No Astronomy Show on 04.07.18

No Astronomy Show on 04.07.18

There will be no Astronomy Show on Wednesday 4th July, this is because I will be presenting astronomy lectures next week on a cruise ship sailing off Norway. 

As I won't be on air next week I would like to wish everyone in advance a Happy Aphelion Day for Friday  July 6th when the Earth will be at aphelion or furthest point from the Sun this year on its annual orbit around the Sun.


The Astronomy Show normally every Wednesday between 3.00 pm and 5.00 pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5 FM, previous shows can still be heard on the Drystone podcast on www.drystoneradio.com



I will back as usual with the next Astronomy Show on Wednesday 11th July.

The Astronomy Show 27.06.18

The Astronomy Show 27.06.18

On the Astronomy Show today, the first since the summer solstice I will be looking at the new telescope at Greenwich which means that the Royal Observatory is to start studying the sky again.

In the night sky at the moment there are four bright planets in the sky, with Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars all being easily seen as bright dots against a fairly bright sky after 11.00 pm. The Noctilucent Cloud season is in full swing at the moment with reports from all over the UK and the rest of Europe. There is a good chance of seeing some Aurora tonight but, to see it you will have to be in the southern hemisphere where of course the skies are dark as at the moment they are in winter.

The A-Z of constellations reaches the faint southern hemisphere constellation of Phoenix named after the mythical bird, the Messier marathon is a double bill today with the galaxies M65 and M66 which are very close together in Leo. The astronomical news includes details of the Japanese Hayabusa2 probe reaching the asteroid Ryugu and NASA's new plan to destroy asteroids which might threaten the Earth. The astronomical scrapbook includes anniversaries of the Yorkshire eclipse of the Sun in 1927 and the Tunguska comet strike in 1908. This plus the news from the astronomical societies in the north of England.

The Astronomy Show every Wednesday afternoon from 3.00 pm - 5.00 pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5 FM, the show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or you can listen to the show later on the Drystone podcast.

The Astronomy Show 20.06.18

The Astronomy Show 20.06.18

On today's Astronomy Show I will be looking news that astronomers are closer to solving  a 200 year old mystery regarding the eclipsing variable star Epsilon Aurigae, astronomers have until now been unsure just what types are stars form this binary system. I remember monitoring this star way back in the 1980s when at that time no one had any idea of what was actually happening to the star. 

Tomorrow on June 21st we have the summer solstice when we have the shortest night of the year astronomers have been battling with the lack of long periods of darkness for the past few weeks and after tomorrow the length of the nights will slowly begin to increase although this will be a long process and it will be many weeks before this becomes noticeable. However even allowing for the short nights four of the planets are putting on a great display in the late evening sky for us and will continue to do so for the next few weeks. Although we are now in the Noctilucent Cloud season I have yet to see any this year.

The  regular features include the latest astronomy news looking at how the Apollo astronauts caused a slight Lunar warming, why Venus spins so weirdly and  the half mile wide asteroid whizzing past us, but don't worry it will miss us by around 3.7 million miles. The A-Z of constellations reaches the mythical hero Perseus, the Messier marathon reaches M64 the Black Eye galaxy in Coma Berenices. The astronomical scrapbook looks at events this week in history and includes the discovery of Charon the large moon of Pluto. This plus the round up of news from the astronomical societies in the north.

The Astronomy Show every Wednesday afternoon between 3.00 pm and 5.00 pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5 FM, the show can be listened to live on line at www.drystoneradio.com, or you hear the show later on the drystone podcast. 

The Astronomy Show 13.06.18

The Astronomy Show 13.06.18

On the Astronomy Show today I will be looking at the announcement by scientists that they may have found evidence for life on Mars. The Curiosity rover has discovered not only methane in the Martian atmosphere but that this amount of methane varies during the course of the of the Red Planets' year. Could this be due to some biological process or is it a geological event?  I will be looking at the evidence plus a look at the history of the search for life on Mars.

June is not a good month for looking at the night sky from Britain with very short periods of night time, but to compensate for this June marks the beginning of the Noctilucent  Cloud season, I will be explaining just what these electric blue looking clouds are and where you can see them. I will also take a look at just what can be seen in the sky during the following few nights.

The other regular features include the latest astronomy news including news that another of the NASA rovers Opportunity is trying to survive a massive Martian dust storm, why the Galilean moons are so big and that days on the Earth are getting longer thanks to the fact that the  Moon is moving away from us. The A-Z of constellations is now at Pegasus the Flying Horse while the Messier marathon reaches M63 in Canes Venatici.

The astronomical scrapbook  looking at events this week in history includes Venera 7 the first successful probe to land on Venus, the first woman in space and the German school boy hit by a meteorite! There will also be the usual round up of what is going on in the astronomical societies in the north of England.

The Astronomy Show every Wednesday afternoon between 3.00 pm and 5.00 pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5FM, you can listen live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or hear the later on the Drystone podcast.

No Astronomy Show on 06.06.18

No Astronomy Show on 06.06.18

Unfortunately there will be no astronomy show on Wednesday June 6th this is due to work commitments. The Astronomy Show will return next week on Wednesday 13th June.

I will leave one little thought with everyone, on June 8th 1918 one hundred years ago a bright nova appeared in the night sky above the western front, it was one of the brightest novae of the twentieth century and was visible without a telescope for around 10 days.