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!
Those of us who follow such things are quite used to the steady stream of incredible images of Saturn and its moons sent back to us by the Cassini spacecraft over the past few years. But did you know that Cassini snapped a few images of Jupiter while still en route to Saturn? This image, taken in December 2000, shows the galilean moon Io, with giant Jupiter as a backdrop and I strongly recommend clicking it to see the larger … Continue reading →
Members of the SKA Organisation had their first general meeting yesterday, to look at the recommendations put forward by the site selection committee. Their conclusion? None. Instead, they’ve decided to form another working group, to look at how to get the greatest advantage from the various innovations and projects put forward by both candidates (Australia and South Africa). Which sounds to me like they want to have their cake and eat it. Despite the objections of both candidates, the suggestion … Continue reading →
One of the most popular regular features of Sky and Telescope’s webpage is the “Week at a Glance” section, a detailed summary of the week’s observational highlights. This, and related material, has long been available as an app for your iPhone, for a reasonable fee. To mark S&T’s 70th anniversary year, the magazine has decided to release an Android version of this app, and make it free to download! “The S&T SkyWeek Droid app is a follow-up to our S&T … Continue reading →
The recent solar activity on the sun has dumped enough energy into the upper atmosphere of earth to “power every residence in New York city for 2 years”. This comes from a NASA Science report of 22 March which has it on good authority from, Martin Mlynczak, based at their own Langley centre. “The thermosphere lit up like a Christmas tree,” adds James Russell. “It began to glow intensely at infrared wavelengths as the thermostat effect kicked in.” This information … Continue reading →
An equinox is a point in the Earth’s orbit when day and night are both exactly the same length. There are two equinoxes (or equinoctes if you want to be excessively correct) each year, but they also mark the change of the seasons between warm and cold. The Earth’s axis is tilted, so that for half of each year, one hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, so that it gets more heat and light from the Sun that the other. … Continue reading →
