Page 6 - Stuart Atkinson News Today

Weve put together a guide on how to watch NASAs Perseverance rover land on Mars - and what time itll happen in the UK.

What does the night sky look like on Mars? January 26, 2021 at 10:00 am What would a future visitor to Mars see during a night’s stargazing? What do the stars look like on Mars? What does the Sun look like? Would Mars even be a good place to do amateur astronomy? Advertisement At first glance the answer to this last question would be a resounding ‘yes’. For a start there are very few cloudy nights on Mars. We know it does have some clouds because they have been photographed by every orbi...

When we look at the night sky, how far back in time can we see? January 8, 2021 at 11:22 am When we look up at the stars, we are looking back in time. The light entering our eyes from these distant objects set off years, decades or millennia earlier. Every time we look at something ‘up there’ we’re seeing it as it was in the past. Advertisement With enormous modern telescopes and sensitive detectors, professional astronomers can see far beyond what most back garden telescopes are capabl...

Christmas night astronomy: what to see in the night sky on 25 December December 21, 2020 at 11:30 am Aside from the turbulent year that was 2020, many people have discovered the joy of looking up at the night sky for the first time this year, and will have asked for a telescope this Christmas. Every year as the Sun sets at the end of Christmas Day, turkey-stuffed astronomy newcomers unpack their first telescope and head outside. Advertisement Yet as new telescope owners stand there beneath the...

December 21, 2020 at 11:52 am The Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn that’s happening happened on 21 December 2020 attracted a lot of attention and excitement. Many amateur astronomers looked forward to the event for years, and many non-astronomers are had their eyes opened to the beauty of the night sky for the first time. Advertisement But it’s not the first time these two distant worlds have had such a close encounter. They’ve met like this before, several times, a long, lon...