Tag: space
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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,…
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The Gardens of the Night Sky 20th to 26th January 2024
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in SkyJupiter is still the most prominent celestial object dominating the NNW horizon by 8pm when it can be found sitting 40 degrees up. …..that’s four stacked clenched fists at arm’s length, each being 10 degrees. I’d wait an hour when it sits 30 degrees above the NW. At this point, its 4 brightest moons, surprisingly…
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The Gardens of the Sky 6th to 12th January 2024
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in SkyIf 2024 is your year for taking up astronomy, armed just with your eyes or if you are lucky, binoculars, this column is for you. I provide basic, unpretentious, easy to read information from a qualified astronomer; no re-tweets or cut and paste, but purely researched primary source information. Basic essentials for stargazing are a…
Astronomy West 