It has indeed been a while but in that time I have been preparing for a new arrival to the family who turned up just over a week ago!
So now to catch up on the interesting/geeky stuff I have been up to.
My main topic for the moment is stargazing.
The past couple of weeks have seen some beautiful clear skies and some wonderful sights.
A few key highlights have been keeping an eye on Betelgeuse, a massive red star that is very noticeable. If you can spot Orion's Belt (3 stars in near alignment) look up from the left most star there will be a very distinctive red star. Hello Betelgeuse! This one is only about 640ly away and in a state that it could have gone supernova at anytime in the past 500-600 years so we may witness a supernova at some point in time, but do not hold your breath, it could still be 100's of years away!
Keep looking up from Betelgeuse and there will be a faint star and a very bright one above this, the very bright one is no star but Jupiter, the biggest planet in the Solar System.
Further east, recently around where the moon has been you will spot another red star, but again no star but another planet, the Red Panet of Mars, this object is very bright at the moment so nice and easy to see and spot.
My final bit of info is that April is a great month to see the International Space Station flyby. It is usually in the evening between 9pm and 10pm, there can also be another pass about 1.5-2 hours later. The ISS rises in the west and fades in the East. It is very easy to spot as it is very bright and crosses the sky in only a few minutes, it is traveling at about 17,500mph. If you have a camera with slow shutter speeds and a steady tripod you can get a time lapse photo of it passing as I am posting below.
For more info I highly recommend visiting: www.meteorwatch.org
In the below photo the pass of the ISS is shown by the thin line, the bright object in the top in the top is Jupiter. Unfortunately I do not have a tripod so that is why the image is slightly wobbly. The second image is a slightly longer path of the ISS.
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