“There were joint studies by NASA and ESA for a Montgolfière hot-air balloon with a radioactive isotope power source, and NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts office added the Titan Aerial Daughtercraft (TAD), a small helicopter which would return periodically to the balloon to recharge its batteries”
“This book consists of 100 chapters, each 2-3 pages long, and each supposedly covering a single star, not in alphabetical order or by constellation, which is how beginners’ books usually do it. “
Uranus in Aries was multiply occulted by the Moon last year, two of the events visible from the UK, and on January 1st it will happen again around 10.20 p.m., depending on location, for viewers north of a line from Cork to Norwich, with the reappearance at 11.08 p.m., as seen from Edinburgh.
Venus and the Pleiades over Australia, Aug 2017 by Yuri Beletsky – Orion at top, Betelgeuse at foot
“From an early stage in planning space exploration, the benefits for astronomy were obvious. “
The planet Mercury will reappear in the evening sky with Venus in December, at greatest elongation from the Sun on December 21st, coinciding with the winter solstice.
“In space, no one can hear you scream. But sometimes it’s tempting.”
For the first time, astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system.
The Moon will be Full on July 13th, which will be a Supermoon, at Full when at its nearest to Earth (perigee).
Before dawn will be the best time to see the Tau Herculid shower from Comet Schwassman-Wachman 3, on the night of May 31st – June 1st, although in Scotland, especially in the far north, the sky will probably be too bright to see many.
