What to see in the night sky – a focus on Canis Major
The stars around Sirius make up the constellation of Canis Major which has some really nice open clusters to view through binoculars or a telescope.
Astronomy
Astronomy and astrophysics articles about subjects that we find fascinating.
Weird Objects in The Night Sky
We often just assume that our Earth is a puny little rock and these massive objects meander around the galaxy swallowing up unsuspecting planets. This is not the case, black holes can have massive mass but are only physically very small, as are neutron stars and white dwarfs.
Coordinates in The Night Sky
The position of stars can be described by coordinates that resemble that way we describe positions on the Earth’s surface.
A Glance At Astrophotography
Heres a quick look at some concepts around astrophotography to get you started.
Scorpius, The Constellation of Winter
This is a short description of the constellation of Scorpius and some of the stars it contains.
Matariki Fly Through
Fly through of the Pleiades star cluster, known as Matariki in New Zealand in May/June. Made from ESA’s Gaia DR2 data.
Astronomy is a subject that connects us all.
Celestial objects have looked down on every event that has affected humanity; times of conflict or celebration, times of famine or plenty, times of disease or vitality.
Viewing dirty snowballs in the sky
Holly looks at three significant comets she observed.
Celestia: creating asteroids
Celestia is a very cool piece of software, which you can use to build asteroids. Here is how.
The Solar Minimum and the Minimal Sunspots and Flares
Our very quiet Sun, that is casually wandering through the current solar minimum, had a sunspot visible today, which was all very exciting so we took a couple of photos.
Supernovae and Extinction Events
Recent research suggests there may be a link between a supernova about 2.6 million years ago and the extinction of a large number of marine megafauna on the Earth at the time.
How to make a blackhole
A light hearted look at how you might make a blackhole if you happen to have a large star handy.
How do you make a star?
It’s not easy to make a star, you need a lot of cold space and a huge amount of hydrogen. But if you manage to do that then you can have your very own Sun sized star to keep you warm in winter.
What is a Gamma Ray Burst?
Aside from the Big Bang, Gamma Ray Bursts are the most powerful releases of energy in the universe, sometimes releasing over 100 times the entire energy of the Sun over it’s 10 billion year lifespan.
Interstellar, here we come!
The amount of interstellar particles being detected by Voyager 2 may indicate that the spacecraft is about to pass through the heliopause into interstellar space.