At first I thought it must have just slipped through my net but from listening/reading other people I find they were in the same situation.

In my last post I said I’d be interested to know if Earth Hour would make any difference to our levels of light pollution; I was near the East coast of England (near Skegness but far enough away from the town to see the effects of light pollution) on Saturday night and I didn’t notice any difference at all

So, to reduce the risk of missing Earth Hour next year I’ve signed up for notifications by email and I’m following them on twitter @earthhour too.

Until the next post… Clear Skies!  – and keep asking WHY?

Tweet This

ShareThis

On the back of it’s success in 2007 and 2008, Earth Hour 2009 aims to get 1 billion people switching off their lights with lots of famous landmarks joining in.  All you have to do is switch off your lights at 8.30pm and leave them off until 9.30pm, and during that hour why not go outside and take a look at the night sky!

I should add that as ever safety comes first, e.g. leave your vehicle lights on if you’re travelling …

Now, I’m not going to state where the blame lies for global warming (man made or natural), nor am I going to state whether the earth really is warming up or how fast it’s happening; Why? (I hope you ask Why? a lot:-)) Because I really don’t know enough about the topic (nor does the average man in the street for that matter) to make an authoritative statement; I’ve simply not done enough research of my own, pawing over enough evidence to make my own mind up.

That said, I do believe that wasting energy is wrong, whether it be renewable or non-renewable, whether or not it has a lasting effect on the environment or our way of life.

Wasted light, especially that which hits the sky (Light Pollution), is also a big annoyance for Astronomers, and it’s for that reason that I took note when I first heard of Earth Hour whilst listening to my local radio station.  The one good thing about Light Pollution (for Astronomers that is) is that as soon as you kill the source you kill the effect; ok, you might have to wait 30 mins to recover from any affect on your light adaptation.  Mustn’t forget about the lasting effects light pollution has on the environment though.  Go to the Campaign for Dark Skies CfDS website for more information.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t be switching my lights off on Saturday night, because they’d already be off; undecided whether I should turn them on for 5 mins just before 8.30pm to add to the big dip in demand; counter productive I know.

I’ll be outside hopefully with no cloud blocking my view of the heavens; it’ll be interesting to see if Earth Hour makes our skies darker; tell me your findings by leaving a comment.

You can find out more about Earth Hour from the Earth Hour website

Until the next post… Clear Skies!  – and keep asking WHY?

Tweet This

ShareThis

I have been asked a few times recently by friends why this is so.  The answer lies in the fact that the Earth orbits our star tilted on it’s North-South axis by 23.5 degrees (the 23.5 isn’t that important here only that it is significant enough to make a difference).  When the Earth is at it’s closest point to the Sun, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun and the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun.  This means that the Northern Hemisphere inhabitants (me included) experience shorter time spans of exposure to the sun (i.e. shorter days) and being further way from the Sun; all leading to a general reduction in temperature.  The Southern Hemisphere inhabitants are having their summer; lucky so and so’s.

On the 4th July, other than Independence Day (for our US friends), we can celebrate Aphelion where the tables change; Northern Hemisphere people get to sunbath and the Southern Hemisphere people have to rap up warm.

I should add that the main reason for the season change is axel tilt as opposed to the distance from the sun.

Tweet This

ShareThis

2009 promises to be a great year for astronomy.  I have a number of astronomy projects lined up, some to start and some to complete; AstroImaging, Astronomy GCSE, Home Observatory, Astronomy Guides, Shows, Tutorials, and (hopefully) more… but maybe not in that order. 

Until the next post… Clear Skies!

Tweet This

ShareThis

I remember seeing the Scribd site a while back and forgot about it; enjoy!

Until the next post… Clear Skies!

Tweet This

ShareThis

I’ve had it loaded in a tab in my browser for a few days now and I’ve seen some great Aurora pictures; you can access a selection of past images in the Image Archives section of the site; they provide a desktop viewer version if that’s easier for you.

On 30/10/08 at 1246 UK time (0346 Alaskan time) I saw what I thought was Ursa Major through the green; I’ve since confirmed this with Stellarium – fantastic! 

Keep a look out during UK day light hours; as I write this post it’s 0830 UK time and The Aurora Live web cam shows a nice green glow on the horizon.

I’m sure it doesn’t beat being there and seeing with your own eyes but for now it will have to do.

Until the next post… Clear Skies!

Tweet This

ShareThis

Until the next post… Clear Skies!

Tweet This

ShareThis

Until the next post… Clear Skies!

Edit: I’ve installed FeedSmith, so I’m told it doesn’t matter which feed you use…

Tweet This

ShareThis

So, for all you readers new to Twitter, what’s it all about?  Twitter is a service that allows you to receive short messages (140 chars max) from people that you ‘follow’.  So you go onto Twitter create yourself an account and then look for people via on-line contacts or by using the search facility; you might even know someone on Twitter and know their Twitter name, like me ‘whyastronomy‘.  Then click on the Follow button under their username and you start to see their updates.  Put lots of information in the Bio of your Twitter account and then people will find and then start following you; often people you start to follow will reciprocate and begin following you.

I started finding people by looking at the list of people that follow or are followers of the first person I found and so on…

So, what kind of tweets (the messages are called tweets…) do you receive?  The tweets I receive fall into one of four categories;

1) Personal status e.g. “Can’t get to sleep. must stop drinking so much coffee

2) News/Notifications

3) Opinion e.g. “Just tried the new Blah from Blah Ltd and didn’t like it”

4) Links to web resources

I find 2) and 4) useful; 1) and 3) can get annoying unless you really know the person and get the ‘in’ joke.

You can receive tweets by viewing your account in a web browser or you can use one of a growing number of Twitter applications I use Twirl; I’ve not evaluated all the applications but Twirl seems to work OK for me.

So, is it best to follow or be followed?  Well, I read this article at scobleizer.com and for me learning is the most important thing, but I also want to give too.  To date I’m following 156 people and 26 people are following me; it’s a great way of finding new resources and keeping up to speed with what’s going on in the world.

I’ve really only touched on the kind of things you can do with Twitter; go to their help pages for more information.

So, why not follow me (and I’ll probably follow you)

Until the next post… Clear Skies!

Tweet This

ShareThis

Until the next post… Clear Skies!

Tweet This

ShareThis