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!

ASSA Symposium 2012 report – day one

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On 12 October 2012, the Astronomical Society of South Africa (ASSA) began their 9th biennial symposium, hosted by the Cape Centre of ASSA at the offices of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).  Although it officially began on Saturday the 13th, there were a few extra activities lined up for the Friday as well, for those ASSA members who arrived early.  These were an astrophotography workshop hosted by Dale Liebenberg, a free show at the Iziko Planetarium, and a social … Continue reading →

Curiosity identifies old river bed on Mars

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As we put more robots on or around Mars, we get more data suggesting that Mars was once a wet world.  The most convincing data yet comes from the Curiosity rover (an SUV sized plutonium powered robotic explorer, formally known as the Mars Science Laboratory) which has just driven through what is almost certainly an ancient dry river bed.  The evidence is purely geological:  smooth pebbles, cemented into a layer of conglomerate rock, prove convincingly that water used to flow … Continue reading →

Ozone Hole at 2nd smallest in 20 years

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Good news for those of us who’re so proud of our sunny weather in the southern hemisphere:  Earth-watching satellites belonging to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have shown that the ozone hole is beginning to heal.  So far this year, it’s covered an average area of 17.9 million square kilometers, with a peak reading on 22 September 2012 of 21.2 million square kilometers – a substantial reduction from the maximum size recorded in 2000 of 29.9 … Continue reading →

Is it really going to happen on 21st December 2012?

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Editors note: Back in 2012, this was easily the most popular section of Urban Astronomer.  Now, two years later, hardly anybody seems to even remember what all the fuss was about.  Still, since these sorts of doomsday prophecies tend to recur (the prophets have book sales to sustain, after all!), I’m keeping it all up as a reference.  If you stumbled upon this page looking for information on some other doomsday story, foretold by the ancients, then please stay and … Continue reading →

2012: My official position

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About two years ago, I was quite passionate about the next predicted apocalypse. There were a lot of people talking very loudly about ways in which the world was expected to end come 21 December 2012, and I (along with much of the online scientific community) devoted many pages to refuting some of these claims. I suspect however that the only reason so many people took the issue seriously in the first place was that Michael Bay made one of … Continue reading →