Here’s a video to show how to find Eta Carinae Nebula.
A Kiwi perspective on astronomy and space science news and how to get the most out the night sky
Category: StarryTelling
In the night sky next week, 22 to 28 January 2018
The next week is going to be overshadowed by the Moon a bit so it’s the perfect opportunity to do some Moon observing. There’s also a good chance to spot some interesting globular clusters.
What’s in a name
There are a lot of stars in the night sky, billions and billions of them. We can see about 4000 to 6000 in a clear night depending on how dark the sky is and also […]
What is NOT in the January sky
I’ve been arguing that the Zodiacal Band is humankind’s first useful calendar. Like any calendar, it predicts the future. So for instance, when the Sun is in Sagittarius we cannot see Sagittarius.
MWK Talks: What is The Martian Trust?
Charles Polk, General Manager of The Martian Trust is telling MilkyWayKiwi what is The Martian Trust
The Binos Have Arrived
Milky-Way.kiwi just purchased a pair of Celestron 15x70mm Binoculars and this is the first of a series of articles on how we put them to good use!
To the Moon and back (and then Mars)
With all the talk of going back to the moon, we thought it’d be good to recap on who is doing what in the coming years about returning to the Moon.
my life on Mars: The Best Hot Chocolate Recipe in the Galaxy
Everyone knows about water on Mars, but very few people could brag like I can that they have discovered Hot Chocolate on Mars!
The Green Flash
Sunsets are awesome and taking the time to appreciate a good sunset seems to evaporate the stresses of the day and transports you to the surreal space between night and day. It’s little wonder that […]
In the Sky in December 2017
The evening sky is mostly devoid of visible planetary landscapes, with the exception of Mars and Jupiter late in the morning and Uranus and Neptune throughout most of the night (which you will need a telescope to see).
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Anatomy of an Eclipse Trip – POST ECLIPSE
Sunlight lit up the hotel room as Gary pulled back the curtains and exclaimed, “Look at those clouds.” I laughed. Today is the one day where nobody cares about the weather. I wouldn’t mind going through a whole day without watching a weather report.
What’s the world like after a total solar eclipse? Pretty much like it was before. Even just 24 hours later, Michael said that it felt like the Moons encounter with the Sun was a week ago. Ginger got home to California and started to feel an emotional low. “It was so incredible, and now it’s hard to process everything.”
Anatomy of an Eclipse Trip – DAY SEVEN
Do we go or do we stay? That’s the tune for the day as we reach our weather decision deadline. We had a teleconference with Adam Jones, our Colorado meteorologist. Galveston, Tennessee he says has a 100% chance and western Idaho and eastern Oregon have 95%. His prediction for our site include some high clouds which may or may not block totality. The weather wouldn’t be any different until we get at least 300 miles away. However, the odds are still in our favor, and today he gives us a 75% chance of seeing totality…
Anatomy of an Eclipse Trip – DAY SIX
Preparations are set in town and at the Park, as both are just waiting for the people to arrive. I imagine the situation is the same all across the eclipse path. People will start to arrive this weekend with the great masses pulling in late Sunday or early Monday for a glimpse of totality. I have friends all along the eclipse path. Oregon, Idaho, western and central Wyoming, and we’re in eastern Wyoming expecting another 26 people (most arriving Sunday). Other friends are setting up sites in western Nebraska, Missouri, Tennessee and South Carolina. I wish them all clear skies, and I’m looking forward to sharing stories and images of their eclipse pilgrimage.
Anatomy of an Eclipse Trip – DAY THREE
Since no one has experienced a total solar eclipse passing through their town, it can be hard for City Council to know what to expect. Guernsey has 5 hotels, 5 restaurants, 2 grocery stores and 2 gas stations for some 30,000 people on eclipse day. So you have two choices you can either be “eclipse friendly” or “eclipse unfriendly”.
Two minutes and 32 seconds – Planning an eclipse trip
The solar eclipse from 21st of August 2017. What should you do if you don’t have a brother in a nearby location? We came up with eleven items.
The Evening Sky in August 2017, Wellington, the Centre of the Galaxy, the Black Moon, and the total eclipse of the Sun.
This is an astrophotographer-friendly blog, about what is in the night sky in August 2017.
The sky of June – The Rising of the Galaxy
Out I went and nothing prepared me for what I saw that night. On the pitch dark sky of Wairarapa, with luscious hills that hold the horizon in sweet curves that rest the eye, a luminous whirlpool of stars was erupting from the east. Silver river of stars, one of its arms was meandering the eastern horizon in oval arched loops like an octopus’s arm that passed a Southern Cross marking the 12 o’clock position on the celestial time keeper of the south. The galactic arm was thinning down towards the western horizon and righteously so as the further we go from Scorpius and Sagittarius, we are actually looking towards the outskirts of our galaxy, where fewer stars venture. I stood there in silence watching the slow rising of the Galaxy and I realised that it was for the first time in my life when I was truly seeing it with my eyes.
The sky of May – Tahi, Rua, Toru
In Maori, tahi, rua, toru means one, two, three. So Atu-tahi – One, Taku-rua – Two, Tau-toru – Three,
or you can count Sirius (1) / Canopus (2) / Alpha Centauri (3) / Arcturus (4) No matter what you prefer, these stars will be there in the evening of May.
The Sky of April – a rope of stars
This month is fantastic for viewing Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Pluto is also in a good position to spot, though at a visual magnitude of 14.3 you’ll need a reasonable telescope. The other highlight for […]
The sky of March – The Shining Ones
At the fringe of our milky city of stars, on the north-western horizon, the Pleiades, the Shining Ones (Te Tawhiti) are preparing for the journey to the underworld. They are to disappear shortly behind the Sun and will stay there for a while.
And the explanation goes that since people of old did not really have an explanation about space, in trying to figure out where exactly the Pleiades went, they invented a underworld. This is probably one of the reasons why this group of stars is so linked to stories of death, rebirth, and ancestors, and used to mark the beginning of the year in some cultures.
