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.
Citizen Science
Mars Opposition 2025: what is Retrograde Motion – and what does it mean?
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.
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…
Read MoreWhat is retrograde motion in a planet?
Every month, I present a talk at the Astronomical Society of Victoria on what’s up in the sky. They’re uploaded to YouTube and a few other video sites, and I…
Read MoreImaging galaxies using Hydrogen Alpha
Taking monochrome images of a galaxy in red, green and blue light allows you to make a full colour image, in a similar way to your eyes detecting the three colours and your brain combining them in the colour image. But you add exposures taken through a Hydrogen alpha filter, which draws out emission nebulas in the galaxy.
Catching a Lunar Eclipse using a remote facility
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.