Urban Astronomer is an astronomy website. We don’t cover general science, or engineering news. But this is cool, and valuable, and since they’ve sent a 3D printer to the ISS to allow for in situ manufacturing of spare parts, there’s a convenient space angle. So… Do you like making things, or tinkering with them to see how they work? Are your favourite TV characters inventors and scientists? Do you wish you were one of those clever people who design and … Continue reading →
When we think about asteroids, we imagine a large potato-shaped rock covered in craters. But a new analysis of data from Hayabusa, the plucky Japanese spacecraft that could, reveals a more interesting picture. It seems that asteroid Itokawa is not a simple space rock, but has a complex structure, with different internal regions having different densities. Hayabusa was launched by the Japanese space agency (JAXA) back in 2003. It’s mission was to travel to a near-Earth asteroid, collect samples, and bring … Continue reading →
Apologies for the misleading headline. Nobody is predicting weather on planets outside of our Solar System. We’re just monitoring and recording it (as previously discussed here), and have been for some time. But recent observations of a very near pair of brown dwarf objects has led to something new: We’re watching the weather on stars themselves! Sorry, that was also misleading. Brown Dwarf’s aren’t technically stars since they sit on the hazy boundary between the largest gas-giant planets and the … Continue reading →
Good news for anybody in the Gauteng province of South Africa who is interested in astronomy or light pollution: I have been given the exciting opportunity to present a talk on 28 June for the Rhenosterspruit conservancy on Light Pollution and its effects on humans and the environment. I always enjoy giving these talks, and I’d love to have you all join us for the talk, and for a picnic/braai afterwards. Bring your telescope, if you have one, or look … Continue reading →
Some time ago, I wrote about my cunning plan to build the lightest, cheapest possible observatory: Plant a pier in my back yard, attach a telescope to it and use that as the base of my observations and photography. At that stage, I was about half-way excavating a hole for the pier, and had run into difficulty with a large rock placed exactly where I didn’t need it. Read on to see how I dealt with that problem, and how … Continue reading →
