Space, Science, Technology
The Iris Nebula is a reflection nebula 1,300 light years away, illuminated by a partially embedded star (SAO 19158) which is 10X the size of our Sun. The region is 6 light years across in total. Iris Nebula / Caldwell 4 You can really see how the light from the central cluster illuminates the dust... Continue Reading →
Deneb-Sadr and (some of) the Milky Way in Cygnus. Taken from Provence, France. Thought I would look back at one of my first attempts at imaging one of my favourite parts of the sky. Sadr is nearly dead centre, and Deneb is up and to the left of it. You can start to see the... Continue Reading →
I got into a conversation recently about how some astronomical photos can totally change your whole perspective of yourself and your place in the Universe. There's several images that come to mind right away - here are my own favourites: 1. The Milky Way (from a very dark location) Seeing the night sky from a... Continue Reading →
Executable papers are a cool idea in research [1]. You take a study, write it up as a paper and bundle together all your code, scripts and analysis in such a way that other people can take the ‘paper’ and run in themselves. This has three main attractive features, as I see it: It provides transparency... Continue Reading →
I've started a page with some links, facts and ideas for teachers, educators and anyone else that wants them. Quite often when I’m visiting schools, I throw lots of URLs around and talk about websites, books, etc that kids and teachers might like. Then I often forget to give them these URLs and tips. So now... Continue Reading →
Just over three years the Zooniverse launched the Milky Way Project (MWP), my first citizen science project. I have been leading the development and science of the MWP ever since. 50,000 volunteers have taken part from all over the world, and they've helped us do real science, including creating astronomy's largest catalogue of infrared bubbles - which... Continue Reading →
Astronomers are sometimes asked to defend public funding of their work. It’s difficult to answer because I really do think that there are lots of things we should do just because they’re interesting and enriching and that science shouldn’t be limited be what is economically beneficial. That said, astronomy is often given an easy ride... Continue Reading →
A new journal begins today, Astronomy and Computing, covering the intersection of astronomy, computer science and information technology. This journal is desperately needed in my view and I wish it every success. The timing is interesting as many people at the intersection of these research areas are skeptical of old-style journals and the current state... Continue Reading →
The periodic mention of a 'supermoon' in the news cycle is starting to annoy me. A supermoon is simply not that much bigger than any other Moon! It's apparently just perceptible but by no means would you call it 'super'. Annoyingly though, observation of the so-called supermoon is wrapped up in another effect: the Moon Illusion. This means that... Continue Reading →
There's a cool paper on arXiv today in which an intrepid band of astronomers (I assume they were/are intrepid) search for exoplanets around the stars in the Pleiades using Subaru. Spoiler alert: they don't find any! However, it's an interesting look at how to hunt for planets and small/faint objects in general. They find 13 potential... Continue Reading →
Orbiting Frog 