Every Christmas since 1968 we celebrate the date when the first humans got an up close and personal look at the Moon. Apollo 8 was launched on 21 December 1968 and entered lunar orbit on 24 December, just in time for the crew to celebrate Christmas further from the Earth than anyone had ever celebrated Christmas, or anything else, ever.
Just like “Open sesame”, “Open April” is a pleonasm but we might have forgotten it is because the word April was invented long ago and far, far away, all the way to the other side of the world in Ancient Rome.
We often give the Moon magical properties it simply does not have. The amount of illumination it provides changes and that’s about it.
Happy Birthday Leaplings! As they are affectionately known, leaplings navigate a world where their official birthdays come only once every four years. Why did this happen and whose fault is it?
Images of objects in space are often coloured to help astronomers work out what’s going on. This post looks at what we can work out.
Milky-Way.Kiwi is a social enterprise for quality and affordable access to the night sky run by professional space science communicators. We provide educational services for teachers and schools – Spaceward Bound NZ, stargazing and astronomy and space courses and programmes for the public – Star Safari and we write about space and astronomy with a New Zealand perspective.
At Star Safari, everyone 15 and younger is FREE because we believe that young people should not pay for inspiration.
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