I hesitated before posting this. Working in a slightly unusual field I do have to guard against publishing anything that could be deemed ‘unreliable’.
And, no, I must emphasise that it is not anywhere near April 1st, before continuing…
I would genuinely like the help of a photographer, astronomer or ufologist to try and solve a mystery.
This morning I was taking some photographs of Venus, when I noticed what appeared to be a small white smudge near the planet itself.
In the first picture (viewed on the LCD panel on the back of my camera) I noted it and thought it must have been refraction or some other light/lens phenomenon.
When the next photo showed the same ‘smudge’ to have moved slightly it was a little intriguing. When subsequent photos showed it to be moving steadily I became convinced that it was not an effect but an object of…
A restless night for lots of reasons, but that did at least allow some good Geminid-watching. Most meteor, ie. shooting star, showers occur when Earth passes through the dusty trail of a comet. The particles burn brightly as they hit our atmosphere. The Geminid meteors are some of the most dependable for night-skywatchers, taking place each year in mid-December and characterised by relatively slow moving yellow burning points. They appear to originate in the part of the sky that is home to the constellation Gemini, hence the name. The exact nature of the object causing the Geminid showers is less well understood. It has the beautiful name, Phaethon, was discovered in 1983 and is believed to be a now burnt-out comet, but may actually be closer to an asteroid.