Every day the earth is bombarded from space with millions of pieces of sand, dust and specks of rocks. When these pieces of debris hit our atmosphere at speeds in excess of 50 km/second they burn up and can be seen as spectacular streaks across the night sky. These are shooting stars and are visible every night if the sky is clear. However, there are certain times of the year when the Earth passes through a cloud of dust and debris and creates many more shooting stars.
48 years ago this July, Apollo 11 blasted off on it’s three day journey to the moon. On July 21st 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first human to step foot on the moon. Mankind looked on in awe. It was the dawn of a new era, heralding in what was to be a fantastic voyage of discovery that started with the moon, moved to Mars and beyond and eventually further into our solar system and perhaps even journeying to neighbouring star systems.
I am often asked about the identity of unusually bright lights that people have spotted in the sky. More often than not, it is one of the bright planets Venus or Jupiter, or the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. However, sometimes the culprit is not stationary, but a star-like light that moves across the sky, or a point of light that spectacularly flares up to become exceptionally bright before gradually fading again.
Of all the sights visible in a telescope, there is none so breathtaking as the planet Saturn. Simply put, it is magnificent. Saturn is surrounded by a series of icy rings that circle the planet, making it look like a lolo ball. Unfortunately a telescope is needed to see the rings. Even a small telescope of decent quality will do, and now is the perfect time to see the planet.
The past week has seen my phone emit a flurry of chirps, beeps and flashing LEDs. They have been alerts from Twitter or from an Aurora Watch UK app. Most of the them have been yellow alerts with the occasional amber alert, letting me know that there is a slim possibility of seeing the aurora or Northern Lights.