Tomorrow night is International Observe the Moon Night when people all over the world are encouraged to wait till dark and head outside with telescope, binoculars or just the plain only Mark I eyeball and look at the moon.  But we mean really look at it – take note of it’s phase, the patterns and shades of it’s features.  If you’re using binoculars, see the mountains and craters, observe how white rays stretching outwards from some craters but not others. … Continue reading →

Forgive the exaggeration.  There’s actually no comparison between Jupiter and the moon. Jupiter is vastly bigger than the moon, although their distances are such that the moon appears quite large in our sky while Jupiter is only ever a bright point of light. Nevertheless, we are in for a spectacular view on 21 September when Jupiter will be at Opposition.  Opposition is the relative point in the orbits of Earth and Jupiter when the two planets are at their closest … Continue reading →

Asteroid Discoveries This stunning video from Scott Manley shows an overhead of the Solar System, and adds each asteroid as they’re discovered.  From the creator: View of the solar system showing the locations of all the asteroids starting in 1980, as asteroids are discovered they are added to the map and highlighted white so you can pick out the new ones. The final colour of an asteroids indicates how closely it comes to the inner solar system. Earth Crossers are … Continue reading →