It’s Carnival time again..!

If you’re interested in space and astronomy – and you must be, or you wouldn’t be reading this! – then you should check out the “Carnival of Space” every week. It’s kind of a round-up of blog posts submitted by bloggers, and allows you to catch up on the news stories of the past week [...]

Things that are Easier To See Than Comet Lulin

Another No-Show night for Cumbrian Lulin-spotters. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve more chance of seeing the following than I have of catching a good look at Comet Lulin… The Tooth Fairy Father Christmas Steven Segal’s forhead moving Eddie Murphy / Jim Carey not playing the same old character in a movie Leprachauns A [...]

Comet Lulin – The One That Got Away?

Take even a quick look at a handful of amateur astronomy websites and blogs and you’ll learn that Comet Lulin, with its striking green colour and exotically-detailed twin tails - is dazzling observers all around the world. All over the world except in the UK that is… I’m starting to think of Lulin as “the one [...]

The MERs belong to Mars now…

*** WELCOME TO “CARNIVAL OF SPACE #92 READERS!” *** My love of the twin Mars Exploration Rovers is well known, both online and offline. There can be few people reading this blog, or who know me through my Outreach talks and astronomical activities, who would disagree with Doug Ellison’s recent Tweet that said “Stu loves [...]

Looking for Lulin…

I’m beginning to think I have had my one and only look at Comet Lulin. For the past 5 days the UK has been covered in a smothering, impenetrable blanket of cloud, and Comet Lulin – which is, of course, leaving observers all over the rest of the world drooling – is hidden above it. [...]

Venus Watch report

One word, really: NOTHING! Of COURSE we saw nothing, come on. After a completely overcast yucky day, half an hour before we were due to start looking at Venus the sky started to clear and I wasn’t the only member of the Eddington Astronomical Society who thought “Yeah, we’ll be ok!”… but at 6pm when [...]

Carnival time again…

This weeks’ Carnival of Space is the 91st, and it’s being held over at NEXT BIG FUTURE. So, if you want to catch up on the best of the week’s space blogging, go take a look!

Comet Lulin spotted finally!

I just caught my first glimpse of the elusive Comet Lulin! Well, it’s been elusive from Kendal because of a week of cloudy nights, but many people have seen it elsewhere. But tonight it was my turn – I saw it through my trusty pair of 10×50 binocs whilst standing in the middle of Abbot [...]

Hello Hellas…!

The latest batch of images released by the team behind the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter includes a picture of layered outcrops on the floor of a crater in the northern part of the huge Hellas Basin. I found a beautiful section of the image that deserved… well, a little extra attention, so [...]

Back To Jupiter…!

NASA has chosen its next “flagship” (translation: mega-expensive and complicated) mission, and it has decided to go with a big mission to Jupiter and its moons called “The Europa Jupiter System Mission” , which it will run in partnership with the European Space Agency. (I know what you’re thinking, “That’s a rubbish name for a [...]