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!

Akatsuki fails to achieve orbit

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Sad news for the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) yesterday, as they announced that the Akatsuki mission to Venus had failed to achieve orbit around Venus.  The probe, which was launched on 21 May 2010, will be left to wander in its current orbit around the Sun for six years until it drifts into a suitable position for a second attempt. Akatsuki is an orbiter, intended to study the Venusian atmosphere.  It’s eventual destination is a highly elliptical orbit around Venus, in … Continue reading →

South African to head office for global astronomy development

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By: Enrico Olivier Mr. Kevin Govender, from the South African Astronomical Observatory, has been appointed to the prestigious position of Director of the International Office for Astronomy Development (OAD) with effect from March 1, 2011. The OAD, an intiative by the International Astronomical Union (IAU, which is the world body for astronomy), will coordinate a wide range of activities designed to stimulate astronomy and its development throughout the world. Mr. Govender, currently the head of the Southern African Large Telescope … Continue reading →

SOFIA’s first science flight

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Long time readers will remember the excitement about NASA’s flying observatory SOFIA, which was preparing for it’s first flight back in May.  On November 30, SOFIA made it’s first science flight, which lasted ten hours and collected data on star forming regions in Orion.  SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) is a pretty ambitious project to hoist a complete observatory up above most of the Earth’s atmospheric water vapour to peer at the cosmos in the infrared.  Water vapour does … Continue reading →

Life finds a way

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The phrase “Life as we know it” is one of those cliches that nobody notices.  It pops up in science fiction, in interviews with astrobiologists, and in serious documentaries about space.  So what is life, as we know it? We describe creatures on Earth as “Carbon based life-forms” (another sci-fi cliche), but in fact all known life is based on six elements:  Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Sulphur.  Or at least, that’s what we thought until a team of researchers funded … Continue reading →

Red Dwarf

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There are two types of Red Dwarf.  The first, and more popular, is a rusty old mining ship belonging to the Jupiter Corporation.  We know a great deal about this type of Red Dwarf, but they are exceptionally rare – there have never been more than three in existence at one time.  The Red Dwarf was immortalised in 52 episodes about the adventures of the crew members who survived a radiation leak by such varied means as being in time … Continue reading →