Now that we are in the month of March, for most of us in the northern hemisphere the worst of the winter is over, and it is only a couple of weeks until 21 March, the first day of spring. 21 March is an important date for other reasons, too. For one thing, it is used as the basis for the… Continue reading The first day of spring
Tag: Astronomy
Astronomy Items
The Discovery of Gravitational waves
Originally posted 2016. Revised March 2026. Gravitational waves were predicted by Albert Einstein back in 1916, and were finally detected one hundred years later in Febuary 2016 after decades of unsuccessful searching. In an announcement on 11 February at a Washington DC press conference David Reitze, the executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, said:[1] “Ladies and gentlemen,… Continue reading The Discovery of Gravitational waves
Terraforming Venus
Updated December 2025 In a previous post I have discussed living on Venus in floating colonies. I'll now discuss terraforming. This the process of changing the global environment of a planet in such a way as to make it suitable for human habitation. Because it is so far beyond our current technological capabilities, most articles about… Continue reading Terraforming Venus
Transit of Venus
On 6 June 2012, a transit of Venus occurred. This rare astronomical event, when Venus passes directly in front of the Sun, and appears as a large black dot on its surface slowly moving from one side to the other in about 3 hours, has only happened eight times since the invention of the telescope (ref 1). This post… Continue reading Transit of Venus
Happy new year 2016
Happy new year to all my readers and followers. I hope you have had a good festive break. My and wife and I went on a cruise to the Canary Islands, Lisbon and Madeira over Christmas to get away from the cold and damp North West of England. During our holiday I was hoping to… Continue reading Happy new year 2016
Explaining Science 