New Years' Eve 2009: Lunar eclipse and a Blue Moon

One thing is for sure - the Full Moon will past through the shadow of the Earth on New Years' Eve. For about 30 minutes either side of 19:24GMT, the bottom right of the Moon will be dark-red in colour (looking similar to the photo below taken in 2006). The bottom-right of the moon will appear red due to sunlight passing through the Earth's atmosphere and hitting the Moon, and our atmosphere only allows red light to go straight through, which is also why sunsets are red.
Do take a look while you are preparing your New Year celebrations!

One thing that is not so sure - will the full Moon on the 31^st also be a "Blue Moon"?

For sure, the Moon will not be the colour blue. But as with the expressions "Turned the air blue" or "Feeling blue", blue does not always refer to colour. And there is more confusion, since there are several definitions of "Blue Moon" in the English language.

The modern definition (thought to originate from an article in a 1946 article in the Sky & Telescope magazine) states that if a month has two full moon's, the second one is called a "Blue Moon". This definition is popular today probably due to its simplicity.

The older (pre-war) definition is that a "Blue Moon" is the third full Moon in a season with four. This is because each full moon has a name. For example, the full Moon in April in English Medieval times was known as the Seed Moon. If there was a second full moon in March, the Seed Moon would come too early for seeding crops, and so a "Blue Moon" was inserted and the following full-moon was called the "Seed Moon". So a "Blue Moon" was inserted to keep the names of all the other full moons synchronised.

Do enjoy the Full Moon of New Year's Eve - and why not go for a Blue Moon Walk to see in the New Year?

Happy Solstice!

At 17:47 GMT today, it is officially winter!

That is the time when the poles of the Earth are aligned with the Sun, which is what we call the solstice. The North pole is now pointing away from the Sun (the Winter Solstice, and the shortest day), in the Southern hemisphere, the South pole is pointing towards the Sun (the Summer Solstice).

The image below shows a stacked series of images taken 20 minutes apart throughout the 17th December, 2005 (within just a couple of days of the winter solstice), showing how the Sun moved across the sky during that day, from the South-East to the South-West. A timelapse movie version is also available, showing how low the Sun is in the sky at this time of year.

There are lots of special events to mark the solstice, including a gathering at Stonehenge in Wiltshire (see these photographs: #1, #2, #3, #4). Under the early Julian Calendar, the winter solstice actually occurred on the 25th of December, but because that calendar was not accurate, the solstice slipped to the 21st (the accuracy of the calendar was corrected with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582).

However, we still traditionally keep the 25th of December as the day for celebration, and Christmas now includes a rich mix of celebrations, including Roman (Saturnalia, and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the birthday of the unconquered sun), Nordic Pagan festivals and the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ (see more about the origin of Christmas at this Wikipedia article).

Whichever way you choose to celebrate this time of year, I hope you will enjoy yourselves and have a very happy festive season!

Lakes on Titan

Telescopes on-board the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn has seen Sun-light glinting off a lake on the moon Titan - amazing!

But they are not lakes of water. At -180°C, it's far too cold for that. These are lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, such as methane, on a part of the moon dotted with many lake-shaped basins. When the Huygen's probe landed on Titan in January 2005 it took the image to the left.

One has to wonder - could there be primitive life on Titan, or is it simply far too cold?

Last week's Active Sun

Although we are definitely at a solar minimum, that does not mean nothing is happening!

The sequence of images below, taken by the NASA/ESA SOHO Observatory, shows a small sun spot system moving over the last week, as the Sun itself rotates.

With a lot of imagination, you can half-believe that it looks a bit like a Christmas tree, too!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Geminids 2009

I know it was a week ago, but better late than never. This years Geminid meteor shower was spectacular, but the weather was so frustrating.

Heading off to my favourite dark site, just 20 minutes walk away and with a nice southernly view, I noticed that the cloud was following me. Should I give up before I'd even started observing? I stood and waited for maybe 15 minutes, until I saw a convincing gap in the clouds approaching. I looked in the opposite direction and saw a shooting star that convinced me to carry on and set up my camera.

Within seconds - there's a nice one. 15 seconds later - another. And then within a minute a trio heading from Gemini, low towards the left! The trio were not perfectly in sync, with milli-seconds between each, but they seemed to orignate from the same point. And then even more... I was amazed until, after just 10 minutes, thick cloud came in to end the day's play. How frustrating.

So, the Geminid shower remains my favourite, especially after seeing and astonishingly bright one back in 1994 (it so so bright it actually looked like a burning rock falling through the sky!).

It maybe cold at that time of year but with three pairs of trousers, and 5 layers on the top half, I was warm and was suitably rewarded.

Geminid meteor shower peaks

We are currently travelling through dust left behind by an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon, which we think is an extinct comet. As the Earth travels through space at an astonishing 70,000 mph, these bits of dust hit the atmosphere causing "shooting stars" as the dust burns up.

You can see these shooting stars throughout mid-December, but the main peak is from the 12th to the 14th of December where you could see up to two a minute under ideal conditions.

It is (unfortunately!) best to see shooting stars in the early morning, a few hours before sunrise, since that is when we are stood on the "front" of the Earth as it orbits around the Sun. It's a bit like driving through snow - it looks best looking forward where you see all the snow rushing towards you, and it's not so exciting when you look out of the back window.

XMM-Newton: 10 years old today!

The XMM-Newton space telescope is celebrating its 10th anniversary in space!

Although there is a huge amount of British involvement in XMM-Newton, it truly is an international mission. In brief...

• Two out of three X-ray camera's were built (and are maintained) in the UK (the EPIC-MOS camera's pictured above-left);
• The optical/UV telescope was built in the UK;
• One X-ray camera (the EPIC-PN) was built in Germany;
• Two spectrometers (the RGS) were built in the Netherlands and the USA;
• All three X-ray mirror modules were built in Italy;
• Data analysis software and data storage by the UK & USA;
• The spacecraft was assembled in the Netherlands;
• The radiation monitors were built in France;
• Continuous XMM-Newton support is based in Spain, with support from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, and the USA;

XMM-Newton has made some amazing discoveries about the high-energy Universe in that decade. Lots of images from those XMM-Newton discoveries can be found online at the XMM-Newton image gallery, and a slideshow is available on the BBC News online website, narrated by myself (Dr Darren Baskill) and my colleague Dr Kathy Romer here at the University of Sussex's Department of Physics & Astronomy.

The EPIC-MOS cameras were built in the UK by a team led by Martin Turner, who had helped plan and build XMM-Newton over more than 25 years, until his death 6 months ago. The last time I spoke to him, we were discussing how to celebrate XMM-Newton's 10th birthday. All our celebrations of the great success of XMM-Newton are done in the memory of Martin.

December's Night Sky

This is the month to take advantage of, and enjoy, the long nights!

The earliest sunset here in southern England occurs at 15:54 on the 12th of December, and the shortest day is on the 21^st this year. The Earth is tilted, and the shortest day occurs when that side of the Earth is tilted directly away from the Sun - and so the solstice actually occurs at a specific moment in time, at 17:46 on the 21^st December, 2009.

The increasingly inaccurately named summer-triangle is still visible, low in the west, but only until 7.30pm - ideal for after-school observing events! And the Andromeda galaxy is still well placed in the evening sky (see last months posting for full details about both of those).

Jupiter is still a wonderful sight until about 8pm throughout the month - just look for the brightest object you can find, low in the west, and that will be Jupiter! Look through binoculars or a small telescope to see four of the 60 moons that orbit this gas giant.

The 21^st of December is a great day for a photo' opportunity. That late afternoon and early evening, the planet Jupiter is visible just below the Moon. And just to the top-right of Jupiter, is the planet Neptune - although you will need a telescope to see Neptune, as it is 10,000 times fainter than Jupiter!

Rising at 8pm in the east is the constellation of Orion - a very familiar sight in the winter skies, thanks to the three stars that form a straight line, and which are known as Orion's belt (as in the photo to the left). Just below those three stars in a line, are another group of three stars in a line... only, the middle star is not a star at all, but a huge gas cloud where stars are in the process of forming. You can see it with your own eyes, but look through a telescope and you can see much more detail, and take a long exposure photo', and you can see even more detail! The movie below shows the difference between looking through a telescope yourself, and taking a 15 minute long exposure photograph.

You can get some very easy-to-use and clear star maps from either Skymaps.com, or by using the excellent (and free) Stellarium Planetarium software.

5 Years of Swift

Gamma Ray Bursts are know to be the biggest bangs since the big bang! And NASA's Swift space telescope celebrated 5 years of observing these bursts just a few days ago - it was launched on November the 20th, 2004.

And as with most space telescopes, British astronomers play a key role.

Scientists at the University of Leicester designed the X-ray telescope on-board, built the X-ray camera's, and continue to calibrate and monitor its health. Leicester also hosts the UK Swift Science Data Centre. The Mullard Space Science Laboratory, part of the University College London, helped build the Ultra-violet and optical telescope.

UK scientists at both Leicester and MSSL are also on call throughout the day and night for when a burst goes off, to assess whether to follow up the observation with larger ground-based telescopes. Such decisions need to be made within minutes. A full list of UK-based scientists involved in the Swift Space Telescope can be found here on Swift's UK website.

The key thing about Swift is that it is, well, swift! Swift can detect a burst of gamma-rays occurring in about a quarter of the entire sky, and then automatically and rapidly (within 30 seconds!) turn around to scrutinise the rapidly fading explosion with its other on-board telescopes (the X-ray and optical telescopes).

There are two types of gamma-ray bursts - short bursts that last on average about 0.3 seconds, and the long bursts that on-average last about 30 seconds.

Before Swift, scientists knew very little about the short bursts (for obvious reasons... they happened too quickly!), and Swift was the first telescope to discover where these quick explosions were coming from. While scientists are still unsure as to what causes them, the leading idea is that they originate from the mergers of binary neutron stars.

The longer bursts are usually seen to occur with a supernova, which unambiguously links long bursts to the deaths of massive stars... although, strangely, some relatively nearby long bursts appear to have no accompanying supernova. As is often the case in science, when one mystery is solved, another appears!

And because these burst of gamma-rays are the biggest explosions known to man, we can see very distant bursts. The most distant object known, pictured here, is a Gamma-ray burst seen by Swift (see this BBC News story).

November's Night Sky

The sun is setting at around 5pm during November, so here is how to enjoy the long winter nights!

The highlight of the evening sky is the planet Jupiter, visible low in the south to south-west up until 10.30pm in the evening. Take a look at Jupiter with binoculars, or a small telescope, and see how many of Jupiter's Moons you can spot – just as Galileo did 400 years ago. You should be able to see up to four moons, and if you take another look just a few hours later, you may be able to notice that the moons have moved a bit in just that very short period of time.

The planets Uranus and Neptune are also visible in the evening sky, but they are just-too-faint to be seen with the unaided eye, which is why these two planets were not discovered until after the invention of the telescope.

Early in the evening, looking towards the west, you can still see the summer triangle of stars – Vega, Altair and Deneb – until about 9pm (see the chart to the right; click on it to see it full size). Within the triangle, you can see the remains of two dead stars using a telescope – the ring and dumbbell nebulae. There is also a beautiful double star called Albireo within the triangle.

This is also a great time of year to see the Andromeda galaxy – the most distant object that you can see with your own eyes! It may be 2.25 million light-years away, but it is quite easy to find. Just go somewhere dark, away from the light pollution and inefficient lighting of our towns and cities, and look for the square of Pegasus. The square can be found by looking towards the South, about half way up the sky. It’s quite a big square – just bigger than your hand at arms length. Look towards the star that makes the top-left corner of the square, then follow two bright-ish stars up towards the top left, and then follow two more slightly fainter stars towards the top right (as in the map, right), and just there is the Andromeda galaxy! The W-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia also usefully “points” towards the galaxy.

And it is huge! It is actually six times the diameter of the full Moon, but it appears faint because it is so far away, and so with our own eyes we can only see the bright centre of this massive city-of-stars. For the best view, take a look through binoculars (telescopes usually have too high a magnification for you to see this galaxy clearly).

Now look to the left of the square of Pegasus, about 4 times its size, and you will see a bright red giant star called Aldebaran. Just to the top-right of Aldebaran, you’ll be able to see the Pleiades star cluster, also know as the seven sisters because you can see up to seven stars with your own eyes (pictured left as a wide-angle view, and right as a close-up photograph). This cluster is a beautiful sight through binoculars, where you can see up to 50 stars. Again, don’t use a telescope, since you will only be able to see one or two stars at a time – low magnification is what you need for a cluster that appears bigger than the Moon in the night sky.

You can get some very easy-to-use and clear star maps from either skymaps.com, or by using the excellent (and free) Stellarium Planetarium software.

Upcoming shifts at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

During the end of October & November 2009, I'll be working in the Peter Harrison Planetarium at the Royal Observatory Greenwich on the following dates:

• Saturday 31^st October, from 2pm (including the Evening with the Stars)
• Saturday 7^th November, all day
• Sunday 29^th November, all day

On these days, I will be presenting a variety of shows, including:

• We Are Astronomers
• The Sky Tonight - Live!
• Visions of Saturn
• Space Safari
• Ice Worlds

For details about We Are Astronomers (featured in the clip below) see WeAreAstronomers.com (I'm particularly please with this show, since I was involved in its production!).

For further details about any of the shows, visit the Royal Observatory website.

X-treme Astronomy: Seeing the Universe through X-ray eyes

by Dr Darren Baskill of the University of Sussex

...is the next Institute of Physics South Central Branch (Brighton Area) lecture, and is to be held at the University of Sussex.

A beautiful clear night full of stars may look poetically peaceful, but it's the biggest illusion known to man. The Universe is violent almost beyond comprehension. Some stars you can see in the night sky are being consumed by their partners; others are violently collapsing in the biggest explosions known to man; and black holes are surrounded by disks of hot gas, the distorted remains of countless stars.
X-rays originate from wherever gas is heated up to millions of degrees in the most energetic phenomena we know of. During this talk you will see the universe as witnessed through the eyes of the latest generation of X-ray telescopes.

X-treme Astronomy - Seeing the Universe through X-ray Eyes
by Dr Darren Baskill of the University of Sussex
7pm, on Tuesday 13th October
Lecture Theatre 1A7
Pevensey 1 Building
University of Sussex


Admission is free and everyone is welcome. Details of how to get to the venue can be found here.

Image: XMM-Newton, Europe's X-ray Space Telescope

October's Night Sky

October is traditionally the month when you notice that the Earth is moving through space, as this is the time of year when the nights are rapidly drawing in. As the month begins, the Sun is rising at 7am and setting at 18:30. By the end of the month, the Sun is rising an hour later and setting an hour earlier. Plus, we change the clocks back to normal on the 25th to give us some daylight in the morning, and so the sunset occurs another hour earlier. By the month's end, the Sun will be setting over Sussex at 16:30!

This is all because the Earth is tilted as it orbits the Sun. In summer, our side of the Earth is tilted towards the Sun; in winter, it is tilted away – and there is a difference of 47° between the two.

All this tilting also means that the summer triangle of stars is still visible at this time of year. Look directly upwards as soon as it goes dark and the brightest three stars you can see, covering quite a large patch of sky, are the summer triangle stars.

There are some amazing sights that can be seen in the summer triangle when using even a small telescope, such as the ring and dumbbell nebulae – the glowing remains of exploded stars. The star close to the centre of the triangle is a beautiful double star called Albireo – but you will need a telescope to be able to see this star as a pair, since they are so close together in the night sky.

At this time of the year the Milky-way, the city of stars within which we live, can be clearly seen for the first-half of the night from anywhere away from light pollution. The photograph to the left was taken from the outskirts of Brighton. The lower you look at the milky-way, the closer you are looking at the bright centre of our galaxy.

During October, Jupiter (as also seen in the photograph to the left) is rising in the south-east at sunset, and setting in the west at 2am when Mars is rising. Jupiter is the brightest object in the night sky at the moment (after the Sun and Moon, of course!), and if you go somewhere that is beautifully dark, away from any light pollution, you will be able to see your own shadow cast by the light reflected from Jupiter. As a guide, the Moon will be to the top right of Jupiter on the 26th of October, and to the top left on the 27th.

Take a look through a small telescope or binoculars, and you will be able to see up to four dots in a line around Jupiter. Those four dots are the four biggest and so brightest Moons of Jupiter, so bright that there were easily seen by Galileo 400 years ago with one of the first (and so very primitive) telescopes. Sometimes, one of those moons are hidden behind or in front of Jupiter – so just take a look an hour or two later to see if another moon has reappeared into view.

The darkest nights of the month will be from the 15th to the 25th of the month, when the Moon is close to new (the new Moon, when the Moon is in line with the Sun, occurs on the 18th of October). Full moon occurs on the 4th of October, and the 2nd of November, and so the sky is awash with moon light at the start and end of the month.

We hope you enjoy October’s beautiful night-skies! And if you want to see the night sky as it will be at any time on your own computer, I recommend that you download the excellent and free Stellarium software.

Water, water, everywhere...?

We believe that water is one of the key ingredients for life, and this is often discussed in schools, and so it have been interesting to hear the reports of water on the Moon and Mars over the last few days.

Last week, the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter discovered that areas of the lunar surface are slightly damp... slightly meaning that the Moon is still dryer than the driest of Earth's deserts! But there is water present. Full details of that can be found on the Astronomy Picture of the Day site.

Orbiting Mars, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered 100 fresh meteor impact craters. On Earth, most meteors burn up in our atmosphere, and do not reach the ground. But the atmosphere of Mars is much thinner than ours, allowing far more meteors to hit the surface. And when a crater is formed, you can see what is just beneath the martian surface... and it appears to be ice. More details of this story at the NASA-Science website.

This also implies that had the robotic arm on NASA's Viking 2 (which landed on Mars back in 1976) been just 10 cm longer, it might have struck ice!

Equinox - September, 2009.

The Earth is tilted by 23.5°, and at 21:18 GMT on September the 22nd, this tilt will be neither towards or away from the Sun. The north pole of the Earth is tilted in the same direction - towards the star Polaris - throughout the year (although this will change slightly over thousands of years). But before 21:18 GMT on September the 22nd, the north pole of the Earth was pointed slightly towards the Sun (which is why we had summer in the northern hemisphere), and after that moment, the north pole of the Earth will be tilted slightly away from the Sun, which is why we have autumn beginning in the northern hemisphere.

This means that on this day we have - to within minutes - an even length of day and night. The name "equinox" originates from Latin words for equal (aequus) and night (nox).

The date of the equinox varies each year because the Earth orbits the Sun in 365.2422 days, and not 365 days exactly! This is also why we have a leap-day every four years, allowing our calendars to catch up with the orbit of the Earth.

More information about the equinoxes can be found on the Wikipedia.

End of an observing run

Tonight is my sixth and final night using UKIRT.

During the night, I have been looking through the list of the various surveys we are working on, and each survey has its own priority (some require completion more urgently than others). The time-lapse movie below shows how the telescope has responded throughout the night to my and the telescope operators' instructions.

Not all the areas of sky we want to survey are visible above Hawaii at any one time, and so we are limited by what we can see that night. The Moon can also get in the way (it illuminates the entire sky, so the more sensitive surveys cannot be carried out when the Moon is up), as can high altitude clouds (star surveys can be done through thin cloud, but sensitive galaxy surveys cannot). And finally, it is always better to observe directly upwards, rather than at, say, half way up in the sky. Look up, and you are looking through about 30km of air and moisture; look towards the horizon, and you are looking through nearer 300km. The more air you look through, the more an image twinkles, resulting in blurred images - so to avoid this, we try to always look as directly upwards as possible.

As we go through the night, I am constantly considering all the limitations and all the possibilities of what we want to observe (which can change dramatically during the night, especially where the weather is concerned). As I do that, a telescope operator (Thor and Tim this week) controls the telescope, making sure it is guiding properly, fault fixing if needs be, and repeatedly making focus and other calibration observations throughout the night.

But after six long nights working at 4,200m, and getting at most just seven uncomfortable hours sleep during the day (due to the dryness of living on this volcano), I am more than ready to return home.

Observing with UKIRT

Here is a short time-lapse of UKIRT in action!

UKIDSS - the UKIRT infrared deep sky survey

I am currently at 4,200m, at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, using UKIRT - the United Kingdom's Infra-Red Telescope. We are using UKIRT to carry out the UKIDSS - the UKIRT Infra-red Deep Sky Survey.

Actually, UKIDSS is not one survey, but five similar surveys which will take 7 years to complete! The five surveys are:

• Large Area Survey (orange in the all-sky map below)
• Galactic Plane Survey (purple)
• Galactic Clusters Survey (green circles)
• Deep Extragalactic Survey (blue squares)
• Ultra Deep Survey (red dot within the blue square)

Both the Large Area Survey and the Ultra Deep Survey are looking for very distant galaxies (cities of stars). By "Ultra Deep", astronomers mean "ultra-sensitive", and so the Ultra Deep Survey will be able to detect very faint and very distant galaxies.

Running five surveys in parallel makes it a very efficient survey - if one of the surveys cannot be done on a particular night, another one can be done instead. For example, it may be slightly hazy as it is as I type this, which would mean that we cannot see the very faint galaxies that the Ultra-Deep Survey is looking for, but we can look at the star-filled galactic plane instead, which is easy to see through haze.

For the galactic plane survey, exposures are only 14 minutes long; for the ultra deep field, exposures are 75 minutes long!

Being an Astronomer

There are about 10,000 astronomers around the world - but what do they do?!

Astronomers are usually based at a university, and they often spend some of their time teaching. But when the students are away they get time to do some 'proper work' - their research. This is especially true during the summer holidays!

Maybe once a year (or more, if they are lucky), an astronomer gets the chance to use a world-class telescope, either on-the-ground or in space.

I've been lucky enough to get time on the UK Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT), one of the British telescopes based in Hawaii. On the 31st of August, I set off on the very long journey... London to Los Angeles (11 hours!), catching another plane a few hours later to Honolulu (a 6 hour journey), staying overnight in a hotel before finally catching an early-morning short flight (1 hour) to Hawaii's big island - from where I took the photograph of the summit below.

After a day (trying) to recuperate (the spare day also being useful in case I missed a connecting flight), I headed to the Joint Astronomy Centre in the coastal town of Hilo for a debriefing of how to use the telescope, and to discuss any issues. A lot of this time was spent discussing the health and safety issues. We are working nights, with heavy equipment, at 4,200m - this incredible altitude (almost half-way up Mount Everest!) makes altitude sickness a real and ever-present danger.

I then travelled from sea-level, half way up to the summit to Hale Pohaku - the astronomers and support staff hotel. While it is some way from the telescopes, it is considered to be a safe altitude, at only 2800m.

More about what we are actually observing in another post...!

Perseids: More tonight?

I only saw half-a-dozen shooting stars last night over a hour-long period - not great! But there is still a chance of seeing more tonight - so do take a look if it is clear.

And while I did not manage to catch any on film, a friend of mine Pete Lawrence was much more successful...

Perseid Meteor Shower

It is the time of year again when the Earth passes through the debris left behind by Comet Swift Tuttle.

For the last 10 days, the number of meteors (shooting stars) have been greater that usual, and I myself saw a bright meteor through partial cloud a few nights ago. But over the next few nights and mornings (the 11th and 12th), the Earth will be going through the heart of the debris stream. The plot below, from British amateur radio astronomer Dave Swan (see the radio meteor observers website for other contributors), shows the number of meteors, tiny bits of rock less than a millimeter in size, currently burning up over the UK.

As you can see from Dave's data, we see more meteors after midnight than before. But why is this?

Our Earth is orbiting around the Sun at 70,000 mph. In the evening, we are looking backwards, at where the Earth has been. But in the morning, we are looking forward in the direction of Earth's travel around the Sun. If you've ever driven through falling snow in a car, you will realise that it is more exciting looking forwards than looking backwards, and so you see more meteors burning up in the Earth's atmosphere looking into space after midnight than before.

It is also best to go somewhere dark, well away from the light pollution of the cities. The darker your location, the more meteors you will see - and you may see a sight that you will always remember!

The Moon

Over the last days, the full Moon has been gliding past the bright planet Jupiter - as you can see in this photograph.

Not only that, but the Moon light reflecting off the English channel is a beautiful sight.

East Sussex sun sets

There have been some spectacular sunsets over the last week here in East Sussex. Just take a look at the following photographs.

The Cliffs of East Sussex

See if you can spot the person in this photograph on the English Channel coast!

Mena really give these cliffs a sense of huge scale!

Sunflower Timelapse

sunflowers_all, originally uploaded by baskill.

This time-lapse movie I produced last month shows just how quickly sunflowers grow!

10 years of Chandra!

On the 23rd of July, 2009, Chandra celebrated its tenth birthday in space!

To celebrate this event, I narrated an audio slide show for the BBC News online, which you can listen to here. The piece was listened to over 150,000 times on the first day alone!

Royal Observatory Greenwich in August 2009

During August 2009, I'll be working in the Peter Harrison Planetarium at the Royal Observatory on the following dates:

• Tuesday 11th, all day
• Friday 14th, all day
• Saturday 22nd, all day

On these days, I will be presenting a variety of shows, including:

• Dawn of the Space Age (pictured right)
• Ice Worlds
• Sky Tonight LIVE
• Astronomy Bites LIVE

Full details of all these shows can be found on the planetarium website.

Volcanic eruption on Venus

On the 19th July, amateur astronomers discovered an asteroid impact on Jupiter. On the very same day, another amateur astronomer discovered a volcano erupting on Venus!

Full details on the BBC News and Astronomy Now.

Jupiter's impact scar

Jupiter's impact scar is still growing...! [Image below by Mike Hood as seen on SpaceWeather.com]

The last Tommies

From my home on the outskirts of Brighton, I have just watched five replica First World War aircraft fly past. They are marking the funeral of Henry Allingham, the last remaining RAF veteran of WWI who died last week aged 113 [BBC News]. By coincidence, I cycled past his house at almost the exact time he passed away.

It was also a week that Harry Patch died aged 111, the last British survivor of the First World War trenches. [BBC News]

We owe it to these gentleman, and the friends that they left behind over 90 years ago, to make sure that we do all that we can to prevent the horrors of a World War happening again.

And it is difficult to perceive the pain these guys must have lived with for so long. My own Gran held painful memories of her brother never returning home for 90 years, even though she was just 3 years old when she last saw him alive.

Least we forget.

Jupiter impact

On the 19th of July, Anthony Wesley spotted an impact in the cloud layers of Jupiter! (as reported at SpaceWeather.com).

It reminded most astronomer of the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy-9 which occurred on July 16th, 1994, 15 years earlier almost to the day!

The Hubble Space Telescope took the photographs below of this latest impact on the 23rd, of July.

But you do not need HST to see the impact - any medium-sized amateur telescope will show up the impact, even now a week later. And it is prime-time to see Jupiter, which is rising in the East at 10pm local time, and is visible throughout the night!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

I am an astronomer, and so most of my postings will be about events happening in the night sky. I also dabble in photography, so expect lots of such postings as well.

For more details about myself, please visit my internet page.