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.
Citizen Science
What is a moon, and can it be an asteroid?
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?
What’s the time on the Moon?
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.
About that Nova in Corona Borealis…
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 star in Corona Borealis is about to go WOOF!!
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.
Can citizen scientists help with planetary defence?
Asteroids, for the most part, are lonely rocks orbiting quietly in the solar system. They orbit the Sun in ellipses, meaning that when measured from the Sun, sometimes they’re nearer…
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How to attach your phone to a telescope using a saxon ScopePix
Having a telescope is awesome. You can look at all manner of things astronomical and wonder. For many people, though, just seeing the Moon isn’t enough. To quote my millennial daughter, “if there aren’t photos, it didn’t happen”. So how do you get a photo through a telescope (without breaking the budget)? Everybody has a…
Sky-Watcher HAC150 – a budget deep-sky fast astrograph
A quick look at the new Sky-Watcher Honders Advanced Catadioptric Astrograph, a 125mm f/2 catadioptric “camera-only” telescope. Is this baby RASA the new grab-n-go sensation?
Using Lunt Telescopes to look at the Sun
With the Australian Solar eclipse coming in 2028, it’s time to get familiar with solar telescopes. With Lunt telescopes you can see the surface of the Sun using white light, or Hydrogen alpha and Calcium-K filters. These all show different aspects of what’s happening there. If you want to photograph it as well, there are cameras for that too.