Tag: astronomy
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Is cosmology completely broken?
Thirty years ago, when I was taught cosmology as an undergraduate, it felt pretty much like a subject that was close to being fully described: indeed this was the era when Stephen Hawking could announce that we were close to a “theory of everything”. In simplified form the cosmology was this: the universe (and there…
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Proving Heliocentricity
Is it stupid to think that the Sun revolves around the Earth? Well, of course anyone even slightly exposed to scientific thinking who believes that today is certifiably a fruitcake or, as Professor Brian Cox puts it “a nobber”. But proving heliocentricity – unlike, say, the spherical nature of the Earth, is not actually all…
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Supernova in Mill Hill
Many years ago I spent a cloudy evening at the University of London’s observatory – in the heart of Mill Hill (presumably when this was built it was many miles from un-natural light and well beyond the city limits.) We ended up playing chess indoors. Well, it seems city lights are not necessarily a barrier…
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A beautiful thing no human will ever see
It must be a wonderful sight, but no human will ever see it – our Galaxy from the Large Magellanic Cloud. Whoever wrote the Wikipedia entry did a fine job: From a viewpoint in the LMC, the Milky Way would be a spectacular sight. The galaxy’s total apparent magnitude would be −2.0—over 14 times brighter than the…
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More astrophotography
The advantage of waiting a little longer to take some more shots is that the sky gets darker and you can drop the exposure time to 20 seconds. The disadvantage is that clouds appear… But here are some more shots: (a) Deneb, Cygnus and the Milky Way (b) Altair and Aquila – milky way visible…
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Astrophotography advice please
Already looking forward to this year’s summer holiday – in a relatively Moon-free fortnight – and a chance to get the telescope out. Last year I shocked myself with this: – produced by just pointing the second-hand DSLR at the eyepiece. This year I want to go better but don’t want to spend a fortune…
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Gamma ray bursts are not that rare
Yesterday it was reported that scientists have suggested that an anomalous peak in radioactive materials discovered in antarctic ice sediments and in ancient Japanese cedar trees could be explained by a gamma ray burst hitting the Earth in the 8th century CE. The BBC radio report I head described gamma ray bursts as “extremely rare” and the…
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Infrared astronomy on the cheap?
When I was an undergraduate infrared astronomy was a relatively new area of study and was generating much excitement and seeing this project on Kickstarter I wonder if there could be some amateur action available – www.kickstarter.com/projects/andyrawson/ir-blue-thermal-imaging-smartphone-accessory. Any views, anyone? Related articles Lost Egyptian Pyramids Found with Infra-red Satellite Images (izabael.com) Detect Drafty Windows with…
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Death of Sir Patrick Moore
Patrick Moore‘s death should surely be marked globally, because it is the passing of a man who as an amateur had a greater impact in his field – specifically planetary astronomy – than many professionals. Are there any others left in pure science who can claim that? Patrick Moore is most likely to be remembered…
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Memo to self: fighting the Moon is a waste of time
My telescope is getting its (sadly) annual run out but I need not have bothered this week – as despite clear skies the Moon is also about (full Moon is on 1 August) – and that makes even setting up the telescope difficult: you can pick out Vega as a bright star in your scope,…
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