Ian Musgrave

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Geminid Meteor Shower 13-14 December 2009

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 10, 2009, 2:16 pm
The northern horizon at 2:00 am AEDST as seen from Southern Australia (northern Australia is similar but Gemini and the radiant is higher in the sky) on Monday December 14. The Geminid radiant is mark...
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Woooaaah! Freaky Man!

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 10, 2009, 4:22 am
Image Credit, Jan Petter Jorgensen. Mysterious spirals in the sky over Norway even got onto the Australian evening news. Evidence is firming that this is a result of a rocket malfunction that occurre...
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Another Comet Heads for the Sun

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 9, 2009, 2:38 pm
That slightly elongated blob is a comet discovered by Jiangao Ruan. Will it survive it's passage of the Sun? Stay tuned. Here's an animation I made of it zipping along. The comet appears tow...
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Carnival of Space #132 is here.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 8, 2009, 2:37 pm
Carnival of Space #132 is now up at Steve's Astro Corner.There's last drinks at the Outpost Tavern, space elevators, astronomical advent calendars, life on Mars, purchasing telescopes and muc...
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Astrology - the face off.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 8, 2009, 2:32 pm
Interesting segment from our very own Channel 7 where an Astrologer and a sceptic face off. A bit bit of a hash but worth viewing for a chuckle. Tip of the Hat to Greg Laden.
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Various Bits Of Good News

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 8, 2009, 2:02 pm
EldestOne had his cast removed, the doctors are pleased with his legs progress, and he now wears a technicolour splint. The chess club EldestOne started at school with his friend The Medic (I am NOT a...
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The Sky This Week - Thursday December 10 to Thursday December 17

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 7, 2009, 1:38 pm
The New Moon is Wednesday December 16. Jupiter is is easily seen as the brightest object in the western evening sky. Mercury is low in the twilight evening sky. In the morning, Mars is easily seen abo...
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Unexpected Rainbows (Part 9)

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 7, 2009, 5:52 am
Correspondent Alan Garde sent in this picture of his accidental rainbow. He says: "At this time of year the morning sun shines through the edge of our glass balustrade on the upstairs balcony and, ...
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... and the radio waves carried a voice from afar.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 6, 2009, 4:36 am
I just came back from the annual meeting of the Australian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology. While I was there I ran into one of my colleagues who has been working for 2 years in Fiji...
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Some Light Housekeeping

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 6, 2009, 2:51 am
Over the years I have developed a vision for this blog, every week at least one "look up it's purty" post, one substantial post on soemthing of note, acouple of nice astrophotos and on Sundays a ...
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More Jupiter and the Moon

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 2, 2009, 3:00 pm
Tony Travaglia of Otago, New Zealand, has produced some wonderful atmospheric shots of the Moon and Jupiter. He sent them to me two months ago, so I have been very remiss in not putting them up till n...
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Unexpected Rainbows (Part 8)

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 2, 2009, 2:09 pm
Adelaide airport, light shining through the glass partitions formed this intense linear "rainbow".
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Carnival of Space #131 is here.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Dec 1, 2009, 2:30 pm
Carnival of Space #131 is now up at Starry Critters. There aurora at Saturn, geysers at Enceladus, SIRIT in the sand trap, videos of fireballs and lots lots more. Pop over and have a look.
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The Sky This Week - Thursday December 3 to Thursday December 10

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 30, 2009, 1:48 pm
The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday December 9. Jupiter is is easily seen as the brightest object in the evening sky. Mercury is low in the twilight evening sky. In the morning, Mars is easily seen abo...
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Occultation of the Pleaides, December 1, 2009

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 29, 2009, 2:41 pm
North-eastern horizon as seen from southern Australia around 10:00 pm local daylight saving time on December 1. Northern Australia and much of Indonesia will see similar views at around 9:00 pm local ...
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Sunset on Mars, or is it?

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 28, 2009, 2:46 pm
No, it's sunset during the big Queensland bushfires back in September. But it did stringly remind me of this Martian Sunset.
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More Evidence of Life on Mars

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 27, 2009, 5:50 pm
This mornings Australian had an article on more evidence of life existing on MArs, at least in the past. Re-examination of the Martian meteorite ALH84001 by the McKay goup suggests that the magnetite ...
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Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 27, 2009, 3:22 pm
From a letter to the Adelaide Advertiser of Friday, November 27. "Before I went to the Antarctic Peninsula in January 2000 there was great public concern about the hole in the ozone layer growing lik...
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Southern Skywatch December 2009 edition is now up!

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 26, 2009, 1:50 pm
North-eastern horizon as seen from southern Australia around 10:00 pm local daylight saving time on December 1. Northern Australia will see similar views at around 9:00 pm local standard time. The Moo...
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Enceladus's plumes in 3D

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 25, 2009, 2:25 pm
The plumes of Enceladus as a red-cyan 3D anaglyph. You will need red-cyan glasses to see it in 3D. Original image credit NASA / JPL / SSI /. (click to embiggen) Over at the Planetary Society blog Emi...
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No Algol for me....

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 25, 2009, 1:28 pm
...or Mercury. Clouds, rain. How did you folks go? For future minima, see the Sky&Telescope minima of Algol page, scroll down to the form that will predict when minima occur in your time zone.
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Algol Blinks, November 25-26

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 24, 2009, 5:10 am
The Northern horizon at 10:00 pm AEDST on November 25 showing the location of Algol. Algol is a classic variable star, but is usually hard to see from the southern hemisphere. This week we have a cha...
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Carnival of Space #130 is here.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 24, 2009, 4:47 am
Carnival of Space #130 is now up at Chandra Blog. There's weird super nova, the wonders of the future, animations of teh Herschel Space Telescope, an ode to Carl Sagan, Lonely Stars, the Moon CAn ...
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The Sky This Week - Thursday November 26 to Thursday December 3

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 23, 2009, 1:36 pm
The Full Moon is Wednesday December 2. Jupiter is is easily seen as the brightest object in the evening sky. Mercury returns to the evening sky low in the twilight. In the morning, Mars is easily seen...
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Sean Carroll Talks Times Arrow

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 21, 2009, 2:50 pm
On Monday 23 November at 6:00 pm renown physicist and blogger Sean Carroll will be at Adelaide University to give a talk! Woot! "The Arrow of Time" presented by Professor Sean Carroll, California Ins...
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Unexpected Rainbows (Part 7)

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 21, 2009, 2:40 pm
These rainbows were projected onto our bedroom wall by light hitting the bedroom window at an angle. I have no idea why two spots were fromed. I took me a whle to find the source of the light, and I c...
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By Jupiter!

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 20, 2009, 3:28 pm
Image credit, Chris Wyatt (click on images to embiggen, it's worth it). Correspondent Chris Wyatt of Bendigo has sent in these terrific pictures of Jupiter and its Moons. Chris writes: "From mi...
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The Crescent Earth from Rosetta

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 19, 2009, 3:10 pm
The Crescent Earth as seen from the Rosetta spacecraft on November 13 (Image Credit, ESA) The Rosetta spacecraft, on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko did another flyby of the Earth-Moon sys...
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Then Like Lightnig...

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 19, 2009, 3:06 pm
Lightning flash seen from our backyard at 8:30 pm (click to embiggen). We hit a record today, the hottest November day since records began (43 degrees Celsius in the city, it was hotter elsewhere). T...
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Science Communicators at Ria AUS

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 19, 2009, 3:00 pm
Image left, the Bettdeckererscnappenden Weisles heart rate converted to colour and images. Image right, MiddleOnes heart rate converted to light and colour. The inaugral meeting* of the Adelaide bra...
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Free Astronomy Talks in Adelaide Nov 19-Dec 10, 2009

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 19, 2009, 12:22 am
The University of Adelaide is presenting a series of free public lectures of interest to anybody with an astronomy - science bent, unfortunately I only found out about it today, when I saw a poster in...
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The ISS shoots the Moon

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 18, 2009, 2:02 pm
Run, don't walk to the Bad Astronomers Blog to see an amazing picture of the Internation Space Station passing in front of the Moon. You can get ISS transit predictions by signing up to Tom Fly&#...
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Carnival of Space #128 is here.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 18, 2009, 1:52 pm
Carnival of Space #128 is now up at Tiny Mantras. There's the Chandra X-ray observatory, space-themed books for kids, unicorns and starry nights, the wash up of the LCROSS impact, taking asteroids...
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Leonid Meteor Report, Wedensday November 18, 2009

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 17, 2009, 2:01 pm
Using a mobile phone to time your meteor watching sessions is not such a good idea. After you have checked the time a small bright square floats in your vision, right where you want to see meteors. St...
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Waiting for Meteors

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 17, 2009, 4:30 am
Waiting patiently for the Leonids (observation instructions here), the numbers are ramping up, SkippySky predicts cloud free viewing, I've set my camera up for photography (guides to taking meteo...
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The Sky This Week - Thursday November 19 to Thursday November 26

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 16, 2009, 2:29 pm
The First Quarter Moon is Wednesday November 25. Jupiter is is easily seen as the brightest object in the evening sky, and the waxing Moon is near Jupiter on Tuesday November 24. In the morning, Mars ...
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Don't forget the Leonids.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Nov 15, 2009, 2:12 pm
The Leonid meteor shower peaks on Wednesday morning for Australians and those in South East Asia. More details, location maps and viewing hints are at this post. Clouded out or unable to watch, follow...
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A Ring Around The Moon

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 30, 2009, 3:46 pm
Jupiter forms the jewel in this ring around the Moon (click to embiggen) Even on cloudy nights you can see interesting things, I captured this image of a ring around the Moon on a night you might hav...
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Moon over Mum's House

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 28, 2009, 3:44 pm
Just a picture of the Moon over Mum's house taken over a month ago. Click to embiggen. So EldestOne is now out of hospital and doing reasonably okay, except he want to do too much. Exam preparati...
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Yeah, so not much is happening here.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 27, 2009, 3:12 pm
Things are still quiet here. EldestOne is in hospital for minor surgey to his foot. nonetheless this involves lots of car shuffling on the part of the Bettdeckererschnappender weisle and I to get kids...
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Carnival of Space #126 is here.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 27, 2009, 3:07 pm
Carnival of Space #126 is now up at The Gish Bar Times (a blog devoted to Jupiter's moon Io). There's cavers on the Moon, LCROSS's impact, poems about Martian meteors, future spaceflight,...
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The Sky This Week - Thursday October 29 to Thursday November 5

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 26, 2009, 3:11 pm
The Full Moon is Tuesday November 3. Jupiter is is easily seen as the brightest object in the evening sky. In the morning, Mars is easily seen above the eastern horizon and crosses the Beehive cluster...
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This Mornings Orionids

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 21, 2009, 2:55 pm
... were a little bit disappointing. I saw but one faint meteor, nothing else. I had a good spot, no light sources to interfere and a good field of view. Still there are worse ways to spend the mornin...
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Carnival of Space #125 is here.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 20, 2009, 3:18 pm
Carnival of Space #125 is now up at Orbiting Frog. There's superconducting magnets, LCROSS going CRASH, adopting a star, cool images from Mars and much, much more. Hop on over and have a look.
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The Sky This Week - Thursday October 22 to Thursday October 29

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 19, 2009, 2:32 pm
... . Jupiter is is easily seen as the brightest object in the evening sky. In the morning, Mars is easily seen above the eastern horizon near ... October 26. Mercury is currently not visible. Sat...
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Orionoid Meteors - 21-23 October 2009

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 18, 2009, 3:57 pm
The northern horizon at 4:00 am daylight saving time (3:00 am non-daylight saving). The Orionid Meteor Radiant is marked with a cross (click to embiggen) The Orionids are a nice little meteor shower ...
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It's Been Quite here Lately...

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 18, 2009, 3:30 pm
The Phoenix of Dreams burns at the closing of the Port Festival. But I've been busy. In between family events, getting exam and assessment material ready (and marking assessment), getting the flu...
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Carnival of Space #124 is here.

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 13, 2009, 3:43 pm
Carnival of Space #124 is up at We are all in the Gutter (looking at stars). There's cute Science Fiction book covers, Nobel Prizes, pretty pictures galore, Saturn's newly discovered ring, lu...
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The Sky This Week - Thursday October 15 to Thursday October 22

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 12, 2009, 2:57 pm
The New Moon is Sunday October 18. Jupiter is is easily seen as the brightest object in the evening sky. In the morning, Mars is easily seen above the eastern horizon before dawn with Venus and Saturn...
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Mega-ring around Saturn

Ian Musgrave posted an article on - Oct 8, 2009, 3:39 pm
Image Credit: NASA/JPL If you could see it, the new ring discovered around Saturn would stretch one full Moon's diameter either side of Saturn. But you can't, it needed the orbiting Spitzer ...
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About Me

A mild mannered star wombat straned on a strange world.

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