Astronaut Loses Tool Bag on Space Station

A spacewalking astronaut accidentally let go of her tool bag after a grease gun inside it exploded, and helplessly watched as it floated away with everything inside. It was one of the largest items ever to be lost by a spacewalker, and occurred during an unprecedented attempt to clean and lube a gummed-up joint on

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AstroBlast Day 2008

On Sunday I travelled to Bedford for my first ever Astroblast. I got to Bedford School just in time to attend Nik Szymanek’s workshop talk on the basics of CCD imaging. I have attended a couple of Nik’s talks and at last this time he went a little further into how he gets his results, by

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New Planet Orbiting another Sun

Astronomers have captured what is believed to be the first image of a planet orbiting another Sun. A dramatic photograph shows the star, 500 light years away, as a blazing fireball. At the top left of the picture is an orange speck that scientists strongly suspect is a giant planet. Astronomers have calculated that the

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Water Widespread on Mars

An article in Nature says that wet conditions probably persisted for a long time on the Red Planet. Researchers from NASA found evidence of vast lakes, flowing rivers, and deltas on early Mars, all of which were potential habitats for life. The data comes from the NASA spacecraft on Mars. But surely we all expected

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Space Junk in Earths Orbit

I was amazed today to see these images on the internet depicting how many pieces of space junk or should I say satellites there are in Earths orbit. This image shows a view of the Earth from over the North Pole. Apparently the number of objects orbiting the planet is increasing by two hundred per

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New Young Astronomer Born

Not posted for a while as last Friday my first son was born at 9.30pm on Friday 4th April weighing in at 7lbs. Mother and baby boy came home from the hospital on Tuesday. Although he sleeps most of the time, I’m sure his eyes are getting ready for viewing the nights sky.

Titan Oceans and Mars Salt Deposits

Saturn’s moon Titan may have a deep, hidden ocean according to an article in the journal Science. Radar images from the Cassini-Huygens mission reinforce predictions that a reservoir of liquid water exists beneath the thick crust of ice. If confirmed then it could mean that Titan would have two of the key components for life,

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My Lunar Eclipse Image on ITV Anglia News

It was good to hear back from ITV Anglia News that they wanted to use my lunar eclipse image in the evening news section.  It was actually used at the beginning of the weather report. I recorded the whole news program and have now trimmed the video and uploaded it to YouTube, you can watch the video

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Lunar Eclipse Photo on Sky News

Sky News also chose to show the image of the lunar eclipse I took on its website, which can be viewed in full size by clicking on the image on the left. I think I may submit more astronomy images in the future, certainly if it’s this easy to get them published along with everyone

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Lunar Eclipse Photo on BBC Site

I sent my eclipse photo to the BBC this morning after writing my post, and they have included it on the BBC web site. Their first question was, “Did I take it?” – classic! The BBC web page can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail below, or it can be viewed here, with others: https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7256406.stm