On a recent visit to New Zealand’s North Island I stayed in a hotel next to a Maori village in Rotorua. There was a constant sulphurous smell of bad eggs and white steam clouds rising from the village caused by superheated boiling water gushing out of the ground showing it was very hot down under. This country was formed by the Pacific tectonic plate diving under the Australian plate causing volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes…

In April 1957 Sir Patrick Moore began his monthly “The Sky at Night” which is still going strong today making it the longest-running program with the same presenter in television history. Sir Patrick, in his own unique eccentric and fast talking way often referred to “The Summer Triangle” which is an asterism or distinct pattern of stars located in the northern sky. This is a title which he said he coined but the triangle…

You may have seen in the news last month that we had to keep our heads down as a piece of ancient Russian space junk was going to fall back to Earth with most of the world in the possible landing zone, including us. It finally plummeted harmlessly into the Indian Ocean on 10th May. Phew! This was one of the 35,000 bits of debris bigger than 10cm orbiting the Earth waiting to eventually…

Image Credit: Martin Burnell, University of Dundee Last month, on the clear April 5th evening at Carnewas, Kernow Astronomers held one of our “Sun and Stars” where anyone can come to view the setting Sun and Moon and planets through telescopes. A perfect discovery evening for young and old! Looking north in the distance was the Trevose Head Lighthouse blasting out its bright white beam every 7.5 seconds. Every April some of the Kernow…