Global Star Party

On Saturday, April 24, the Global Star Party gives you an opportunity to bring your community’s attention into sharp focus on the sky, in concert with your brother and sister astronomers all over the world. All are invited, all will be excited. It is amazing that when we turn our gaze upward, all religious, national, geographical, cultural and political barriers fade into the darkness.

For more information, see here: www.astronomerswithoutborders.org

Planets galore!

This week is an excellent opportunity to see all the five “naked eye” planets in one night of observation.

You need to start about an hour after sunset by looking relatively low on the western horizon, you should be able to make out both Mercury and Venus, Mercury being the lower and fainter of the pair. You then need to look almost directly above your head to spot Mars – with it’s reddish hue you shouldn’t miss it. Saturn can be found by looking towards the east (to your left); if you have a telescope take a look, even a small instrument should show the famous rings. For the final of the five planets, Jupiter, you need to wait until the morning and take a look low on the eastern horizon about an hour before sunrise.

As the month progresses there will be some interesting encounters to watch out for – Venus and the Pleiades, the Moon and Saturn, Mars and the Beehive………. So keep reading the blog for more information.

30 Nights of StarPeace

The Sky literally brings together the Earth during GAM-be part of a global peace chain!

Inspired by the idea of sharing the beauty of the sky across national borders, "Thirty Nights of StarPeace" is a worldwide-scale event that will join together astronomy groups in neighbouring countries, one patch of Earth at the time, on successive nights during the month of April.

Using geographical longitude as a reference, we've divided the Earth into ten equal segments, each one spanning 36 degrees of longitude. Countries located in each of these 10 segments will have a period of three days to participate in the Thirty Nights of StarPeace project.

What you have to do is synchronize your group with an astronomy group across your national border, so that both groups observe the beauty of the sky at the same time. We will start at 180 degrees longitude (the International Dateline), and proceed westward in 3-day increments. Thus, countries located between 180 and 144 degrees east longitude will pick a night from April 1-3 for their public night of observation. Countries located between 144 and 108 degrees will have the April 4-6 time-slot, and so forth. In this way, through the month, the starry-night experience will progress around the globe westward in ten stages, creating a global star peace!

More details here: www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/index.php/projects/global-astronomy-month/news/news-features/263-30-nights-of-starpeace.html