Mark Thompson's Astronomy Blog

Follow my posts on all things Astronomy flavoured.

A True Ambassador, Not Just For Canada But for All Mankind!

May 13th, 2013 No Comments

Nearly all of my blog posts have been inspired by events or objects in the wonderful universe we live in. It is not often that I blog about people yet today, having finally watched Commander Hadfield’s incredible rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, I feel compelled to write about a man who is not only an astonaut but a great ambassador for humanity. Read more »

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A Fireball….on Twitter!

May 9th, 2013 No Comments

Crazy night last night! I was indoors enjoying a cheeky midweek glass of wine when my twitter timeline erupted with sightings of a fireball streaking across the sky. Most of the tweets came from UK based followers but a handfull on the continent. This is where twitter comes in really useful; following a tweet asking people to let me know where they were when they saw it, how high it was in the sky and its direction I could attempt to calculate its path. Read more »

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This Month’s Annular Solar Eclipse…

May 8th, 2013 No Comments

There are many fascinating and beautiful events to witness in the Universe but by far the most spectacular is the solar eclipse.    For centuries mankind has been fascinated, even scared of them and would offer sacrifices to the Gods to get it back.  In reality, these stunning events take place when the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, blocking the latter from our view. But on 10th May another type of solar eclipse will be on show for those lucky enough to be in the right place to see it!  Read more »

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Lyrid Meteor Shower, the Verdict…

April 18th, 2013 No Comments

Skywatchers can enjoy about 20 decent meteor showers every year. In April, the stage is set for the Lyrid shower, named becuase the meteors all seem to come from the constellation of Lyra. Overnight between 21st and 22nd April we can expect to see the peak of the shower’s activity even though meteors from this shower can be seen between 16th and 25th of the month. There are many things that affect the visibility of a shower though so what prospects are there for this springtime favourite. Read more »

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Not one asteroid but two…

December 12th, 2012 No Comments

We’ve all seen the movies where a sinister, silent and deadly piece of space rock hurtles undiscovered toward the Earth. Usually these movies culminate in some sort of daredevil mission to either destroy it or deflect it from its Earthbound trajectory. In reality, there’s actually not an awful lot we can do about a potential asteroid strike, other than sit tight and hope. Just a couple of days ago a newly discovered asteroid given the catchy title XE54 rattled by Earth just 225,000 kilometres, that puts it within the orbit of the Moon! We can now relax or can we? Hot on its heels though is the much larger 4179 Toutatis which is nearly 5 kilometres wide! Read more »

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