Waving a white flag at the sky…

Okay, that’s it – I give in. Cumbrian weather: you’ve won, you’ve beaten me. Every clear night since the start of June I’ve either stayed up until ridiculous o’clock, or set my alarm to wake me up at ridiculous o’clock, and then trekked up the high hill to Kendal castle, carrying a rucksack full of [...]

“Curiosity” takes her first baby steps…

Yesterday was a huge day for NASA, especially the men and women at JPL in California, because it was the day marked for the next rover to go to Mars, called “Curiosity”, to take her first steps since having her wheels fitted. And the whole thing was shown live, online, for space enthusiasts around the [...]

Christmas comes early…

Strange day at work today. Very strange. I had the most realistic, most vivid daydream. I dreamed that, in my break, I flicked open my phone and, sipping a tea and dunking a Bourbon, went online to catch up on goings on in the world “out there”, beyond the staff room, via Twitter… There were more [...]

The poetry of exploration…

Thanks ESA for using my poem about ROSETTA’s encounter with Lutetia on the mission blog! http://webservices.esa.int/blog/post/5/1248

A tale of Two Explorers…

My good friend AstroO, fellow member of the unmannedspaceflight.com forum, has done it again – turned one of my astropoems into an absolutely beautiful poster… You can find the full size poster here… http://astro0.wordpress.com/two-explorers LOVE it, thanks AstroO!!

Do you suffer from “skymania”?

There are lots of great websites on t’internet that present you with a “quick look” guide to what’s happening ‘out there’ and ‘up there’. Most, it has to be said, are US-based, so it’s great to find one that is very much produced here in Blighty! Go check out Paul Sutherland’s “Sky Mania” site… Skymania [...]

Behold, Lutetia..!

In my previous post I said that yesterday was going to be a “big” day for the European Space Agency. Well, I’m happy to report that it wasn’t just ‘big’, it was triumphant! The close encounter of asteroid “Lutetia” by ESA’s unmanned spaceprobe went, it seems, without a hitch, and the probe took some truly [...]

Zooming in on – and past – Lutetia…

Today is a big day, a VERY big day, for ESA, the European Space Agency. In just a few hours time, its unmanned spaceprobe ROSETTA, which is en-route to an encounter with a comet in 2014, will fly past a 100km wide chunk of rock and metal called “Lutetia” more than 450 million km from the [...]

Some forthcoming events…

Would be good to see some of you at these events… (please click on the images to see full size versions)

Dr Who exhibition at Newcastle’s “Life” Centre

If you’re a regular reader of this blog then you might, possibly, have picked up the subtle signs that I’m a fan of the BBC science fiction series “Dr Who”. I know, I know, I’ve hidden it pretty well, but surely some of you have picked up on it by now… Well, last week, we [...]