Author Archives: Allen Versfeld

About Allen Versfeld

Allen is an amateur astronomer, an IT professional, a podcaster, a father of five growing kids, a barely competent chess player, and the owner and publisher of the Urban Astronomer podcast and website. He has formerly served as Director of the Astrophotography and Citizen Science sections of the Astronomical Society of South Africa. You can find his personal social media feed on Mastodon!

X-37B launch delayed by weather

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The US Airforce’s X-37B spaceplane, which was supposed to begin its second mission yesterday, has been temporarily grounded after poor weather caused mission controllers to scrub the launch.  At the initial time planned for launch, strong winds at ground level caused the flight be postponed for several hours.  By the time the second launch window appeared, clouds had swept in bringing heavy rain and the decision was made to scrub the launch.  The new plan is to try again today, … Continue reading →

SASRA launched

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On 19 February 2011, shortly before noon, the founding members of the South African Space Resources Association (SASRA) signed the association’s constitution, making its formation official.  SASRA was founded by Michael Neale, a graduate of the Mining Engineering Department at the University of Pretoria, to involve South Africa in the rapidly growing field of In-situ Space Resources Utilisation (ISRU). ISRU is built on the idea that if humanity is ever to spread beyond planet Earth, then our presence in space … Continue reading →

1 March 2011 – Hack and Slash

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Last night I sat down in the lounge with my mirror and declared war on the shape.  It was beautifully spherical, and too shallow, and had stubbornly refused to deepen measurably.  So I sprinkled some #120 grit onto the tool, sprayed it with a mixture of water, dishwashing detergent and glycerin, put the mirror on top, and began grinding with new savagery: As much pressure as my arms could sustain, 1/2 length strokes in a wide W pattern.  After about … Continue reading →

24th and 26th February 2011

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Between 24 and 26 February, I put in two hours solid grinding (still with #120 grit using 1/3 strokes).  At this stage, I’m trying to shorten the focal length of the mirror, so that the end result will fit in the boot of my car.  There’s no point in making a telescope that isn’t practical enough to get used, after all. Frustratingly, after these two days, I’ve measured precisely zero progress. I’ve used both the spit test to measure radius … Continue reading →

Record number of Near Earth asteroids discovered

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Richard Wainscoat (left) and Marco Micheli study one of the near-Earth asteroids found on January 29. The asteroid is the roundish dot near Wainscoat’s finger.  photo by Karen Teramura A new record was set on 29 January 2011 when the science team operating a new prototype telescope discovered not one Near-Earth Asteroid, not two, but nineteen in a single night!  “This record number of discoveries shows that PS1 is the world’s most powerful telescope for this kind of study,” said … Continue reading →