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!

NASA’s Glory

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For all the progress being made in climate science, there remain a lot of gaps in our knowledge.  We do not yet fully understand how aerosols (Any fine material suspended in the atmosphere – dust, smoke, ash, etc) affect the atmospheres ability to retain, reflect and transmit heat.  NASA’s new Glory satellite, set to launch next month, is designed to help answer some of these questions. Scientists have a thorough understanding of how greenhouse gases impact the energy budget, but … Continue reading →

X-37B preparing for second mission

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The US Air Force has announced that the secretive X-37B spaceplane is being prepared for a second launch on 4 March 2011.  The tiny craft is a remarkable machine, small enough to fit inside the Space Shuttle’s cargo area, and capable of remaining in orbit for months at a time while moving from orbit to orbit to hide from prying eyes.  It is also completely unmanned.  It has already completed one succesful test mission, in which it demonstrated its unusual … Continue reading →

“Indian Astrology is Science” – false claim

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If you’re following sites like this one, you’ve no doubt heard of the shock court ruling in India a week ago that astrology is an ancient and respected system which follows strict rules based on observation, and therefore is to be treated as a science.  As you read the story, you find the horrifying statement that scientists will just have to accept that “astrologers are officially their colleagues”.  It was the end of the world, the anti-scientists were winning and … Continue reading →

5 February – Missed class

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As I’ve probably mentioned in previous updates, I’ve given myself a schedule that compromises between the recommendations of the ATM class and the realities of my own busy life:  I attend every second class.  Today was to be a class day for me, except that my three year old daughter woke up with a fever, a sore throat, and no voice.  The earliest doctor’s appointment we could arrange was bang in the middle of the class, so I couldn’t make it.  I figure I’ll … Continue reading →

Over 1200 planets

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Kepler being prepared in the clean room at Astrotech prior to launch on March 6, 2009.    Credit: nasatech.net Nasa’s Kepler space telescope has discovered over 1200 extra-solar planet candidates, it was revealed at a press function yesterday.  The telescope only scans a small area, about 0.25% of the sky, which suggests that our galaxy is absolutely packed to the gills with planets.  Of these candidates, 54 are found in the so-called ‘Habitable Zone’, the distance from a star at which … Continue reading →