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Image: M Breimann
Sandwick Junior High School owns a 12” Dall Kirkham
telescope built by Lerwick amateur astronomer Billy Kay
in the 1960’s. A funding bid to the Jewsons Building
Better Communities fund has been launched, to enable
school and community to build a permanent dedicated
Click here for the Sandwick site.
Click here to go to Jewsons Building Better
Some astronomy highlights for viewing during
What`s in the Shetland Sky in 2018 ?
Weather Today Mossbank Shetland
Live Video Stream and Weather Data
Astro Imaging without a Telescope
Some Suggestions for Binoculars
Free courses in Astronomy, Physics, Astrobiology and more
Our first attempt to record Jupiter`s radio emissions
on 20.1Mhz ( June 2014 ) Listen to the files here .
Meteor Shower Camelopardalids 2014
Did you know you can also listen to meteor showers ?
Plots and Audio samples from the Camelopardalids !
Hurlers Stone Circles Project - Cornwall
NASA's Dawn and Kepler Missions End
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft ends its 11 year
mission to the asteroid Vesta and dwarf
planet Ceres, after running out of fuel.
The Kepler spacecraft has also run out
of fuel after a nine and a half year
mission to search for exoplanets.
Artist's impression of BepiColombo fairing release.
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
Europe's first mission to Mercury launched
successfully in the early hours of 20 October.
The ESA - JAXA mission is set to arrive at
Mercury in late 2025. The 1 to 2 year mission
involves two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary
Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric
Orbiter (MMO). More information is available
from ESA's dedicated mission site, linked here.
Soyuz Spacecraft Flight Aborted after
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Flight of Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft is aborted during
its climb to orbit, due to an anomaly. The two man
crew is recovered safely. Image shows Cosmonaut
Alexey Ovchinin and astronaut Nick Hague with
their families after landing at Krayniy Airport
November: Skull asteroid to pass Earth
rtist's impression of asteroid 2015 TB145 Credit: J.A. Peñas/SINC
This November, the asteroid that passed Earth
on Halloween 2015 will return to 'haunt' us.
But don't worry, it won't throw eggs at your
windows or come begging for sweeties...
Image generated using radar data from Arecibo
Observatory (Puerto Rico) Credit: NAIC-Arecibo/NSF
Did Ancient Mars have conditions for
image: NASA / JPL
New research suggests it likely that ancient
Mars had the chemical energy to support
similar underground microbial colonies that
Hopping Robots Land on Asteroid
JAXA photo from rover during hop on Ryagu (surface on the left)
Japanese space agency, JAXA, successfully
lands two autonomous rovers on the Ryugu
asteroid 300 million km from Earth. The rovers
were despatched from the Hayabusa-2
mothership. Hayabusa-2 will leave Ryugu in
December 2019 to return to Earth with
samples gathered by German-French
The Jaxa newsfeed can be viewed here
Also: more info about the first Hayabusa
mission, which successfully returned a sample
from asteroid Itokawa to Earth in 2010
Virgin Orbit to Test Air-launched Rocket
LauncherOne under Virgin Orbit’s “Cosmic Girl”. Credit: Virgin Orbit
Virgin attaches a small sat launcher under
the wing of a modified passenger jet in
preparation for tests with a full-scale model
of their LauncherOne rocket and ultimately
their first orbital launch attempt.
NASA's Commercial Space Programme
NASA commercial test flight crew Credit: NASA
Find out the latest news on NASA collaboration
with Boeing and SpaceX to develop spacecraft
and rockets to transport astronauts to the ISS.
Water Molecules Above Jupiter's Red Spot
Hydrogen and oxygen are found emitting from
Jupiter's great storm, suggesting water-rich
New Hubble Images of Saturn's Aurora
Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, A. Simon (GSFC) and the OPAL Team,
J. DePasquale (STScI), L. Lamy (Observatoire de Paris)
New images are released showing Saturn's
auroras observed by Hubble in 2017
A composite video of the Aurora's evolution
News from Shetland Space Centre
SSC and B2Space to work on feasibilty study
of using Unst as a launch location for the new
New Horizons Spacecraft Awakes
The New Horizons spacecraft is out of hibernation
to prepare for its January 2019 flyby of MU69 in
the Kuiper Belt, nicknamed “Ultima Thule”.
It will be the furthest ever flyby from Earth and
follows its flyby of Pluto in 2015.
Observations from Earth show MU69 is red,
30km in diameter and could either be two large,
connected sections or a binary system.
Interestingly, from a local point of view,
interpretations of the ancient 'Ultima Thule'
place name include Orkney and Shetland.
Horizons Mission to ISS Begins
The mission which began on 8th June will see
German astronaut Alexander Gerst take over
as commander of the ISS, only the second
European to do so. Alexander will also be working
with robots to develop techniques required for
further human and robotic exploration of the
Solar System. Plans to build an international
gateway between the Moon and Earth are
to be discussed this month. Europe will supply
key parts such as a habitation module and a
service module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
NASA Launches TESS Satellite to Aid
image: NASA
In a bid to discover exoplanets in our 'solar
neighbourhood' the Transiting Exoplanet Survey
Satellite (TESS) will monitor more than 200,000
stars for temporary drops in brightness caused
by planetary transits. More information is available
on NASA's dedicate TESS site. There's also a