Wonders of the Solar System – It’s great!

Posted by Erik Rudling on April 5, 2011 in Astronomy | 0 comments

Wonders of the Solar System, Professor Brian Cox observing a solar eclipse Eclipse in India

Recently I have been watching all episodes of the series Wonders of the Solar System. It’s excellent! I want you to check it out!

It explores the wonders of our solar system (duh!), planets, gravitation, the possibility of life on other planets and much much more. What makes this series stand out from the many other documentaries that I have watched is that the host of the show, Professor Brian Cox, explains all the strange and wonderful happenings in a way that most of us can understand.

He explains it showing us examples and by comparing environments on our own planet, earth, to those of the other planets. This makes it much easier to relate to what might be happening in our solar system. I have picked up alot of cool info that was new to me and also got reminded of stuff that I have known in the past.

Pictures of the Supermoon – From a telescope using iPhone 4

Posted by Erik Rudling on March 20, 2011 in Astronomy | 0 comments

This evening I stopped by the office where I also have placed my amateur telescope. Why is it placed at the office? Mainly because we’re on the 16th floor and the view from there can be quite striking at times. The reason for going up there on this particular night is the fact that there is a supermoon (perigee-syzygy) in the sky.

Keep in mind though, supermoons take place several times every year, so it is not like some articles in the media where it is said that it happens once every 18 years. The confusion seems to stem from the fact that the moon is at its closest perigee tonight (about 356,000km) compared to many of those other supermoons, and the last time it was this close was in 1992.