Astronomy Items
Happy New Year to my readers and followers and I hope you have successful 2023. Although for most us the Christmas and New year festivities are over, for followers of the Orthodox form of Christianity, Christmas is yet to come, as they don't celebrate their Christmas until January 7. The reasons for celebrating Christmas 13… Continue reading Christmas Day January 7th?
With all the events going on in the world it passed almost unnoticed that a decision was made recently to abolish the leap second. The resolution was made on 18 November 2022 during a meeting held in Paris held by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. What is a leap second? The length of… Continue reading No more leap seconds
I was saddened to find out about the recent death, at the age of 92, of Frank Drake, one of the pioneers of SETI. One of the things he is most famous for is the equation bearing his name which estimates the number of intelligent civilisations in our galaxy, the Drake equation. As a tribute… Continue reading Frank Drake and the Drake equation
Updated May 2026 Since the original post back in 2022 there has been an explosion of fake and inaccurate content on social media this is discussed in my post: Why Social Media Fails at Accurate Astronomy Content ---- A friend of mine, the keen amateur astronomer Colin Henshaw, brought the following photograph to my attention. The… Continue reading Debunking Fake Astronomy Photos on Social Media
This year, the June solstice will fall on 21 June. As most people know, In the northern hemisphere, it is the day of the year when there is the most daylight and when the Sun is at its highest in the midday sky. The origin of the word solstice is from two Latin words:  sol, which… Continue reading June 21 2022 – the solstice
Explaining Science 