Astronomy books for kids ages 4 - 10

Here's a list of the great astronomy books written by Jacqueline Mitton. All books are 32 pages, with stunning illustrations by artist Christine Balit. Kids just love the glittery foil stars. From amazon.com $8. Star struck kids love them to bits. Astronomy is looking up! The URLs take you to amazon.com. All titles available from amazon.co.uk etc

Zoo in the Sky, a book about animal constellations, is a best seller. See the customer reviews on amazon http://bit.ly/zooSKY Get them outside finding those animals in the sky!

Zodiac, Celestial Circle of the Sun is similar to Zoo in the Sky, but introduces the 12 zodiacal constellations with a nice mix of real science and myth http://bit.ly/ZODiac

The Planet Gods blends real science with the Greek mythology. http://bit.ly/PLAnet

Once Upon a Starry Night presents a further ten constellations, with Greek and Roman myth blended with real science http://bit.ly/STArry

Large Hadron Collider

Will it be a Happy New Year for the Large Hadron Collider? If the experiment does not find new physics, old physics could suffer serious funding cuts

Blue Moon New Year's Eve 2009

The first decade of the 21st century concludes tomorrow as a Blue Moon rises in the east. In a definition dating from 1946, a Blue Moon is the second Full Moon in a calendar month. This phenomenon happens about once every 2.7 years.

Galileo Sidereus Nuncius

7 January 2010 is the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first sighting of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, which he named the Medicean stars. I'll be blogging Galileo's observations of 2010 on a real time basis, just 400 years late. http://bit.ly/7WsibK

Seigneurie d'Arse wine

Finally got round to drinking this Fitou this evening. Fitou was the first area in Languedoc-Rousillon to get AOC status. The wine is supple and drinkable. A good quaffer for €4. A good joke wine. Joke wines are not that common.

Astronomy on cruise Queen Mary 2

We've worked very hard on this. Cunard Queen Mary 2 11 - 17 November transatlantic. Lectures Armchair Tour of the Universe, Aliens and Astrobiology, Cosmology Big Bang and Origin of Univer, The Sun our Datime Star. Lecturers are Simon Mitton and Jacqueline Mitton engaged by Cunard

New historical Book Women in Astronomy

You are invited to an event to mark the publication of ' Women in Early British and Irish Astronomy-Stars and Satellites' at 1800 in the Royal Astronomical Society on November 3, 2009, at 1800 GMT.
Dr Mary Bruck, who died last December, devoted her last book to the place of women in astronomy through the biographies of 25 women born between 1650 and 1900.While some are well known others have received less than their due recognition, often having occupied inconspicuous and sometimes thankless places as assistants to male family members. Collectively their lives trace the story of women's entry into the male world of science.

To mark the occasion Mona Evans will give a presentation on Caroline Herschel, the first woman to be awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828 ( the next woman to receive it was in 1996!). In 1781, a German-born musician observing with a home-made telescope from his back garden in Bath, England, discovered a new planet, the first to be found since ancient times. We now call it Uranus. This unexpected discovery, which doubled the size of the known Solar System, propelled William Herschel to international celebrity. But that was only the start. Sponsored by the king of England, he and his sister Caroline spent the rest of their lives surveying the heavens, making Caroline the first female professional astronomer. This is the story of their remarkable partnership and the revolution it wrought in our knowledge of the Universe, with particular emphasis on the role of the usually unheralded Caroline.

Jacqueline and Simon Mitton Total Astronomy Limited will talk about Mary Bruck and her book, the second to appear in the new series published for the RAS by Springer. The programme will conclude with a drinks reception.

Please contact Lara Maisey ( lkm@ras.org.uk ) if you wish to attend

Restaurant Petit Poisson Herne Bay Kent CT6 UK

Once again I had a lovely lunch at restaurant Le Petit Poisson in Herne Bay. It's on the Esplanade, right by the pier, in a historic building that was once the ticket office for the pier. Menu is quite small, and almost entirely fish, mostly source locally and fresh as can be. The cooking style is imaginative, with excellent blends of taste and texture. We had wild sea trout, cod, and dover sole, all most delicious. There are some interesting touches, such as the signature savoury rhubarb. Moules seem always to be available, plus the local rock oysters. Deserts are home made, with a good selection of sorbet and ice cream. The wine list is just great for lunch or dinner beside the seaside. My favourite is Chapel Down Flint Dry, from Kent. I would say Petit Poisson is approaching the best restaurants just along the coast at Whitstable, and is set to exceeed when extended to provide more covers

Queen Mary 2 astronomy lectures

The blurb for our astronomy presentations on Queen Mary 2 is here: http://bit.ly/oTKRX

Collectible astronomy books and classics

I have started to form a small collection of collectible and classic books in astronomy. I am interested in boosting this collection. I am in the market to buy astronomy books first editions hardcover signed by author or with an interesting association. On my collect list I have Arthur Clarke, Patrick Moore, Fred Hoyle, Mary Somerville, Eddington, Hubble, Herschel, Agnes Clerke,Percival Lowell, Martin Ryle, Martin Rees, Stephen Hawking, etc If you have something that is taking up space in the attic and you want to convert to cash then do be in touch. I can pay in any major currency, and I pay shipping costs. But please note that I do not collect damaged books.

Simon
sam11@cam.ac.uk
http://www.totalastronomy.com

Georges Lemaître, Big Bang, Fireworks universe

Today's neglected pioneer is Georges Lemaître, who is the most famous alumnus of my College (St Edmund's College, Cambridge). He interpreted Hubble's discovery of the expansion of the universe correctly. As Marcia Bartusiak says in her book The Day we Found the Universe (Pantheon 2009) "Lemaître was the first to say directly that the galaxies are fleeing from us because spacetime at each and every point throughout the cosmos is continually stretching." Crucially. Lemaître did not say the galaxies are fleeing from us. Rather, as Bartusiak puts it, the galaxies embedded in spacetime are participating in a free ride

Stay tuned for more blogs on great astronomers who have been neglected by the textbook writers. Tomorrow I'll write of Robert Grosseteste and the medieval Big Bang universe

Simon
http://www.totalastronomy.com

Vesto Slipher, discovered expansion of the universe

As a historian of astronomy, I have started to take an interest in the achievements of astronomers who have been neglected by popular science writers and authors of astronomy textbooks. One such is Vesto Slipher, of the Lowell Observatory. Hired to do planetary science, he became a pioneer in extragalactic optical spectroscopy, working under very difficult conditions. He developed instrumentation and technique. It was Vesto Slipher, NOT Edwin Hubble, who discovered the recession of the galaxies. Marcia Bartusiak is the expert on Vesto Slipher. Her book, The Day we Found the Universe (1 January 1925) is superb in every way.

Stay tuned for some more neglected figures.

Simon
http://www.totalastronomy.com

Digne-les-Bains

Tomorrow (10 August 2009) we set off from Nice by road for Digne-les-Baines and Sisteron in the Hauts Alpes de Provence. This is the first sector of a four day journey back to Cambridge. Digne is noteworthy to astronomers because in 1631, he became the first person to observe the transit of a planet across the Sun, viewing the transit of Mercury that Kepler had predicted.

Wine - Seigneurie d'Arse

My son-in-law just gave me, for a bit of a laugh, a wine from Fitou (Languedoc-Rousillon) that rejoices in the name Seigneurie d'Arse. That's the name of the chateau. It's made at the chateau, and the 2005 vintage got a silver medal at Macon in 2007. Modestly priced at €6 in Leclerc supermarket. I doubt that you can buy it outside south west France. It would make an amusing item on a menu for a formal dinner

Comets Water Life!

Comets, water, and life, an astrobiology news item Just published in Int J Astrobiology (which I edit) the following story about comets, water and life http://tinyurl.com/m59wpo. This one has legs
Simon
http://totalastronomy.com

Cotes du Rhone Villages

In pursuit of good wine, I visited several villages in the Cotes du Rhone appellation, southern France. I much admire the wine from small producers (recoltants) who hand pick their own grapes. These artisanal wines never show up in supermarkets in the UK. I purchased very good CdR Villages and Vacqueras from La Bastide St Vincent (Guy DANIEL).

I'm doing astronomy lectures on Queen Mary 2 11 November - 17 November Southampton to New York. I have great topics: how to see UFOs, origin of the universe, armchair tour of the universe

I like jogging round the wrap around promenade deck, but I think in November that will be impossible as the liner does 35 km / hr into a 35 km /hr westerly breeze

byeee Simon

http://www.totalastronomy.com