Tag Archives: Moon

Podcast #8: Venus, KELT-11b and Blood Moon Pregnancies

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Welcome to the 8th episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast!  This week, Cathrine continues her series on The Planets with the hottest world in our Solar System: Venus.  Allen then reports on the discovery, by a telescope at SAAO’s facility in Sutherland, of KELT-11b, an unusually inflated exoplanet.  And finally we look at what is apparently a common question in parts of the world: Is it safe to watch a Lunar Eclipse, while pregnant? This is Cathrine’s second appearance in … Continue reading →

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Picking fights with a flat-earther

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They tell us we’re living in a post-truth world, whatever that’s supposed to mean.  All I know is that there’s a growing number of people who look at the vast store of human knowledge, and reject it.  People who hear experts speak on science, politics, medicine, and say “Nope! I saw a YouTube about this, and I know better!”.  And there’s no starker demonstration of this than the modern flat-earther. How does this happen? What makes sane adults, with an education … Continue reading →

African Solar Eclipse of 2016

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There is an enormous amount of publicity being built up for the Great American Eclipse next year, but there’s another eclipse coming up much sooner, and closer to home (for me, at least): The Great African Solar Eclipse of 2016! Sure, it’s only an annular eclipse and I won’t be anywhere near the path of totality (yes I know that strictly speaking, annular eclipses don’t ever reach totality. But you know what I mean!), but it’s tomorrow so you don’t … Continue reading →

Will Mars look as big as the Moon in August?

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Dear Urban Astronomer   I recently received this presentation in an email.  Apparently, Mars will look as big as the Moon on 27 August, because it will be closer to us than ever before in recorded history and will look as big as the Moon in the sky.  Is this true? I was tempted to simply dismiss this as a joke.  After all, it’s not like anybody still falls for this, right?  Surely people remember seeing the same hoax this time … Continue reading →

Why can’t you see any stars on the moon?

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Ah, but you can if you wait till night time!  You can’ t see any stars in photographs taken from the Apollo missions because they were all taken in broad daylight.  As any photographer will tell you, a camera can only cope with a narrow range of brightnesses, so that the aperture setting and shutter speed are very important if a photograph is not to be over- or under-exposed for given lighting conditions.  In this age of automatic point-and-click digital … Continue reading →