Looking for a nice link to send someone explaining the concept of the Solstice, I came across this excellent series of images from the Wikipedia article on the subject. They show a small island at differing latitudes along with the track of the Sun during both the Summer and Winter solstices.
The Sun passes through thirteen constellations on its path through the sky (called the ecliptic). In fact there are as many as 21 astrological constellations all together. What does it mean if Uranus is in Scutum? Sounds painful.
August 1st 2008 will see a solar eclipse visible across much of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and some portions of North America. The eclipse is often being called the 2008 Olympic Eclipse because it comes just days before the commencement of the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Universe Today is reporting what I have seen other sites reporting on over the past few days: a lack of sunspots. It seems there is “a small worry” that something untoward may be afoot with the current lack of magnetic activity on the Sun two years after Solar minimum.
This one could just be filed under ‘this is really cool’. Also, I can’t believe it has passed me by my entire life. Have you ever heard of a solar furnace? It’s a James- Bond-esque creation which focusses light from the sun on a massive scale to heat a very small area to a very [...]
Today is February 29th, the ‘extra’ day we are given every four years to bring the calendar back into sync with the actual time it takes the Earth to go around the Sun. Leap years are actually much more complicated than most people think with exceptions every 100 years, but not every 400 years. Why? [...]
In my previous post, detailing tonight’s Lunar Eclipse (the last until December 2010), I included a YouTube video I made showing what you might expect to see if it is clear. Well included here is the same video plus two more showing the same event from the perspective of the Moon and the Sun.
[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WlkXro8qP00[/youtube]
The [...]
We had a talk yesterday from Dr. Fabio Favata titled “Space Astronomy in ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan”. Cosmic Vision is the European Space Agency’s peculiar name for its plan over the next decade and a bit. The talk was very good, and covered almost the whole breadth of ESA’s big activities that are either [...]
This Wednesday there will be a total eclipse of the Moon. Totality will last for 51 minutes and will be visible throughout Europe, North America, the Pacific region and Northern Africa. The show kicks off at 00:35 GMT when the Earth’s penumbra touches the limb of the Moon. Totality occurs at 03:26 GMT. This will [...]
Copyright © 2010 Robert J. Simpson. Twitter @orbitingfrog
