For the Lunar Eclipse of September 2025, Bill used a remote facility that Sidereal Trading had installed at a club in Victoria to get a sequence of images. It didn’t go quite to plan, but he got the shots anyway.
Mars opposition is in mid-January next year. But before that happens, Mars is going to enter retrograde motion, where it stops being overtaken by the background stars and starts overtaking them back. Retrograde motion stumped the ancient astronomers and had a hand in stimulating the rise of modern scientific thought.
Inspired by a video of an eclipse of Phobos, Bill wondered about the definitions of moons, planets and asteroids. Why are potato shapes important, and how did Phobos stop being one and start being another?
How do we tell the time on the Moon? This will be an important issue once humans establish a long-term presence there. We list a few of the problems with time, and how they’ll probably agree on a single Coordinated Lunar Time.
T Corona Borealis is expected explode in a cosmic event called a nova in the near future. However, it hasn’t happened yet. Now the sun is approaching and is threatening to drown out the star before it goes off. We might have to wait until January to see what happens.
A dim star in Corona Borealis, currently invisible to the naked eye, is about to explode in what’s known as a nova. This particular star does it every 80 years or so, and it’s due around now, and showing signs of activity. We got a “before” photo.
ZWO SeeStar smart telescopes have become very popular. Their ability to be run in equatorial mode has improved their abilities considerably but putting them in EQ mode is difficult. We put together a small kit of parts you will need to do it without encountering problems.
Macrophotography with a WeMacro Rail provides the depth of focus normal macro lenses can’t achieve. But managing lighting is still a difficult process, especially in such a cramped area. This article shows the effect of a couple of gadgets that help you see while posing your subject and diffuse harsh lighting during the exposure run.
Eclipses have been seen as an omen by nearly every civilization. Being able accurately predict an eclipse would give a leader immense persuasive power. Ancient astrologers noticed that solar eclipses followed a pattern. Get it right and you’re in for a promotion. Get it wrong and things might not be so good.