The natural Navigation: The Right Course, Naturally

This really is one of the best astronomical photographs I have ever come across. It is amazing even before you notice that the sea is glowing with bioluminescent algae.

Congratulations Sim on taking this fantastic photograph and allowing me to share it and thanks Mark for sending it my way.

To celebrate this great pic, I thought a little quiz would be fun. Or to be more precise, several shades of the same question…

To make this more interesting I’m going to give you the opportunity to test yourselves at the level you feel most comfortable with. Anyone who has been on my Beginner’s Guide to Natural Navigation course or read The Natural Navigator book, should be able to crack this at one level at least.

Depending on your level of confidence try one of the questions below, A is very difficult, B slightly easier etc. (Don’t read…

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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…

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Last night I managed to take 46 photographs in a desperate bid to catch the elusive, and some like to say mythical, ‘green flash’ at the moment of sunset. The green flash is an optical phenomenon caused mainly by blue/green light bending more than the reds/yellows. There is a fuller description of its causes on Wikipedia.

I did not manage to see or capture the flash, but peering out across the Persian Gulf at the anchored ships, feeling the cool westerlies coming off its waters as the heat of the day faded… is not a bad way to endure a fruitless search.

It is often very difficult to see the sun clearly at the moment of sunset due to clouds or haze, but there are times when, if the sky is clear, the air is dry enough and the horizon is an ocean, then the sun can be seen…

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This slightly arty (read – bad!) photo from last night shows an overexposed moon, but just below and to the left you can hopefully make out the bright dot that is Jupiter. The moon and Jupiter were in conjunction, or aligned. This is exactly the sort of thing that would have got the ancients into something of a lather. Modern astrologers are no doubt busy, one astrology website outlines the significance as follows:

“You require considerable interaction with people and the environment to stimulate your feelings. This encourages a social awareness and attracts most of your attention. You feel the need to ‘expand yourself’ into the outer world; and your major concern will be the well-being of society and those around you.

You have an innate faith in the goodness of the universe and your fellow humans, and will try to share a positive and creative perspective on life…

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