13 April 2010 by Tristan Gooley
I quickly reached for my camera when I saw these objects in the sky. The picture was taken without a tripod and so they are a little blurred, but it is still just possible to make out the lights. A few seconds later the sky looked completely different and this could lead to suspicions that something unusual was going on, perhaps even stir suspicions of UFOs. The true explanation is very straightforward.
The bright light to the left of the picture is an aircraft turning towards the camera with its landing lights on. The bright light near the top of the picture is Venus. There is a fainter light, barely perceptible amongst the edges of the top part of the cloud and this is Mercury. A few seconds later the aircraft had turned fully and effectively disappeared from view and Mercury had disappeared behind a cloud making the sky appear…
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Tags: aircraft, celestial, mercury, night sky, ufos, venus |
07 November 2008 by Tristan Gooley
I gave a lecture at the Clothworker’s Hall in the City last night. I think it went well, no rotten fruit or vegetables came my way at least. It did mean a night in a hotel and the need to fill some time in the usual Alan Partridge style. It was at the hotel that I read the cover story in this month’s National Geographic about light pollution. All stargazers are aware of the problem and I thought that this was a story that had been done pretty thoroughly, but the NG approach was fresh and made for a satisfying read.
One sentence caused me to pause and then reread. After a second reading my jaw my have dropped a touch:
‘In the south Atlantic the glow from a single fishing fleet—squid fishermen luring their prey with metal halide lamps—can be seen from space, burning brighter, in fact, than…
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Tags: light pollution, night sky, squid lights, stargazing |
