Out of Space

Featured image: Remembering Apollo 11

Remembering Apollo 11

Duncan Steel • Jul 18, 2019

There are lots of ways of remembering the Apollo project, which resulted in a dozen men walking on the lunar surface (and some of them even driving around in their lunar buggies). Here I show a few of them, dear to my heart.  You may not have heard, but this weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, when we … Read More

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Featured image: Apollo 11 and the Real Dish

Apollo 11 and the Real Dish

Duncan Steel • Jul 16, 2019

The TV pictures of Neil Armstrong clambering down the ladder of the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module and taking the first steps by a human on the Moon’s surface are rightly iconic, though rather fuzzy. Most people seem to think that those images were received by the radio telescope at Parkes in New South Wales, largely because that was what … Read More

Featured image: The Equation of Time

The Equation of Time

Duncan Steel • Jul 14, 2019

The solstice on June 22nd marked the shortest duration of sunlight (or day length) during this year. One might have expected that from that date sunrise would have started getting earlier; and prior to that date sunset to have been consistently getting earlier (as the daylight duration was shortening). In fact the latest sunrise did not occur until almost a … Read More

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Featured image: Orbits of the satellites launched by Rocket Lab three days ago

Orbits of the satellites launched by Rocket Lab three days ago

Duncan Steel • Jul 02, 2019

On Saturday June 29th Rocket Lab launched another cluster of seven satellites into low-Earth orbit from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand’s North Island. In this blog post I illustrate the orbital paths of the ten resultant tracked items now in orbit.  In a blog post last week (June 27th) I showed the orbits of the various satellites launched … Read More

Featured image: Asteroid Day… and what may follow

Asteroid Day… and what may follow

Duncan Steel • Jun 30, 2019

The Tunguska explosion in 1908 was due to the arrival of a small (perhaps 50 metre) cosmic object, quite likely a fragment of a known comet. Astronomers are now wondering whether siblings of that projectile might pass close by the Earth over the next week or so.  I write tonight on Asteroid Day, which occurs on June 30th each … Read More

Featured image: Tracking satellites launched from NZ

Tracking satellites launched from NZ

Duncan Steel • Jun 27, 2019

With so many thousand satellites now in orbit, and tens of thousands of other tracked items, one might think that it is difficult keeping tabs on them, simply as an interested person. In fact it is quite straightforward, with long lists of orbital elements freely available for all except the few satellites deemed by the US Government to require secrecy, … Read More

Featured image: The day the Sun stood still

The day the Sun stood still

Duncan Steel • Jun 25, 2019

We have just passed the solstice, the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. From now on, the hours of daylight will get longer through until the December solstice. Here I discuss why the June solstice occurs a few days before the Feast Day of St John the Baptist, the traditional time of ‘midsummer’ in the northern hemisphere … Read More

Featured image: Murchison and geology

Murchison and geology

Duncan Steel • Jun 19, 2019

There are many places, both in New Zealand and elsewhere around the globe, that are named for the nineteenth-century Scottish geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison. It seems astonishing how many of these are connected in some way with events of geological significance, or are otherwise of scientific importance.  One of my predilections is writing blog posts prompted by the occurrence … Read More

Featured image: Astronomy on Bloomsday

Astronomy on Bloomsday

Duncan Steel • Jun 16, 2019

The name of Michael Faraday is well-known in science, for his pioneering work in both chemistry and physics (in particular electricity and magnetism; hence the name of the SI unit of capacitance, the farad). As a postgraduate student at the University of Canterbury I spent many hours working on experimental radio receivers sat inside a large metallic box … Read More

Featured image: Connecting comets and rubber

Connecting comets and rubber

Duncan Steel • Jun 11, 2019

Comet Grigg-Skjellerup was one of the first such celestial bodies to be visited by a spacecraft, the Giotto probe which was sent on to encounter it in mid-1992 after having first visited the famous Comet Halley in 1986. Comet Grigg-Skjellerup was discovered about a century ago, independently by a New Zealander (John Grigg) and an Australian (Frank Skjellerup). The younger … Read More

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