I thought it would be interesting to produce a short list of popular science books, which I’ve not read before, which would be worth reading. I have done some research on Amazon, looking for five books which: looked appealing, were well written, were published in the last 15 years, were aimed at the general public… Continue reading Five Popular Science Books by Real Scientists
Updated 7 December 2025 The ashen light is a faint glow, which many people claim to have seen on the night side of Venus. The Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli (1598 -1671) first reported it back in 1643, 33 years after Galileo had made the first observations of Venus with a telescope and discovered the planet… Continue reading The Mystery of the Ashen Light of Venus
Revised 18 December 2025 We're all familiar with specifying a location by its latitude and longitude, but I thought it would be interesting to write a post about latitude and longitude on other bodies in the Solar System. Locations on the surface of the Moon are given a latitude and longitude just like they are… Continue reading Latitude and Longitude on the Moon and the Planets
I saw this article on the BBC News website. about people watching the Sun rise on the June solstice at Ness Point (lat 52.481 oN, long 1.763 oE), which is the UK’s most easterly location. Source Dozens watch sunrise at UK's most easterly point - BBC News It is impressive that 200 people got up… Continue reading The June Solstice at Ness Point
The Oort cloud is theorised to be a vast cloud of icy bodies beyond the boundary of the Solar System. It was proposed by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort back in 1950. Interestingly, the Estonian astronomer Ernst Opik had published a very similar idea in1931. However, Opik’s earlier work was largely ignored and today we… Continue reading The Oort Cloud
Explaining Science 