Something unusual is going on in our night skies at the moment, and it's wonderful. And it's a great way to start what will hopefully be a great year for astronomy, and my tenth year of doing astronomy. For the next few weeks, all of the planets except Mercury will be in the sky together … Continue reading I Saw Four Planets In The Sky At The Same Time
Category: astronomy
Will We Find Life On Europa, And If So What Happens Next?
In a few hours, weather permitting, a rocket will launch, which will send the Europa Clipper to the Outer Solar system. It's always a bit surreal to me when launches are delayed due to bad weather, not because bad weather isn't a real threat, it is, but it's the fact that, in a very short … Continue reading Will We Find Life On Europa, And If So What Happens Next?
Distance
Something that has always given me a strong sense of calm, and often a strong sense of wonder, is seeing something that is very far away. Being on top of a hill, or a mountain, and seeing a far off village, or town, or other mountain, that might take as much as a day or … Continue reading Distance
Seeing An Asteroid For the First Time
The Asteroid Vesta, For Some Reason It Looks Like A Satellite, Astronomy Sketching Can Be Weird Sometimes I’ve seen many types of astronomical objects over the years, galaxies, open clusters, globular clusters, and a small few nebula. I’ve seen craters on the moon with hills inside them. I’ve seen the surface of Mars. I’ve seen … Continue reading Seeing An Asteroid For the First Time
My Fears And Hopes For 2024
2023 was a strange beast of a year. It marks some of the best experiences of my life, but also, if not the worst experiences, at least some very bad ones. So I don’t know what this post will be like, I’m thinking it might lie somewhere between coherent and incoherent, but here goes. Cycling … Continue reading My Fears And Hopes For 2024
The Andromeda Galaxy, We Only Have 4 Billion Years To Get Out Of The Way
16th November 2023. Look at it there threatening to kill our very distant descendants, BOOOOO!!! So, it looks like your very, very distant descendants are in for a very, very bad time. Because the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way Galaxy are going to collide in 4 billion years time. So unless they have the … Continue reading The Andromeda Galaxy, We Only Have 4 Billion Years To Get Out Of The Way
Uranus, The Planet That’s At A Mad Angle
21st January 2021, My Only Sketch Of Uranus I only saw Uranus and sketched it once with my telescope, it’s far further out than Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which you can just spot with the naked eye first and then train the telescope on it. But I find with Uranus there’s a bit of … Continue reading Uranus, The Planet That’s At A Mad Angle
Bode’s Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy, Two For The Price Of One
9th July 2018 These two galaxies had a level of courtesy rarely seen these days in that they are very close together, so you can see both of them at the same time through a telescope. I remember in 2015, the year I bought my first telescope, seeing my first ever galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy. … Continue reading Bode’s Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy, Two For The Price Of One
My Favourite Hellscape
Not Safe For Humans Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a furious deathworld of extremely deathy death! So, I’ve explained that this sketch is associated with extreme hellishness, so what do you think it is? It’s the planet Venus. I realized Venus was out last night, and also it’s … Continue reading My Favourite Hellscape
Saturn, the Second Best Planet In the Solar System
I remember, and I don’t believe I’ll ever forget it, my first time seeing Saturn through a telescope. There was a small light in the sky, and I wasn’t sure what it was but I thought I’d point my telescope at it, maybe it was Saturn. I looked at the light, and at first I … Continue reading Saturn, the Second Best Planet In the Solar System
Ponderings Of An Autist 