Recent Updates

Ok. Let's get back in business tonight. Well, to begin with, I must once again apologise for not blogging this last week ladies and Gentlemen, but sue to the rioting that has occurred in Manchester and the nearby towns, as well as London, it has just been too manic to be able to sit down and write a blog about anything other than the sheer panic that these sporadic outbursts of violence has caused.

So, anyway, let's get up to date with recent developments, all of which shall be further explained in their own individual blog posts as soon as I am able to write them up. So, first order of business is one that occurred last weekend. Due to solar flares and geomagnetic storms, the Northern Lights were visible as far south in the UK as Birmingham (for those of you unfamiliar with the geography of the UK, Birmingham is in the Midlands of England). But, defeated by cloud cover once again (as with the lunar eclipse) your friendly StudentAstro was unable to see the Lights. Which is very sad as it is a lifes ambition of mine to see them. Now, theoretically you should get this oppotunity to see them over the more southern regions of the Northern hemisphere every ten years, as I will explain in further blogs, but the truth is that solar storms of sufficient size rarely occur in the direction of the Earth. Why the Northern lights occur, and why we should see them more every ten years will be explained in a future post.

Right, more news. Big news. NASAs is believed to have discovered liquid salt water on the surface of Mars. Now, this is a truly massive piece of news in the world of astrophysics, cosmology, astronomy and the whole scientific world in general, because it greatly effects the Fermi Paradox, and therefore the odds of finding extra-terrestrial life forms elsewhere in the Universe, and even within our own solar system!! But, again, more about this in an upcoming post.

Ok, so, other news, which is more in line with upcoming events more than current news. We are due a fly-past from 2 comets, and an asteroid over the next few months and years. An asteroid is due to fly past the Earth at its closest proximity to the Earth in the entire of its orbit. But it is nowhere near close enough for mass death and destrustion, so please don't panic!!! And the two comets are Elenin and Gerradd. Gerradd will be visible in the sky until 2013. But once again, more will be coming on this is future blogs, along with where the comets will be visible, how to spot them and even a few pictures.

Hope everyone is safe, well and continuing to enjoy reading this blog. Please comment with any questions that you may have.

Happy Stargazing folks!!!

apologies and Thanks

I would like to apologise for my absence from the internet this past couple of months, but I have been suffering from technical difficulties. However, I shall soon be able to resume your normal service of blogs about Space, Astronomy, the Universe and anything else that you might find interesting.
Next, I would like to thank you, dear readers for being patient with me, and it seems, for continuing to show your support for this blog by continuing to follow it.
In my next entries I shall try to write about things that will be much more interesting for all of you to read.
If you have any requests or comments, please feel free to comment, or to drop me a line on Twitter. My username is @Waltonluke

Happy Stargazing

Galaxies and other objects in the fantastic Lunar Eclipse image

I did say that I would point out a few of the galaxies and other objects visible in this amazing picture of the Lunar eclipse that took place on the 15th of June 2011 and here it is:

·         M17 is the Swan Nebula, which is a star formation region of gas and dust, about 5000 light years away from the earth.

·         M18 is an open star cluster in the constellation of Sagittarius, is approximately 32 million years old, and is 4,900 light years away.

·         M20 is known as the Trifid Nebula, and is also a star forming region, approximately 7600 light years away from the Earth, and is a favourite amongst amateur astronomers to try to spot, due to its bright colouring.

·         M21 is another open cluster of stars, with about 57 small, dim stars to be found within it, due to its young age, as it is only 4.6 million years old.

·         M22 is a globular cluster (meaning that all the stars in it orbit a galactic centre point, like a super massive black hole, or a very massive star), located some 10600 light years away from the earth.

·         M23 is another open cluster, approximately 2,150 light-years away from Earth

·         M25 is an open cluster, with a diameter of 19 light years, and is 2000 light years away from our planet.

·         M8, more commonly known as the Lagoon Nebula, has an area of 5500 light years, and is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light years from the Earth.

·         M6, or the Butterfly cluster, is an open cluster in the constellation of Scorpius, compromised of numerous hot blue stars and the K-type orange star BM Scorpii, and is 1600 light years away from the Earth

Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere

For anyone living in, or travelling to the Southern Hemisphere, these are the constellations that you can expect to see. Happy stargazing!!

A Solstice Guide

Ok, today, being the 21st of June, is the summer Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Winter solstice in the Southern, and well, I thought that a brief explanation of what they are, and why they occur might be in order, as it seems to be an event that is almost taken for granted during the modern era.

Well, as to why it occurs, this is also due to the reason that seasons occur, and equinoxes happen as part of this. They all occur because the Earth is tilted upon its axis by between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees. This tilt, whilst being a relatively small angle has the ability to ensure that the two hemispheres of the Earth (northern and southern) have different exposure to the sun at all times during the year, causing the natural seasons to occur.

It also means that, on certain days in the year sunrise and sunset occur roughly 12 hours apart, these being called equiluxes, and these are usually mistaken for exquinoxes. Rather, an equinox is when the sun is aligned with the Earths equator, meaning that the axis is tilted neither away nor towards the sun. Hence the equinoxes occur in spring and autumn.

Right, so let us now return to Solstices, as this is our main topic today. The sun appears to be at its most northern and southernmost points in the sky, depending on which hemisphere you are in (if you are in the northern hemisphere, when the sun is at its most northern point, this is the summer solstice, and is the winter solstice for the southern hemisphere. And when the sun is at its most southern position, it is the winter solstice for the northern hemisphere, and the summer solstice for those living south of the equator.) It’s is called a solstice, from the Latin meaning "sun to stand still", due to the apparent movement of the sun in the sky stopping, before reversing direction.

It occurs because of the tilt of the earth’s axis, which means that each hemisphere is either facing away or towards the sun, and these solstices happen when the process reaches its extremes, so when the northern hemisphere is facing the sun at its maximum exposure, this is a summer solstice for the northern hemisphere, and a winter one for the southern hemisphere, and vice versa.

I hope that this has cleared up any existing confusion about solstices, equinoxes and equiluxes.

Just an Amazing Picture.

This is a Picture of the lunar eclipse taken in Iraq, behind it you can see the milky wayand other galaxies, along with other universal objects. I shall label them, and post the picture again soon, with explanations of the objects visible... Its just a beautiful image anyway =)

Constellations of the Northern Hemisphere

It struck me that people may not be able to recognise some of the constellations that make up the night sky, so I've uploaded this handy star map of the northern hemisphere, which should assist you, dear reader, in finding your way around the night sky.