An Age of Magic

UFO sightings in Nevada

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 It is strange that the majority of UFO sightings are witnessed over the skies of the United States; it’s a fair bet to say that if you sat out every night and watched the skies you would see some form of weird flying object. And some states report more sightings than others.

Nevada is one of them; you hear about dolphin watching tours, whale watching tours - so why has no-one yet come up with their own version of Vegas vacations which focus on UFO spotting…?

I think it’s great runner - there’s a lot of weird stuff going on right now up there!

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Eclipsed by the clouds…

Well, it came and it went…and we hardly saw a thing! there are few sights sadder than the amateur astronomer sitting forlornly gazing hopefully at the sky and seeing nothing but a grey, dense blanket of cloud.

Today started out wonderfully; lots of blue sky at 7.30am but around 9.am the rot started to set in. After weeks of sunshine and clear blue skies you would expect it to continue today - wrong - but it does go like that dosen’t it? in came the clouds rolling along and obliterating all hope of witnessing this marvel of creation.

It even rained !!

We did get tiny snatches of clearance but nothing to raise excitement. Oh well. There will be more!

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Solar eclipse August 1st

There will be an eclipse of the Sun on the morning of 1 August.  An eclipse of the Sun occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, so that the Earth passes into the Moon’s shadow. Along the centre of the track, this eclipse will be total, while areas on either side of the track will see only a partial eclipse.

The eclipse will be total along a line extending from the Arctic, through Siberia, Western Mongolia, and Western China.

In the UK and Ireland the eclipse will be partial, ranging from over 40% in N Scotland to less than 20% in SW England.

In Ireland, the phase averages around 25%. Details are as follows:

Maximum eclipse in Ireland will be 32.8% at Malin Head, and the maximum on the UK mainland will be 42.5% in N Scotland.

SAFETY: NEVER look directly at the Sun, even with the unaided eye, as the heat and light can seriously damage the eye. And it is even more dangerous to look at the Sun with any sort of optical aid, such as a telescope or binoculars or even an optical camera viewfinder.

The only safe way to observe the Sun is with a special solar filter, available only from astronomical shops and dealers, or to project the image of the Sun through a telescope or a pair of binoculars onto a piece of white cardboard. Some people may still have special ‘eclipse glasses’ from previous eclipses, and these can be used provided that there are no holes or scratches in them. So long as you play it safe you shouldn’t need to be getting any  term life insurance quotes prior to the big event, LOL.

If in doubt, DON’T look!

Thanks to Terry Moseley IAA for this information.

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