Finkelstein says that 10% of the known planets circling suns in our galaxy resemble Earth. If water can be found there, then so can life.

I hope the Russians are right. I have always believed that our galaxy is teeming with life, but that the size of the universe, and the enormous space between solar systems meant that contact is highly unlikely.

Nothing can go faster than the speed of light, and with present technology  it would take thousands of years for spaceships to reach another habital area of the universe.

I had forgotten however that the humble radio wave travels at the speed of light, and we have inadvertently been sending messages into space since the 1930′s. By the 1980′s these radio waves will have travelled 50 light years where there are a number of star systems.

It will take another 50 years for any message/reply to be received here on Earth, which gives the Russian estimate of 2031. Fingers crossed I will still be alive to experience this first contact.

John McNally

Gravity bending light has been observed by locating the position of a known star near our sun, then during an eclipse noting the change in apparent position. Light has bent towards our sun making the star apparently change it’s location.

Even time dilation has been proven. The atomic clocks on satellites are nano-seconds slower than the clocks on earth, because of the speed they are travelling and gravity being lighter in orbit.

Without this adjustment, using Einstein’s theory of relativity, the world’s GPS systems would not work properly. The time adjustment makes GPS work accurately, and this would not have been possible without Einstein’s calculations.

So, with many proofs, what was Einstein’s biggest mistake? It was not believing the evidence of his own theory.

Relativity implies that the universe is expanding, and at the time of publication most scientists believed in a ‘steady state’ universe. There was debate over whether the universe was finite or infinite, but there was agreement that it was a fixed size.

Einstein also believed in the steady state universe, so he added another formulae to his equations called the “Cosmological Constant”. This adjusted the answers to reflect a fixed universe.

Decades later, with the universe now known to be expanding, Einstein withdrew the cosmological constant and called it the biggest mistake of his life.

To me this proves the genius of Einstein. His Theory of Relativity was correct and it was only Einsteins faith in another theory that made him add an adjustment.

John McNally
Leamington Spa, England

Mars is one of the ‘wandering stars’;  i.e a planet which moves in the night sky and sometimes appears to reverse direction and go backwards. This is an optical illusion caused by Mars having a much slower orbit of the sun.

A year on Mars takes 687 days, so when Earth ‘overtakes’ this planet, Mars seems to go backwards in the sky.

During March Earth and Mars gradually get further and further apart so Mars will appear to fade and shrink in size by the end of the month. 

Saturn however gets brighter towards the end of March and is visible all night long in the constellation of Virgo. The two inner planets Mercury and Venus are also visible low in the Western sky, after sunset. Venus as always is the brighter of the two, however Mercury will be easy to spot on 31st March as it appears very near to Venus.

Constellation watchers can still see the familiar sight of Orion dominating the Southern night sky which moves up and to the right during the month. There are no heavy meteor showers due this month so it’s a case of planet and constellation observations only, shooting stars will appear later this year.

John McNally 
Sky watching in Leamington Spa, England

NGC 2841 is 45 million light years away (Just one light year equals 10 trillion kilometres) and contains 100 billion stars and probably 5 hundred billion planets (some just like Earth).

The blue patches in the photo are where new stars are being born. Not that many though, there are no giant star-forming star factories in this boring galaxy. NGC 2845 isn’t even colliding with another galaxy to give us some interest. It doesn’t have two or three weirdly shaped spiral arms like other more interesting galaxies, instead it has numerous short arms. This effect is called a flocculant galaxy. As I said boring, boring.

Just look at the first photo at the top of this post, and wonder. This galaxy is ordinary, like our own ordinary Milky Way. The universe is big, and it can’t be  both empty and dead in my view. The universe is teeming with life. We are not alone, and we are not the centre.

John McNally
Star gazing in Leamington Spa, England.

It’s understandable, they are similar looking words and are both concerned with the cosmos. If you are one of those people, here’s a handy little definition for you:

Astronomy is Science, Astrology is Superstition

So what is the science supporting astrology? Well, there isn’t any. There may be loads of pseudo-science nonsense that can impress the superstitious, but no cold hard facts.

I should perhaps apologise here to any astrology believers, because astrology REQUIRES belief before it makes any sense.

I’m an atheist and have a closed mind to anything that involves the supernatural. I just lack the faith needed to understand anything that doesn’t seem logical.

Lets skip over the ludicrous notion that planets and stars directly influence your life, and look at the movement of those planets and stars and how they effect the Zodiac.

The Earth’s axis wobbles, and over a thousand years this has meant that the signs of the Zodiac have changed from when they were first invented.

The wobble has shifted the apparent position of the zodiacal constellations, and the time of year that the Sun passes through them. The Sun isn’t moving however, it only looks as if it is against the backdrop of zodiac constellations.

The 16th century astronomer Copernicus first proposed that the Sun was at the centre of our Solar System, and that the Earth was one of many planets that revolved round it.

Not having the Earth at the centre of the universe was heresy to the Catholic church and it wasn’t until 1853 that the ban on ’Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres’ was finally lifted.

While modern Astrologers may have adjusted their calculations, with the knowledge that the Earth is no longer the centre of the universe, the fundamental flaw of Astrology is that it’s a belief holding Man at the centre.

If you could truly comprehend the immense size of the universe, and our insignificant physical position in it, you would realise that this just isn’t feasible.

Lets look at how planetary movements in our very small section, of our very ordinary Milky Way galaxy (just one of 80 billion galaxies in the observable universe), has affected astrological predictions. 

If you were born on 22nd March when the Zodiac was created you were an Aries, a thousand years later you are a Pisces, and it won’t be much longer before you are an Aquarius.

Astrology is a bit of fun, and no more than that. For believers it can only work by the placebo effect.

You may have guessed that I’m not a great fan of Astrology. If you are a believer, tell me where I have gone wrong?

John McNally
Leamington Spa, England

Look northwards anytime between 9pm on Monday 3rd January until 6am on Tuesday 4th January, and you should see some shooting stars. Stay out long enough and you will see a lot!  The Quadrantids are medium-speed meteors and they can peak at 120 or even up to 200 in an hour. The best viewing time will probably be around Midnight to 2am.

If you haven’t stayed out too late Monday night, there is an unusual sight to see Tuesday morning, – a crescent Sun! There is a partial solar eclipse, with the moon obscuring part of the Sun, giving it a crescent shape. This will occur at 8.10am in London, or 8.47am in Edinburgh.

If you want to see this you need to prepare in advance, looking directly at the Sun can be dangerous. If you have a telescope point it towards the sun and have a white card at the focal end. Focus the telescope until the yellow blob on your card is sharp, then watch the card as the Moon starts to obscure the Sun. You can also do this with binoculars by covering up one of the lenses, and using it like a telescope.

As if 100 shooting stars and a crescent Sun isn’t enough, look out Tuesday evening and you will see a bright star in the sky, that’s Jupiter and right next to it is a fainter star which is Uranus. It’s an action packed 3rd and 4th of January, so if you only look at the night sky on one day, choose one of them.

John McNally
Leamington Spa, England

My first argument with my older brother was on this subject. He said they were planets, I said they were mainly Suns. SOME stars are planets, but I was more correct than him.

The universe is a very dark place.  The only thing that illuminates it are HUGE nuclear fusion furnaces, that burn at unimaginably high temperatures and emit heat and light. These furnaces are called STARS.  

Luckily there is one near us, it’s ‘only’ 93 million miles away, and it’s called the SUN.

I run early in the morning and I like to point out Venus and any other planets to my running partner. The reason I point them out is that planets are unusual. However my friend then said “Aren’t all stars planets”? , which is the reason for this post. 

99.99% of the stars you can see ARE NOT planets. If you are lucky enough to live in a very dark, sparsely populated area, you could see 3,000 stars on a clear night. Of those stars, 6 of them may be planets (if you’re lucky and they are in the right position), that’s 0.002% of the visible night sky.  

Planets have no light of their own. The only reason we can see our Moon, Venus and Mars, is that they are very close to us and they are reflecting light back from the Sun, just like mirrors would.

The reason I like Stars is that when you are looking at them you are looking into infinity. I shall write another post about the distances and sizes involved.

John McNally

On Friday morning however I noticed that there was another star in the sky. It wasn’t as bright as Venus but it was still visible in the morning sky, which meant it had to be one of the larger planets. After researching this I discovered it was Saturn.

I wish I had looked this up earlier, as Saturn can be hard to find normally, and with advance notice I would have got my telescope out to look at the rings – a really fantastic sight to see.

You can also have a treat this month, and this is your advance notice, so there’s no excuse for missing it. The Geminid Meteor Shower is Monday night 13th December from Midnight to around 3am. As long as it’s a clear sky you should see a shooting star almost every minute.

If it is a clear sky it will also be cold, so wrap up with plenty of layers, a hat and gloves. Shooting stars are best observed from a dark place, so if you can get away from street lights, you should enjoy a fantastic show.

If you are out and about between 7th and 13th December, it’s worth looking up as there is some shooting star activity before the peak in the early hours of the 14th. Good luck, and don’t forget to make  a wish.

John McNally

Pitch black surroundings are best, so you will need a small torch with you to see more earthly things.  Cover the torch up with some red cellophane, and this will keep your eyes in the correct night vision mode. (This is the same principal that traditional photographers use in their ‘Dark Room’).  

However even if you’re lucky enough to have a dark observing spot, you need to be aware of a natural light ‘pollutant’ – the Moon. Looking at the Moon is really great through a telescope, plenty of craters to keep you entertained. Unfortunately its light is so bright it makes fainter objects very difficult to see.

Therefore the best celestial observations are made on moonless nights, around either New Moon or Last Quarter. Of course, you also need a clear sky, and in the UK we do tend to have a lot of cloud.

So in practice, try and observe the night sky whenever the skies are clear, and it’s convenient for you. This is a pleasure after all.

Light pollution is such a problem in the developed world, that ‘Night Parks’ have been designated for celestial observations. There are only 3 Night Parks in the whole world. Two are in the USA, and one is in Galloway, Scotland.

I’m going on holiday to the Galloway Night Park in a couple of weeks. I will report back here, how I get on.

John McNally

The Plough is the easiest constellation to find, but this month it seems to be hiding? That’s because in May it’s right above your head!….Crane your neck back, and there it is, directly overhead. Looking at the Plough through binoculars or a telescope, you can peer outside the Milky Way at four of our Galaxy neighbours; M51, M81, M82 and M101.

These are the Messier Catalogue numbers, but I prefer their descriptions: The Spiral Galaxy, Whirlpool Galaxy, Starburst Galaxy and the Pinwheel Galaxy.  

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy can be found just outside the constellation boundary, near the star Alkaid. Look at the Plough and the star furthest left is Alkaid. The Whirlpool Galaxy lies nearby, although “nearby” is still 37 million light years away! M51 has captured a smaller galaxy to it’s left, and the gravitational effects are deforming its shape. Eventually the two galaxies will merge.

In the upper right hand corner of the Plough are a pair of interacting galaxies M81  and M82. M81 is a spiral galaxy similar in shape to our own Milky Way, whereas M82 is still giving birth to thousands of new stars and is therefore called a ‘starburst galaxy’.

The Plough is also ‘home’ to another very beautiful galaxy, 24 million light years away. M101 is a very large spiral galaxy 170,000 light years wide, (our own Milky Way is 130,000 light years wide). This is a type Sc galaxy which has a relatively small nucleus and large open spiral arms. It looks like the effects of a  pinwheel firework, hence its name: Pinwheel Galaxy.

Here’s hoping for clear skies and dark nights.

John McNally