Astronomy

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‘Spectacular’ solar colours seen across southern night skies

Aurora australis has lit up skies across southern Australia after an “extreme” geomagnetic solar storm. Brightly coloured skies were visible in Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. So what IS “Aurora australis” ? This is from the University of Tasmania: “Outer space is filled with electrically charged particles. When they hit the Earth’s atmosphere, they can make it light up like a fluorescent light tube. This tends to happen in the polar regions, where Earth’s magnetic field is trapping...

Shortest day, longest day….. the solstice

      It’s the shortest day of the year  in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia as an example )….. According to Dictionary.com : either of the two times a year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator: about June 21, when the sun reaches its northernmost point on the celestial sphere, or about December 22, when it reaches its southernmost point.: Compare summer solstice, winter solstice. either of the two points in the ecliptic farthest...

Science of Christmas | What was the star of Bethlehem?

The story of the Star of Bethlehem appears only in the Book of Matthew. The gospel tells us that a bright star appeared in the eastern sky when Jesus was born, famously seen by a group of wise men. These biblical “Magi,” sometimes called kings, now adorn nativity scenes around the world. Matthew 2:1-12 Tree of Life Version Wise Men Follow His Star 2 Now after Yeshua was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, magi from...

Blood Moon – unique lunar event – November 8th

The next and final lunar eclipse of 2022 will occur TONIGHT November 8 and will be visible in parts of Asia, Australia, North America, parts of northern and eastern Europe, and most of South America. The first total lunar eclipse of 2022 occurred on May 15-16 and was visible in total phase from portions of the Americas, Antarctica, Europe, Africa and the East Pacific. Lunar eclipses occur when Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow...

Check out a Solar eclipse, safely

    This weekend, stargazers in the Eastern Hemisphere will be treated to an annular solar eclipse on the heels of the summer solstice. This type of eclipse is characterized by its stunning “ring of fire” since it’s not a total eclipse and edges of the sun can still be seen around the moon. ( source CNN ) Where to see it The annular eclipse will begin at 12:47 a.m. ET (4:47 UTC) on June 21 and cross a skinny...

Why sky blue?

Why is the sky blue? I used to think the blue colour was caused by the refection of Earth’s waters but that’s simply not the case. It happens due to ‘Rayleigh scattering’ – explained above. Rayleigh scattering (/ˈreɪli/ RAY-lee), named after the nineteenth-century British physicist Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt),[1] is the predominantly elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the radiation. For light frequencies well below the resonance frequency of the scattering particle (normal dispersion regime), the amount of scattering is inversely proportional to the fourth powerof the wavelength Astrophysicist...