Right Ascension

Why 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 particularly valuable in probing star formation processes. It will be able to detect early galaxy formation and evolution by looking at extremely distant targets. For those of you that are relatively new to astronomy, the probe is named after the distinguished historical astronomer, Sir William Herschel who was assisted by his wife Caroline. Planck, named after the great physicist, Max Planck, will study the distant cosmic microwave background radiation. For both such tasks you require low temperatures and this is one of the advantages of their particular location. You can learn more from this video which was produced last year.

Only 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 been achievable to date. Any such detection of a planet like this in the 'goldilocks' zone around another star will be a great achievement, so fingers crossed for a successful launch. For a movie describing the mission, visit here.

Our 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 version.

As 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 of my little 'astronomy in five minutes' videos. So why not? Sure there are plenty of other topics to cover, but its nice to get suggestions and with so many blogs that have no readers/followers I'm grateful that I have a readership and so am happy to oblige! I'll look at some interesting and lesser known aspects as well as the basics. I also had it originally in mind to issue an episode on every full moon, but I'm out of sync thus far! The video below shows the rotating Earth as the moon passes by viewed from a space probe some 31 million miles distant.

In 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 astronomy books. Enjoy. Horizon/Nova it is not - but I'm aiming to pass on some basic knowledge rather than to dazzle with orchestral music, globe trotting reports and special effects!!!  iPod version available for download here.

I 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 palid orange glow complete dominion over urban skies, seems not to register that it represents a waste of energy as well. More directionally oriented systems shine the light where its needed, directly downwards and make the streets brighter and the skies darker. The International Dark Sky Association and amateur astronomy groups have been campaigning, with some successes, for years on this issue, but still have a long way to go to get this into the public consciousness. Just think, though, how much we are being deprived of some of the most beautiful aspects of nature -  the stars and planets. If you want to learn more have a look at this guide developed for US schools.