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!
Here we are again, back at Urban Astronomer HQ, banging on the doors for them to let us in and enjoy the Carnival of Space! Every week a different space blogger dons the mantel of Carnival Ringmaster and scrapes together a collection of the best space science and astronomy writing from around the Internet. And it’s all done just for you, dear sweet reader. So come in, get comfy, and listen up! First in line, regular contributors (and one-time … Continue reading →
A few nights ago, I captured this image of the Small Magellanic Cloud and the nearby globular cluster 47 Tuc. It had been a while since I’d last taken the camera outside, and I wanted to grab something relatively simple while the weather was still clear. So I decided to have another go at capturing a long exposure wide-field image. Previous images of the Milky Way in Sagittarius, and the region around Crux and Carina, had been disappointing because of … Continue reading →
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll know that Urban Astronomer has been doing a fair bit of astronomy outreach over recent months. In July, I gave a presentation on Light Pollution for the Rhenosterspruit Conservancy, and in September I filmed the partial solar eclipse, and streamed it live for Slooh.com. And without even realising it, we became a major source of news on a surprising superstition regarding the recent Lunar Eclipse! Light Pollution Talk On 19 July, … Continue reading →
It’s been an impossibly busy few weeks at Urban Astronomer headquarters. So busy that no astronomy has happened at all, apart from a few stolen glances upwards at the night sky while feeding the dog. Thankfully, they’ve let me keep my Carnival hosting privileges, and so I still get to bring you the 418th Carnival of Space! I’m obviously not the only busy one, though, as we’ve had very few submissions this week, and only one from a regular contributor. … Continue reading →
It’s almost the middle of June, which means that it’s mid-winter here at my home in the South and the much-delayed cold weather has finally arrived! It’s an excellent time of year for stargazing with long crisp evenings, week-long stretches of cloudless sky, a spectacular range of objects to point our telescopes towards, and a shaky national power utility gifting us with repeated blackouts for extra-dark skies. But what to do if you’re not blessed with such ideal observing conditions? … Continue reading →
