Free Patrick Moore Autobiography

Just to let you all know I managed to find a subscription to BBC Sky at Night Magazine for £18.98 for 6 months, or £38 for 1 year + FREE Patrick Moore Autobiography. The normal cover price of BBC Sky at Night is £4.25, but this offer makes it just £3.16 an issue plus you

Read More →

Waning Gibbous Moon

This is an image of the moon I took on 31st August 2007. I took this through my telescope on my Canon 400D by the prime focus method, which is adding the camera directly to the telescope and I did not use any extra eyepieces, just the natural magnification of the telescope.

Cygnus and Lyra Asterisms

For the first night out in a long time, it must be about three weeks since the perseid meteor shower I managed to have a clear night, and get some photos. It’s still really good fun to learn the various asterisms, and I try to find and learn new ones every time I go out.

Read More →

UK to Track Asteroid Threat

The 300m-wide (984ft) rock, known as Apophis, will fly past Earth in April 2029 at a distance that is closer than many communications satellites. The British design calls for a small, remote-sensing spacecraft, dubbed Apex, which could rendezvous with Apophis in January 2014. It would spend three years tracking the rock, sending data back to

Read More →

Attaching RA Motor Drive to MON1 Mount

After owning my Bresser Messier 130N for around two months I decided to invest in an RA Motor Drive for it. This particular RA Drive fits just the 130N and R90 telescope models. Other models of telescope in the Messier range can use another drive system which operates both the RA and Dec Axis. I

Read More →

Discovering the Solar System Book Review

This is the second edition of Discovering the Solar System (ISBN 0470018313) and is said to be essential reading for all undergraduate students for whom astronomy or planetary science are components of their degrees, but also suitable for people with a keen interest in astronomy. A small amount of scientific knowledge is assumed in addition

Read More →

Google Sky Review

Last night I managed to download the newly update version of Google Earth which includes the new Google Sky add in. I had the previous version of Google Earth installed on my laptop, and the upgrade was seamlessly easy. Google Earth starts with the image of the Earth and you the have to click on

Read More →

BBC iPlayer Beta Review

I know this is not completely related to Astronomy, but it is sort of when I am trying to watch The Cosmos which I missed on TV the other day. After waiting for 6 hours for an email saying I could try the BBC iPlayer, I then logged in and tried to download The Cosmos,

Read More →

Missed The Cosmos Episode 3 – Repeated?

I had set my Windows Vista Media Center to record the whole series, but somehow I turned the computer off whilst it was recording – I think! Anyway I don’t seem to have the episode. After looking at the OU website, someone says in the forum that The Cosmos is repeated on the BBC iPlayer

Read More →

Google Sky a replacement for Starry Night?

Google have apparently launched Google Sky, I saw it on BBC Breakfast this morning when they spoke to Sir Patrick Moore about it. The funny thing is I did not know the name of the product this morning so I searched in Google for many possible names including Google Galaxy, Google Solar System and others.

Read More →