Right Ascension
18 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 15 years ago -A blog (and podcast series) to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy (2009), with regular (and spontaneous) comments and features on astronomy and astrophysics from an ex-professional, but still devout cosmologist!
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Episodes
Herschel and Planck - two great names, two amazing spacecraft
May 17, 2009 16:28Why take a risk when you can take two? That was the nailbiting scenario planned by the European Space Agency on Thursday when it launched two highly sensitive and extremely important astronomical probes in the same launch vehicle. Planck and Herschel are now on their way on the next stage of their journey to an orbital position known as L2. Herschel is the largest ever space telescope with a mirror twice the size of that of Hubble, but operating at far-infrared wavelengths which are particul...
April came and went...!
May 09, 2009 12:38Apologies for the long gap and the absence of April's programme. Ended up being completely swamped in work and with family commitments. Tsk, tsk. Dashing the expectations of my loyal following. I will make amends and double up the number of podcasts to compensate. There's a lot going on astronomically speaking, so plenty to talk about. Next topic though is likely to be the Sun, since it causing some intrigue amongst astronomers at the moment.....
April
April 04, 2009 10:30New month, new video! Just be patient and all will be revealed, with luck later this week. For the moment, however, time to enjoy the brighter days (for some of us, at least)...
20th March at 11:44
March 21, 2009 00:31Happy vernal equinox! The Sun moves North into the summer zone as it passes the origin of right ascension. How's that for a technical sounding sentence? What does it mean...? ah now that would be telling, but spring has sprung and for those of you with winter gloom the bright few days we've had recently have rather symbolically illustrated the astronomical seasonal shift. For Right Ascension, the zero point is known as the First Point of Aries, which is the place in the sky where the Sun c...
subscribe to our podcasts
March 10, 2009 22:25We're on iTunes now, so if you'd rather access our podcasts that way and pop them onto your iPod/mp4 player then simply subscribe in the iTunes store to this URL: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=301418617
launch
March 09, 2009 16:31As you no doubt, now realise, the launch of Kepler was a success. So, it's all go now as we try to track down Earthlike planets over the next 4-6 years of observations.
Kepler launch imminent
March 07, 2009 00:07Only a few hours to go now before the launch of one of the most exciting space missions yet. The Kepler telescope will gradually make its way to an earth-trailing orbit which balances out the gravitational pull and minimises the torque on the spacecraft allowing it to be stable and afix its gaze on a patch of sky and stare and stare and stare! Looking at the light from stars to detect the clues that reveal planets. It will be able to reach down to Earth size detection, something that has not ...
Cosmology - an introduction
March 02, 2009 22:51Our next video episode is an overview of some ideas that underpin cosmology. We'll be returning to these in later editions and in other articles on this blog (eg expansion of the Universe, background radiation, dark matter and distorted space), but for the moment this, hopefully, sets the scene. It's a bit long and I'm afraid I speak a little slowly this time, but with any luck the beauty of the images and the sheer profundity of the subject will carry you through! Download iPod video versio...
It's coming soon - the story of the entire universe!
February 22, 2009 16:29Our next video programme is nearly complete - just been busy with a few other pressing deadlines in my non-astronomy time! I hope to post it up during this coming week. In the meantime, however, the next couple of days is also the closest approach of Comet Lulin. Not one of the most dramatic cometary visitors, but it is still visible in small telescopes and binoculars and if it reaches the predicted magnitude 5 you should be able to see it unaided in good conditions. For more info and some ...
down at the docks and up in the sky
February 14, 2009 13:45After entertaining sailors and random others in a bar in the docks with stories of the wonders of deep space ( a public 'science in the pub' type event), I'm turning now to the latest episode of our video series and it will be online soon. The theme will be the Big Bang and the universe on the largest scales. In the meantime, may I suggest that if you are keen on seeing what stars and planets are visible from your location at any time, and would like to explore the night sky in some detail, ...
The Moon - latest video
February 01, 2009 18:48As promised, the latest 'astronomy in roughly 5 minutes' video is about the Moon. Of course this is a potentially vast subject and I only skirt around some aspects, but there's plenty more scope to revisit some topics as IYA 2009 continues! No questions on the video this time, but if you want a challenge, why not find out why we don't have eclipses every month?!
Lunar influence
January 17, 2009 14:25As storms start to batter the western seaboard of Ireland, there's little hope that the telescope will see much action over the coming nights. Rain and sleet are promised, all fine for blowing away the cobwebs but classic hibernation weather too. Living on the coast, as we do, then its hardly surprising that we're aware of the tides as they rise and sink and indeed it's been suggested by a couple of my readers that perhaps I might say something about that engine of the tides, the moon, in one...
Podcast 2 - Venus
January 10, 2009 20:52Well here's the second of our video episodes, focusing this time (as promised) on the planet Venus. I aim to upload a video each month, but since this is the start of the series I thought an extra bonus episode wouldn't go amiss. I'd like also to acknowledge permission from the astrophotographer Tunc Tezel (in Turkey) to use his amazing picture of the retrograde motion of Mars in this programme. Many thanks! Venus is of course the object most responsible for supposed sightings of "UFOs" give...
Venus
January 07, 2009 14:34Standing out in the cold and frosty nights that are around us, here in Galway at the moment, the most prominent evening object (apart from the Moon!) is the planet Venus. It's a fascinating object and one that played a pivotal role in the development of our view of the universe with Galileo's observations. In addition, it is a remarkable "sister planet" of the Earth, with its runaway greenhouse atmosphere perhaps a pertinent warning!! Anyway, it forms the subject of our next podcast episode...
First Podcast/Vodcast January Skies - Orion
January 03, 2009 16:27In this, the first of our series of short programmes I talk briefly about the Orion constellation and draw your attention to some of its interesting members. My approach is fairly simple and if you want to get the most out of these resources then: (1) Get yourself a notebook and pencil (2) Sketch the basic constellation layout (3) Jot down anything new or interesting you learn from the episode (4) Try and answer the challenging questions I set, either by hitting "google" or looking at as...
Streetlights - wipe out stars, planets, meteors and satellites
December 29, 2008 23:54I suppose its the street-lighting that's more annoying than the cloudy skies, although when you're hoping to see something at a specific time, both can be pretty bad. Clouds can't be helped, by and large, but street lighting is a 'crime' on so many fronts. It seems little appreciated by the public and local authorities in particular that current models of street lighting are hugely wasteful. The fact that most designs leak almost half the emission straight up into the night, giving that pali...
Preamble - first clear night of the blog
December 27, 2008 12:21With a bit of luck the sky was clear the evening the blog was started and even though we're not yet in the IYA, let alone having passed the Opening Ceremony, why shouldn't we grab the opportunity to pull out a little telescope and sneak a peek at the stars? What equipment do we have in our observatory? Well nothing more than a little 4.5inch (diameter of main mirror) Dobsonian telescope, the Orion Skyquest XT4.5 to be exact - a couple of mirrors in a metal tube to be technical about it. A...
A humble tour of astronomy
December 26, 2008 18:33Given the plethora of sites on the web devoted to International Year of Astronomy, both professional and amateur, what is the point of yet another? Well, my intention here is to basically just provide regular short podcasts on key themes in astronomy aimed at a general audience, which are not either overly specialist or overly hyped. The IYA official websites can handle all the orchestral music and video shots from Hawaiian mountain tops, whilst I just ditch the pretensions and try my best to...