This is how low Mercury grazes the horizon at the moment. A superb shot of Venus and Mercury from Will Cheung this evening.
If you want to sight Mercury for yourself the best chance is right now in the early evenings just after sunset. Using Venus as a guide, scan the low horizon with binoculars or naked eye. An unobstructed horizon like the one in the picture above is essential.
Clear skies.
This is an amazing composite image of the Crab Nebula supernova remnant. It shows the neutron star at the center, superimposed over the shockwave nebula (whose outline can be observed dimly in a decent telescope).
This is what happens to high mass stars when they run out of fuel. The atmosphere of the star suddenly collapses inward and dramatically rebounds off the compressed neutron core.
Conservation of angular momentum makes the neutron star spin rapidly (a pulsar) and the rest of the star’s atmosphere expands into space releasing huge quantities of energy (a supernova).
This particular supernova was observed and recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 AD as a ‘guest star’, in the constellation Taurus. It remained visible as a naked eye star for over a year before fading.
“Thou lingering star, with less’ning ray,
That lov’st to greet the early morn…”
After last night I’m convinced Rabbie Burns did all his stargazing with a delicious wrap of haggis in hand.
Haggis hand warmers and Clelland’s address from last night’s sellout Dark Sky Burns event. Big thanks to the Abriachan team for the Burn’s supper fare.
Due to inclement skies the astronomy moved indoors I got to talk in some detail about the planet Venus and its harsh environment. A fascinating place that surely deserves more attention in the future, not least for its potential to harbour microbial life in its more clement upper atmosphere.
Why not try looking at Venus through a telescope or a pair of stabalised binoculars? You should be able to make out its phase, just as Galileo did when he first gazed up at it back in 1610.
One of the objects we observed was the star forming nebula in Orion’s sword, imaged here by local aurora hunter and photographer Chris Cogan.
I had a fun astronomy outreach session with pupils and parents from Aldourie Primary near Loch Ness on Friday evening. At 6pm kick off we saw some captivating glimpses of dazzling Venus before it set below the tree line.
Due to initially changeable weather we moved between my indoor presentation and outdoor stargazing, but ended up getting a brilliant spell under the stars mid session.
Despite its relative closeness to Inverness skies are dark enough out here to see the Milky Way very clearly.
Lots of the youngsters (and parents) tried their hand at binocular stargazing for the first time, peering at open star clusters, double stars, the Orion nebula and Andromeda galaxy.
If you’d like to book an outreach session for your school please message me on my facebook site, Highland Astronomy.
The main constellations were visible over the Merkinch nature reserve in the west of Inverness, and even a hint of Milky Way.
We had a great evening at the Merkinch Urban Astronomy gathering tonight. Big thanks to Dr Anthony Luke for delivering a fascinating talk on the chemistry of stars and supernovas. We learnt all about the synthesis of elements and compounds forged in the heart of stars.
Afterwards we were rewarded with clear skies, so I led a group up to the nature reserve for a blustery stargazing session over the Beauly Firth.
Overlooking the water we had lovely views of Orion, the Pleiades and even a hint of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy.
The next event is an Aurora Special on Feb 20th with guest Graham Bradshaw.
An Island Universe – or ‘galaxy’ as we more commonly refer to these vast stellar structures.
I’m looking forward to delivering my guest talk on Island Universes for the Highlands Astronomical Society on Jan 7th. This is a repeat of a talk I presented at the 2019 Inverness Science Festival.
Start time is 7.15pm at the Smithton-Culloden Free Church, Murray Road, Smithton, IV2 7YU. Open to all members of the public and free entry for new visitors.
Please find full event details here.
The Cygnus region of the Milky Way at Abriachan Forest on the Winter Solstice 2019
We had a great Solstice gathering under starry skies up at Abriachan Forest this evening.
A big thanks to author John Burns for presenting a trio of captivating tales around the campfire. John was still under the weather with a bad cold on the night yet soldiered on to deliver two sessions of engaging storytelling.
Best selling author and storyteller John Burns took some of his books along to the evening.
We also enjoyed a mesmerising display of fire dancing from Lesley Brown who kicked off proceedings and provided more entertainment during the changeover. Suzann’s mulled juice and mince pies were also greatly appreciated.
Fire dancing with Lesley Brown
Skies were so good I decided to sideline my talk on the astronomy of ancient architecture, and was instead able to deliver outdoor stargazing all evening long, Highlights included zipping meteors, the Orion constellation, the Andromeda galaxy, numerous star clusters and a bright and vibrant Milky Way overhead.
Star Stories continues in the new year. Look out for the next set of booking links on my Facebook site.
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