciences. In this podcast I try and provide context on both… -
May 11th: Take Mercury for a Spin
11 May 2012 | 7:03 amDate: May 11, 2012 Title: Take Mercury for a Spin Podcaster: Bob Hirshon Organization: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Links: http://www.aaas.org Description: The Google Earth platform is useful for more than just checking out Earth-bound topography and features. AAAS Science Update host Bob Hirshon spoke with ace programmer Jason Smith, of Silicon Valet, about how he converts raw image data of the planet Mercury taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft into KML files that map the imagery onto the Google Earth sphere. The result? A detailed Mercury globe that anyone can…
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IYA 2009 Astronomy Sri Lanka
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Blogging from Brazil !!
19 Apr 2012 | 5:42 amFinally, I made it to Campos, RJ, Brazil last Monday and now we're the beginning of the 5th Meeting on Astronomy and Astronautics. Actually it;s supposed to get started in a few hours time and I will remind you the schedule for today. Day 1 - April 19th - Dia 19 de abril Shopping Boulevard - Campos 9:00h – Opening Ceremony - Abertura 10:00h - My astrophotography work in "The World At Night" – Meu trabalho de Astrofotografia no “The World at Night” - Tamas Ladanyi (TWAN project) 11:00h - “Astrophotography in Brazil, the victory of passion” - “Astrofotografia no… -
Program Launched - 5th Meeting on Astronomy and Astronautics
13 Apr 2012 | 12:40 amOlá !!! More news from Brazil !! The program of the 5th meeting on astronomy and astronautics has just been launched. Here it goes !!! Day 1 - April 19th - Dia 19 de abril Shopping Boulevard - Campos 9:00h – Opening Ceremony - Abertura 10:00h - My astrophotography work in "The World At Night" – Meu trabalho de Astrofotografia no “The World at Night” - Tamas Ladanyi (TWAN project) 11:00h - “Astrophotography in Brazil, the victory of passion” - “Astrofotografia no Brasil, a vitória da paixão” - José Carlos Diniz (NGC 51 and CANF) 12:00h - Lunch - Almoço… -
5th International Meeting of Astronomy and Astronautics
9 Apr 2012 | 2:44 amThis is great news for astronomy enthusiasts, the 5th International Meeting of Astronomy and Astronautics is just around the corner. It will take place in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 19th to 21st of this month. Louis Cruls Astronomy Club of Brazil has yet again taken the initiative of organizing the 5th International Meeting of Astronomy and Astronautics and this time it's gonna be an amazing set of interesting events, packed with this rendezvous. According to the latest news from Brazil, a special opening event will take place on April 19, at 9:00h, at the… -
Lecture and Sun-Spot Observation at University of Colombo by MAS
14 Jan 2012 | 12:24 pmIt was a kick-start for the year 2012 for the astro-enthusiasts of University of Colombo as Mathematical and Astronomical Society of the university put together a lecture and an observation session focused on sun spots last week. 06th of January 2012 saw the astro folks gathering at the Department of Physics for a lecture conducted by Dr Chandana Jayaratne followed by a session of sun spot observation a bit later on afterward the lecture. One of the advantages, living somewhere closer to equator, I think would be to have the sun light whole year, allowing yourself to play with the… -
Dr Gayandhi De Silva is back in Sri Lanka
14 Jan 2012 | 2:58 amDr Gayandhi De Silva, a Sri Lankan astronomer working at Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) has returned home and is currently in Sri Lanka, Thus I had the pleasure of meeting her physically, although we've been known to each other since some time following some astronomy project I was involved back then. I was a fan of her blog when she was writing for Cosmic Diary during IYA 2009. I think I was late to hear this news as I just got back to Sri Lanka last week after a period of 2 months in Europe, but I am glad that I was not too late. Apparently Dr…
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Internet Archive
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Telescopeman_May2012_Observe
7 May 2012 | 6:25 pmTelescopeMan gives his observing list for May 2012. www.telescopeman.org www.telescopeman.info www.telescopeman.us.This item has files of the following types: Checksums, Flac, Flac FingerPrint, Metadata, Ogg Vorbis, VBR MP3, WAVE -
telescopeman_ATMApril2012
1 Apr 2012 | 9:23 pmTelescopeMan records the April 2012 meeting of the amateur telescope making special interest group- Texas Astronomical Society. The video was recorded during April 2012 and features two telescope making projects....This item has files of the following types: Animated GIF, Flash Video, Metadata, Ogg Video, Thumbnail, h.264 -
Telescopeman_April2012_Observe
1 Apr 2012 | 11:49 amTelescopeMan gives his April 2012 observing list of objects in the night sky. The free software RTGUI was used to prepare the list. The software is available for free download at www.rtgui.com Clear skies! TelescopeMan.This item has files of the following types: Checksums, Flac, Flac FingerPrint, Metadata, Ogg Vorbis, VBR MP3, WAVE -
Telescopeman_March_Observe2012
8 Mar 2012 | 2:50 pmTelescopeMan gives his observing list for March 2012. A selection of nice objects in the night sky that can be seen from a suburban viewing site. www.telescopeman.org www.telescopeman.info www.telescopeman.us.This item has files of the following types: Checksums, Flac, Flac FingerPrint, Metadata, Ogg Vorbis, VBR MP3, WAVE -
Telescopeman_SpeakerFeb2012_spectroscopy
27 Feb 2012 | 2:39 pmTelescopeMan records TAS member David Hutchison as he discussed spectroscopy. How to measure the spectrum of light. Recorded at the February 2012 general meeting of the Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas....This item has files of the following types: Animated GIF, Flash Video, Metadata, Ogg Video, Thumbnail, h.264
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Andromeda Child
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Astronomy for Everyone: May 2012 Skylights
7 May 2012 | 3:11 pmM81 Bode's Galaxy and M82 The Cigar Galaxy, visible in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear this month. The image is typical of their appearance in a small telescope, away from light pollution. In this edition of Astronomy for Everyone, ANDY FLEMING looks at what's on offer for observation in the Northern Hemisphere this May with the naked eye and binoculars. Venus is a brilliant beacon high in the west at dusk in May, easily outshining everything else in the night sky except the Moon. Its brightness is due to the high reflectivity of its noxious atmosphere of… -
Astronomy for Everyone: April 2012 Skylights
8 Apr 2012 | 2:39 pmIn this edition of Astronomy for Everyone, ANDY FLEMING looks at what's on offer for observation in the Northern Hemisphere this April with the naked eye and binoculars.If you look to the southern horizon on a clear night from the Northern Hemisphere this month and look left you should see the very bright star Sirius – actually the brightest star in the night sky, and one of the closest to our solar system.Up and to the right of Sirius you’ll see the constellation of Orion. The hunter’s belt is clearly visible with its line of three stars called Alnilam, Alnitak and… -
Moon Machines
7 Mar 2012 | 11:26 amANDY FLEMING reviews a superb documentary that reveals the gargantuan engineering task that faced NASA and its contractors in meeting President Kennedy's challenge of putting a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. The Moon landings are often regarded as mankind's finest achievement, and this 2008 Discovery Science Channel miniseries certainly gives an in-depth account of why. At its peak in the 1960s, NASA's Project Apollo employed nearly 400,000 people, and this series is a tribute to the scientists, engineers and astronauts who made Kennedy's audacious dream come true. Moon… -
The Wonders of Andromeda
30 Jan 2012 | 4:37 pmHow the Andromeda Galaxy reveals itself through standard sized binoculars (say 10x50s). For reasons that are mainly due to the human eye's sensitivity to low colour light levels, deep sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae appear as in greyscale through both binoculars and telescopes. This is due to their low surface brightness... we've all been spoilt by DSLR camera and CCD images! ANDY FLEMING takes a look at a constellation everyone can see without optical aids, and how at a dark site if you follow the instructions you’ll observe the most distant object… -
Mars The Wonderworld: We’re Just 3.5 Billion Years Too Late!
24 Dec 2011 | 2:33 pmNASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this snapshot of Mars 11 hours before the planet made its closest approach to Earth on August 26, 2003. The two planets were 34,648,840 miles (55,760,220 km) apart. This image was made from a series of exposures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Photo credit: NASA/J. Bell (Cornell U.) and M. Wolff (SSI). Evidence is mounting that Mars was once a wet and warm world, similar to the early Earth. What went wrong with the Red Planet -- is it possible that future explorers may find fossils from a more habitable time --…
