The night of Monday 12/13 August will be the peak of the Perseids, one of the most famous prolific meteor showers Meteors (also known as shooting stars) are bright streaks of light caused by small lumps of rock or metal called meteoroids hitting the Earth's atmosphere at a very high speed (in the case of the… Continue reading 12-13 August 2019 – the Perseids
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Apollo 11 lunar landing
20 July 2019 is the fiftieth anniversary of the first manned landing on the Moon. Mission Insignia of Apollo 11- Image from NASA On 21 May 1961 President John F Kennedy made the following address to the United States Congress: 'I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade… Continue reading Apollo 11 lunar landing
Summer twilight
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere we are at the time of year when there is the most daylight. In this post I’ll talk about the long summer evenings: not only does the Sun set later at this time of year but the amount of twilight, when the Sun has set but it… Continue reading Summer twilight
Paperback and e-book from The Science Geek on Venus
I have now produced a paperback version of my book on Venus, the planet closest to the Earth in distance, size and internal composition, and the third brightest natural object in our sky after the Sun and the Moon. Topics include how Venus appears from Earth and the fact that Venus’s phases can only be… Continue reading Paperback and e-book from The Science Geek on Venus
Stellar aberration
This post is a bit more technical than usual and discusses stellar aberration, the apparent movement of stars as a result of the motion of the Earth. It is an interesting case of the application of the scientific method. Observations were made to test a scientific theory, but unexpected results were found, which in turn… Continue reading Stellar aberration
