21st April 1702 Maria Kirch discovers a previously unknown comet becoming the first woman to make such a discovery. Dubbed the "Comet of 1702", it was the 10th-closest comet approach in history, missing Earth by 6,537,000 kilometres (0.0437 AU). However, the comet was not named after her, as was the case with most newly discovered comets, due to her gender, her husband instead taking credit for its discovery. He admitted the truth regarding the discovery in 1710 but the com

We all hoped that 2021 would start with solar activity to observe and get excited about. Monty Leventhal is a dedicated solar observer, whose daily reports (in clear weather) are submitted to several databases around the globe. Whilst prominences are notable it is sunspots that raise hopes of solar activity we should be experiencing in this phase of the solar cycle. Monty always practises safe solar viewing. January 2021 January observations got off to a bad start with rain a