Author Archives: grebrynod

Here’s the fate of one street light near me. For a few moments I thought the council had installed an oil lamp. Click on the image for the video

An exchange of emails with a travel company throws up an interesting reply. Remember this is $8640 per couple and would probably pay for business class travel from the USA! More here

Dear old BBC – again. Can we drop this ‘stargazing’ epithet?  I can remember a time before I was a ‘stargazer’ and really would not have been inspired by the word. Here’s a bit of their trawl for help with … Continue reading →

Here’s eclipse chasing on Jupiter. The video is of a callisto shadow transit on Jupiter 23rd July 2009 as see from a balloon floating in Jupiter’s atmsophere (One for Branson to sell). The first eclipse is in progress at sunrise … Continue reading →

This course is not running again this year. Very sad.  

From WBC newsletter delivered to all households to tell us they are doing a good job. No serious business should be without an acronym. So what MAC, is missing?  

An offer we couldn’t refuse. A cruise ship to 78N. Many thanks to all especially Simen the Tromso taxi driver and ski-jumper.

Say what you like about the Royals but they know where the apostrophes should go…..

This item is moved to the For sale page on the main menu.

In the back of today’s New Scientist there is a photo of a ‘distrail’. That is a strip of  cloudy sky rendered clear by a passing aeroplane. Storm Dunlop’s letter gave a three point explanation. Here’s one I took earlier … Continue reading →

Members and friends of Reading Astronomical Society bragging about their equipment again. Do they really need an excuse like Christmas? Click on the thumbnail to see what the local press made of it….

George Sallitt’s astronomy course will not take place due to lack of subscriptions. I will leave the page intact as an archive and will post news of more courses if and when they are advertised.

Last weekend we went to our dark site in Wales. The weather was disappointing to say the least, but some new members were introduced to the sight of a dark sky for an hour or so. Prolonged observing was not … Continue reading →

This picture is doing the rounds of the media. It purports to show a lightning strike of the Statue of Liberty but that’s not how lightning behaves. It’s actually striking something on land on the far shore. But that would … Continue reading →

This sundog was accompanied by an identical one the other side of the sun and a flattened arc above the sun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

The star HIP99984 will graze the moon’s limb on evening of 15th Oct 2010 Observers south and east of the NE-SW line drawn through M4 junction 10 may see the star disappear and reappear more than once as the star’s … Continue reading →

Before you shop in Waterstones in Reading bear in mind that they are currently selling the ‘Name-a-Star’ nonsense. I would be happy to name you one at a tenth of their price.

Location: Hao, French Polynesia 2010 July 11

I didn’t expect something to post this soon after starting the blog. But this is our sky at 1850 tonight (20100923). There are interior fringes and a clear secondary.