‘Latest News’ Archives
Geminids 2009
It was cloudy here in Dublin, Ireland, so despite a few reports of the odd meteor it was relative quiet from my perspective. However here are a couple of images in case you missed out on all the fun. The first is taken from 2007 while the second one if from this year and appears in the Astronomy Picture of the Day (a great [...]
A closer look at our own Moon
Its been a busy run up to Christmas, so this post is a little behind my intended schedule. I posted an image of the "Dark" side of the moon on Facebook recently and mentioned that until the last 50 years we had no idea what it actually looked like. I've continued to research the Moon and thought I'd share some of my observations. The purposed [...]
ESO unveils images from VISTA – a superb new Telescope
VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) — has just started work at ESO’s Paranal Observatory and has made its first release of pictures. VISTA is a survey telescope working at infrared wavelengths and is the world’s largest telescope dedicated to mapping the sky. Its large mirror, wide field of view and very sensitive [...]
First Ever Hi-Res image of Deimos and Phobos released
The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter snapped a series of images of the two diminutive moons on Nov. 5 and released the pictures today. This is the first hi-res image of the martian moons Phobos and Deimos caught on camera together. These unique images will help the HRSC team validate and refine existing orbit models of the two moons. [...]
Hubble takes first images of a HOT star in the Bug Nebula
The Bug Nebula, NGC 6302, is one of the brightest and most extreme planetary nebulae known. At its centre lies a superhot, dying star smothered in a blanket of hailstones. Most planetary nebulae are distinctive, but few are as extreme as this one. The dying star at its centre is shrouded by a blanket of icy hailstones and until now was never [...]
Weird Spiral Light in Norwegian Sky?
The world is an odd place sometimes, and while you might be used to hearing about unusual and bizzare things, there is a plausability to many of them. Even the fake stuff! But now and then along comes something that just looks like a hoax. Well that was my first impression of this image. However there have been multiple images taken from across [...]
New Stunning Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image released
This is yet another astonishing image from Hubble. This is a new version of the Ultra Deep Field, in near-infrared light and taken with the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3. This image is of the same region as the visible Ultra Deep Field in 2004, but at longer wavelengths providing more information about the early Universe's history. We are [...]
What’s your Galactic address?
Do you know where you live? Yes you know the country, but do you know where Earth is for example? I once heard someone give their full address. It was quite funny and rather geeky. It went along the lines of the following. Paul Doyle, Dublin, Ireland, Europe, Earth, The Sol System, Local Star System, Orion Spur of the The Milky [...]
Titan, Enceladus, Dione, and Mimas Transit of Saturn
Taken February, 2009 - Hubble "This picture was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on 24 February 2009, when Saturn was at a distance of roughly 1.25 billion kilometres from Earth. Hubble can see details as small as 300 kilometres across on Saturn. This close-up view of Saturn's disc captures the transit of several moons [...]
Blackrock Castle Observatory – Enjoy a Cosmic Christmas at the Castle
OK this is pure advertisement for some friends! But since its for the cause of Education and Astronomy in Ireland I've no apologies.... Should be fun, head along if you can. Look here for a recent review of the BCO.
A Tribute to Images of Mars – we’ve come a long way since 1965….
I can't speak for everyone, but I find it hard to appreciate, to really appreciate the stunning images we have at our fingertips of Mars. We have successfully sent probes/orbiters/landers to Mars that take hi-resolution images of Mars rivaling those taken of Earth by satellite. Sure there have been failures in our mission to Mars, but the sheer [...]
A Glorious Dawn – by symphony of sound
Here are two more "Music" video from symphony of science. "A Glorious Dawn" features Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking and "We are all connected". My preference is certainly the first. I wanted to briefly mention the technique used which is called Pitch correction. This allows for the correction of intonation of an audio signal. This is primarily [...]