The Heart of the Scorpion
Phases
Sky Notes for March & April 2024
Mercury, the Elusive Planet
Sky Notes for January & February 2024
The Stars of Winter
Sky Notes for November & December 2023
Keeping in Touch with Mars, Shooting Stars and the Other Planets…
Sky Notes for September & October 2023
As September ends and October begins, Saturn will be due south at about 10:30pm. The planet will be easier to spot this autumn than it has been for the last few years because it will be higher above the southern horizon – about 25 degrees, an elevation that will continue to increase each year until 2032.
Sky Notes for July & August 2023
As July gives way to August true darkness returns to our sky, at first for a brief period either side of 1 am, but later in August it extends to several hours every night.
Sky Notes for May & June 2023
The path that the Sun appears to take around our sky in the course of a year is called the ecliptic, and is so named because eclipses of the Sun and Moon always take place along this line.
Sky Notes for March and April 2023
One thing that astronomers are prone to harp on about is light pollution, the glow from artificial light that spreads up into the night sky and is gradually obliterating our view of the stars.
Sky Notes for January/February 2023
In ancient times the Earth was thought to be flat, and in some cultures this belief persisted through to relatively modern times. One can scarcely imagine the shock to someone born in those ancient times if we could magically transport them to the present, and show them our modern conception of the Earth as little more than a grain of rock hurtling through endless space…
