Tag: space
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The Gardens of the Night Sky 15th to 21st June 2024
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in SkyStargazing is often aligned with existentialism (relating to existence or being alive) and our place in the Cosmos, but more importantly in these troubling times it allows us to almost lose ourselves while we gawk and wonder, which is a good thing. Let’s start our gawking around 6am, a mere 30 minutes before sunrise. Looking…
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The Gardens of the Perth Night Sky 1st to 7th June 2024
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in SkyWell, according to the meteorological calendar we are now in the season of Winter. However, in 3 weeks’ time, astronomically and mathematically we will actually be in Winter, unlike some who need perfect silos to work from, astronomers can, and have to, go with the facts; the reason for the seasons is the Earth’s tilted…
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The Gardens of the West Australian Night Sky 25th to 31st May 2024
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in SkyAs I headed to the car the other morning around 5.45am on my may to work, I could not miss the early morning westerly view; I stood for 10 minutes in awe. There, sitting 20 deg. above the WSW was the unmistakable bright red star Antares in the constellation of Scorpio, the Scorpion. I quickly…
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The Gardens of the Night Sky 6th to 12th April 2024
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in SkyNow I have your attention…. doughnuts are great. Astronomy, from the Greek word ‘astron’, meaning star, only dates back to the 12th Century and it is the ‘systematic recording of astronomical observations’, everything else is stargazing. Astronomers, of which Australia has its share, dedicate their time to observing, researching and publishing their results in journals…
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The Gardens of the Night Sky 25th to 31st March 2024
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in SkyWhoosh, another Month bites the dust. Go East young/old, man/woman. The eastern horizon has a wonderful trio of planets (called ‘wanderers’ in antiquity) 30 minutes before the onset of another glorious West Australian sunrise. Why ‘wanderers’? because they didn’t travel at the same speed as the stars and would occasionally freak the crap out of…
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The Gardens of the Night Sky 18th to 24th March 2024
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in SkyOn Wednesday the Earth will reach the Autumnal Equinox, from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). On, and either side for a few days, there will be almost equal amounts of daylight and night-time hours and no, eggs cannot be stood upright on this day, but scientific Autumn, if there is such a thing,…
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The Gardens of the Night Sky 10th to 15th March 2024
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in SkyFor those relatively early risers like me, the white-yellow planet Venus is getting lower in the East to ESE around 5am, sitting less than 10 deg. up. It is kinda accompanied by the subtle red Mars which however is getting higher and by Friday sits 15 deg. up, slightly south of East. With our 2-dimensional…
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The Gardens of the Night Sky 2nd to 8th March 2024
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in SkyWell, March already and some would say that Summer is over, well, that’s not exactly true. Meteorologists and climatologists like to fit our 4 ‘seasons’ into neat little 3-month boxes, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. The ‘seasons’ are actually as a result of the Earth’s tilt towards the Sun, so different parts of the Earth…
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The Gardens of the Sky 17th to 23rd February 2024
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in SkyBetter late than never 🙂 As the nights get longer, gotta love the effect of the axial tilt of the Earth (23.5 deg.), and after hot days, what better way than to spend time un-stressing by observing the cooler night sky. Sandgropers should head to the beach just before 7pm armed with a local take…
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The Gardens of the Sky 10th to 16th February 2024
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in SkyHaving lost Mercury to superior conjunction (Mercury-Earth on opposite sides of the Sun) later this month, we can however still see Venus creeping up on Mars as the week progresses. The brilliant white Venus sits 15 deg. above the East to ESE at 5am with Mars the fainter red object and 3 deg. further east,…
Astronomy West 