Category Archives: Astronomy

Amid the ballyhoo over last night’s binders and the catchphrases it may have generated, better news was announced…a probable planet orbiting the solar system closest to us. With all these past exoplanet discoveries, I kept wondering, “When are they going … Continue reading →

A co-worker found this. It’s pretty bitchin’ on how some things line up against each other. There were objects in our Solar System I need to look up though, I don’t recall the planet Eris, maybe it’s out there with … Continue reading →

Eleven billion miles away from the Sun is where Voyager 1 is estimated to be right now. To give you an idea how far this is, it’s 118 times the distance between Earth and our Sun (also known as one … Continue reading →

Anyone else out there have any luck seeing the rare event? Lunar eclipses happen from time to time but not during the Winter Solstice. NPR said it was the first in 400 years. Despite my recovering health, I took an … Continue reading →

Which has prompted me to start re-watching his landmark PBS show Cosmos (all episodes are available via streaming on Netflix!), a program I loved as a kid 30 years ago. Finally, something on Public Television that wasn’t for “babies” or … Continue reading →

It’s shows like Bad that make me miss having cable television. Dr. Plait definitely has a good presence for hosting. Even though the first episode was a live demonstration of his latest book, it still rocked to see a scale … Continue reading →

Fans of Astronomy will miss him and his advice on what to look for in the night sky. If the name does’t ring a bell, you probably didn’t catch much PBS in the Eighties and Nineties, especially late in the … Continue reading →

You may know him as the guy behind Bad Astronomy the book and the blog on Discovery.com. Plus I loved his recent book Death from the Skies. I have yet to see his appearance on Mythbusters regarding the Moon-Landing Hoax; … Continue reading →

Named after the astronomy Edwin Hubble, this long overdue space-based telescope was put into orbit…and it didn’t work courtesy of a lens ground to the wrong specification (the media probably got this wrong, effective telescopes after Newton use mirrors because … Continue reading →

Last week, the Huffington Post had this link up on its Science section, nice to see something other than the anti-vax idiocy. I quickly recognized it was only the old ion-engine design. This was used recently with a probe or … Continue reading →

In all my years of following Astronomy for 30 years, Dr. Burbidge’s name never came up despite his involvement in the theory about the universe starting out with simpler elements (hydrogen, helium and lithium) and through explosions (supernovas, gamma-ray bursts, … Continue reading →

Last week while I was catching the news via the Wii, there was a piece about the Europeans discovering another bunch of exoplanets (bringing the total to 400+). What made me cringe was the term Super-Earths being used for worlds … Continue reading →

Last night I watched this on my iPhone courtesy of the plug from Bad Astronomy. It’s pretty frightening and exciting. The rocket must be hauling because it hits the US-defined boundary of Space (50 miles, 80 km) quickly as you … Continue reading →