#83 Part 1 May 2019

U: Recording from the Mars/Earth-analogue biome cottage at the AstroCamp starparty in the Welsh Brecon Beacons, we start off by discussing stargazing during a hurricane(!) and get ready for Jeni’s Pint of Science events this month.

 

The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have:

  • The rate of the universe’s expansion is 9% greater than we thought?
  • Greater understanding about the lakes of methane on Saturn’s moon Titan.
  • LIGO gets its jiggy on; giving us gravitational wave detections EVERY week!
  • The value of occultations to modern astronomy
  • A possible discovery of an exocomet!
  • And a round up of some of the best astronomy April Fool’s gags from last month, including how winter would come on a Game of Thrones type world.

Main news story: 1) The first ever image of a black hole

 

The Sky Guide: Covering the solar system and deep sky objects on offer to amateur astronomers in May:

  • An unwelcome dearth of solar system objects with Jupiter, Mars and Saturn low on the horizon, but dwarf planet Ceres is at opposition and we also have a few nice conjunctions to enjoy in May.
  • Messier 5 and Palomar 5 globular clusters in Serpens and Messier 57, and the Ring Nebula, and the Double Double in Lyra.

 

Main Object: the much-overlooked Northern Star, Polaris.

Awesome Astronomy
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