IN THIS MONTH 22nd June 1633 The Roman Catholic Inquisition hands down its sentence and finds Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei guilty of heresy. Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy", namely of having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the Universe and the Earth is not at the centre and moves. He was sentenced to formal imprisonment at the pleasure of the Inquisition. On the following day this was commuted to house arrest, which

Total Lunar Eclipse 26 May 2021

This Month . . . . The Moon. Bits and pieces about our nearest celestial neighbour. Because the moon takes almost the same amount of time to complete one revolution as it does one rotation, we always see mainly the same side of the Moon. From Earth, only 59% of the Moon is visible. If you were above Earth looking down at the North Pole, the Moon will be moving anticlockwise around Earth. Although the Moon shines bright in the night sky, it does not produce its own light.