“Colouring the Night Sky” Talk by Alan Aylward

Posted on: October 18, 2008 /
Categories: Cambridge Astronomy Association

Tonight’s talk at the Cambridge Astronomy Assocation was by Alan Aylward who was telling us everything we needed to know about aurorae. Aurora can actually be seen from space, and some images demonstrated this, with views from the NASA shuttle. Aurora were actually treated with fear in historical times. Early research showed that aurorae actually

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Impact Day 2008

Posted on: October 13, 2008 /
Categories: Cambridge Astronomy Association

On Sunday I visited the Cambridge Astronomy Association for the Impact Day 2008, which was a free day of lectures about comets and meteorites. As well as a full day of lectures there were also a number of stalls selling astronomy books, astronomy hardware and of course a number of meteorites. I was amazed to see

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Philips SPC1300 Webcam for Astronomy?

Posted on: October 11, 2008 /
Categories: Equipment Reviews

I noticed today that Philips have released a new range of webcams, and there are a couple of Pro models. The main one to look at is the SPC1300 or SPC1330 as it’s called on the Philips web site. The SPC1300 is said to be a 2 Megapixel webcam, unlike the SPC900 which is a

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Canon 450D Digital SLR Camera Review

Posted on: October 3, 2008 /
Categories: Equipment Reviews

My first DSLR purchase was a Canon 400D, which I purchased in July 2007, so about 14 months ago. A great camera and the only reason I bought it was to use it for astronomy. But once I heard about the new 450D being released, I thought why not upgrade? Well I left it a

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New Planet Orbiting another Sun

Posted on: September 17, 2008 /
Categories: Astronomy News

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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Digital Astrophotography Book Review

Posted on: September 3, 2008 /
Categories: Astronomy Books

Digital Astrophotography is a very clear, up to date and concise book on how to accomplish digital astrophotography.  The book details four main ways to take images, either via a digital compact camera, a webcam, with an SLR/DSLR or via a CCD camera. It was refreshing to read a book which was up to date

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Rainbow Spotting

Posted on: August 23, 2008 /
Categories: General

During heavy rainfall and Sun at the same time on Friday 22nd August 2008, at around 6pm, I looked around the sky for a rainbow, and there it was at the back of my house, with more bands of colour than I can remember ever seeing. “A supernumerary rainbow is an infrequent phenomenon, consisting of

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National Space Centre Visit

Posted on: August 20, 2008 /
Categories: General

My family and I visited the National Space Centre at Leicester in August 2008. I decided to go once I found the venue on the Tesco Clubcard site, so if you are a Tesco customer, then I recommend trading in some of your Clubcard points and save some money on entrance (if the Space Centre

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The Magnetic Sun

Posted on: August 16, 2008 /
Categories: Cambridge Astronomy Association

“The Magnetic Sun.” Dr Alice Courvoisier was the title of the August 2008 Cambridge Astronomy Association talk.  A diagram of the sun explained each named part of the Sun including the photosphere, chromosphere, filament, convective zone, radiative zone and prominence. It was also explained to us that the solar material in the Sun is a

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