One of my favourite things to do on a clear night is stargaze. It is one of the most common aspects of our lives, yet never fails to be fascinating.
On any given night, given a good clear sky and a location free of too much light pollution, one can easily find the band of the Milky Way, stretching all the way across the sky, our neighbour galaxy Andromeda (or M31), various meteorites, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus (only around dusk/dawn), and of course the Moon. Occasionally it is even possible to see Mercury, although its postion as nearest planet to the Sun makes it only visible close to Sunrise/Sunset, and succeptible to being drowned out by the light of the Sun.
Observing the planets requires a favourable position in both our and the planets orbit, but a lot of the time at least one planet is visible.

Taking this fascination with the night sky further, one can observe with a telescope (or a good pair of binoculars). This then allows an observer to see even more objects, various star clusters and nebulae are faintly visible, but definately there.
The best thing to do if you get the chance to stargaze with an instrument is to study the Moon. The Lunar surface is riddled with impact craters and vast mountain ranges, many of which are clearly visible, even with a small pair of binoculars. Just scanning over the Lunar surface can make hours of fascinating observation time.
More distant than the moon, the planets offer another fantastic observation opportunity. Venus waxes and wanes as it goes along its orbit, the rings of Saturn are distinguishable, and even the four moons of Jupiter, Galileo’s very own observation, are visible.

Another thing which immensely fascinates me is Astrophotography. For this to be done best, it requires a good digital SLR camera with a long exposure on a nice clear night. I, however, lack this equipment, so am forced into taking pictures of the Moon. Still, some very good pictures can still be taken, showing the detail on the surface of the Moon.

Here’s a picture I took of the Moon with my telescope and a standard digital camera.

For better pictures, head over to Astronomy Picture of the Day.

It’s that time of year again. The Perseids reach their peak and everyone goes meteor shower crazy.
I will admit, spotting a meteorite just as it ‘flashes’ is a pretty spectacular event and it never gets old. I was just hanging out of my bedroom window trying to spot a few myself.
Reaching a peak at around 22:20pm (on the 12th August) and then again at around 3:20am, with just over 1 meteor per minute, it’s pretty easy to find a few just by staring at the constellation Perseus.
I find it pretty fascinating where they come from.

Everyone has heard of comets, right?
Well, comets orbit the Sun, and in their wake they leave a trail of ice and rock. As Earth continues on its own orbit, it intercepts some of these trails at certain points of the year. The meteorite trails you see in the sky are formed when the icy part of the trail melts and the rocks burn up as they enter the atmosphere.
Now, the Perseids shower originates from the debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle. Not a very well known comet, but nevertheless it has a funny name…

A more famous comet associated with a popular meteor shower is Halley’s comet. This gives rise to the Orionid meteor shower, so called because the meteors radiate from the constellation Orion. This shower occurs around mid October, and is a bit dimmer than the Perseid shower, but is so much cooler because it’s Halley’s comet.
Even better than that, however, are the Taurids.
Caused by a lesser known comet, comet Encke, they also produce a relatively dim shower. However it occurs close to Hallowe’en, which earns it some cool points. The debris stream of the comet has also been disrupted by the gravity of larger planets, like Jupiter, into two distinct streams, which can be seen as the Northern Taurids and Southern Taurids.
Even bettter than that, though, is the possible claim the Taurids can make.
They may be the cause of the Star of Bethlehem.
Now, a quick disclaimer. This doesn’t have to assume that the Christian religion is correct, or that a ‘God’ even exists. Just that Jesus Christ was born around the time we all know…

With that out of the way, the Taurids have a periodicity. This means that it has a peak in activity roughly every 3000 years. Astronomers have estimated that the next peak in activity will occur around 3000AD. Which makes the previous peak around 0AD. Jesus’ Birthday.
This is a kind of nice thought, and it has Astronomical credability, although a more likely scenario would be the triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that also occured at that time. That event can also be placed at that time with a bit more accuracy.
The conjunction of two planets means that they ‘overlap’ each other on the sky. Now, they may not exactly overlap, and the light from the planets will add together to make a particularly bright point of light. If this happened around that time, it would have definately seemed like a ‘divine message’, it’s not everyday that you see a bright light appear in the sky three times in a row…

But then, this is all moot as we then have to assume that three ‘wise’ men would follow a strange bright star on a whim and that it would lead them to a newborn child in a barn…

Make of the mythology what you will, but the astronomy stands up