This month . . . .   Saturn’s rings. One of the most majestic sights in the night sky.

Saturn’s rings are enormous, but they are also extremely thin. The major rings have a diameter of 270,000 km yet their thickness does not exceed 100 metres. The entire ring syste...

JULY 2020...

The Bureau of Meteorology has not yet released its July 2020 report, however, there was 183 mm of rainfall in Sydney (the average rainfall for July is 76.8mm). This was spread over a number of days and at times rain and cloud which prevented me observing th...

13th August 1898

The asteroid Eros is discovered by the German astronomer Gustav Witt at the Urania Observatory in Berlin, and independently on the same day by Auguste H.P. Charlois in Nice, France.

The asteroid, or to give its minor planet designation, 433 Eros, is appr...

This month . . . .   Naming the three planets in our solar system discovered in “modern” times was not a straightforward process. There were several alternatives before arriving at the names we know them as today.

The first five planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupi...

Monty has been observing regularly but over the past few months his reports have not been happy ones because the Sun has not been very active. Fortunately there was a slight improvement in activity in June and good news from ESA's Solar Orbiter Mission with the release...

4 July 1054

Chinese astronomers notice a star explode becoming a supernova in the constellation Taurus. It remained visible in the night sky for 653 days. The remnant of that exploding star is what we now know as the Crab Nebula. The supernova shone roughly four times b...

This month . . . .   Orion

Named after the mythological Greek hunter, the constellation Orion is one of the most famous, and recognisable, constellations in the night sky.

Orion is a hunter with a shield in his hand, a belt and sword around his waist, surrounded by...

2 June 1966   

Surveyor 1, the first of the Surveyor robotic spacecraft, soft lands on the Moon. It was the first American spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on an extra-terrestrial body. NASA’s Surveyor Program sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the...

The Parkes Telescope - “The Dish” - from its historic role in the Apollo 11 Moon landing to looking for ET it has played an important part in Australian astronomy.  

The dish is not fixed to the top of its tower, but just sits on it. The moving part of the telescop...

13 May 1861

John Tebbutt discovers the Great Comet of 1861, also known as Comet C/1861 J1, one of the most brilliant comets known. He sent letters to the Government Astronomer at Sydney Observatory, Rev. William Scott, and to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper advising...